Spending review – who's watching/listening?

Just listening to Gideon tell all us non-millionaires/bankers just how much we need to pay….

yep nothing like hearing a person who has lived his life without the need for the state removing it from the poor whilst making them pay for the mistakes of the rich….we hould be more like the french and riot at this sort of thing.
We need to know where the cuts will be applied within budgets really to make a decision not just the cuts themselves.
Think I ticked all the boxes there 😉

What – and listen to that thick ignorant lightweight tell a pack of lies?

It’s like a nightmarish cross between Kafka and Dickens.

Impenetrable and abusive.

Go on then, one more time: Common People

Just had a look at the BBC website.

It says that there will be cuts of 25% on average across Whitehall departments.

Then it sets out a whole list of cuts, none of which is above 25%

So either the BBC doesn’t understand what “average” means, or there’s something we’ve not been told yet?

41% decrease in budget to Culture, Media and Sports. Thats more than 25%.

I think that figure takes into account the removal of proposed spending increases as well.

Only thing I’m pleased about is the rescue of the Presbyterian Mutual Fund as my Mum had her life savings in there

Other than that, mleh

This seems to sum it up quite well:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/18/conservative-financial-crisis-opportunity

I am loving the silence on this thread as all of the armchair political pundits wait for opinions to plagiarise to emerge from the actual political pundits.

I already have my opinion that I have been shouting since this all kicked off

Its ideologically driven cuts. The tories are taking this as an opportunity to destroy the state sector and move from our moderate tax moderate spend economy to a very low tax low spend economy with non universal services.

Its a figleaf for the end of the NHS by fragmentation and privatisation.

It will do untold damage with at least a million more on the dole queue and thus will reduce tax receipts thus negating the savings

Science and high tech has been a driver in our economy in recent times – so cuat support of R&D – just stupid.

Its not even logical – as we saw from the defense stuff. Why do we not need carrier borne aircraft for the next ten years but will need them after that

What we can hope for it the Lib Dems regain some backbone and principle and let the coalition collapse.

If the government department I worked in for 8 yrs was a good representation then if you cut the right staff you could have got rid of 50% of staff, still get everything done and still finish early on a Friday.

That won’t be the ones that they’ll cut though…

What? They’ve lowered taxes?

backhander – Member

What? They’ve lowered taxes?

They will do in a couple of years, but only for the richest 10%, when they sell the banks off, they will give everyone a little bit, but then take it back from the majority under another guise.

We’re all in this together.

Osborne, Mitchell and Hammond accused of tax avoidance

I am loving the silence on this thread as all of the armchair political pundits wait for opinions to plagiarise to emerge from the actual political pundits.

Unlike you of course.

My opinion is that yes there is waste in the public sector – but a massive sudden knee jerk cut is an incredibly inefficient way of going about it. Attacking and demoralising the public sector is also counter-productive. The idea that the private sector is going to magically produce jobs to take up the slack is utter nonsense – especially given that many companies rely on public sector contracts.

I’m not going to read any replies but I can guess what they are:

Moan moan bleat bleat unfair hateful I’m emigrating, etc

I’m not going to read any replies but I can guess what they are:

Why don’t you shut up then?

What Jambo said… but that was the bit I worked in … and ironically I have no doubt that they will all be fine while the frontline people who actually do stuff and deal with the public and earn a pittance will be the ones stuffed. 🙄

Why don’t you shut up then?

Miserable sod aren’t you?

Moan moan bleat bleat, etc

But happy to dish out your dubiously “researched” opinions to all and sundry.

That won’t be the ones that they’ll cut though…

Exactly – it’s the same people who have allowed all the waste to happen who now get to decide what gets cut – I’m sure they will make all the right decisions and not just look after themselves and their own…. 🙄

But happy to dish out your dubiously “researched” opinions to all and sundry.

Rather than just copying and pasting like you do you mean?

Sorry for caring about society and people’s lives/jobs etc – I guess we should all be incredibly self absorbed like you, then the world would be a better place eh?

Aren’t these cuts only taking levels of spending back to 2007 in real terms? To me that means that either they are not actually that bad (NHS has no cut backs) or what the bloody hell has “prudent” Labour being doing with our money in the last couple of years?

Who’s Gideon, I thought George was giving the speech, is he sick?

The example of the NHS – the cost of running it has increased massively – mainly because people are living longer and we are having more expensive treatments that weren’t previously available. And don’t believe that the NHS is having no cutbacks – complete myth.

Sorry for caring about society and people’s lives/jobs etc

Sorry for not feeling the need to shout about how caring I am about people’s lives and jobs – see I don’t think there’s any need to shout about it.

I bet you also shout about any charities you donate to as well?

Look up both these words:

Sanctimonious
Pious

They will do in a couple of years, but only for the richest 10%, when they sell the banks off, they will give everyone a little bit, but then take it back from the majority under another guise.

How do you know this? Am I out of the loop or is it just the usual scaremongering?

Grum and Matt: Good god. You 2 should really take a long hard look at yourselves. Your bickering is now beyond pathetic.

Don’t swear please! Mod

Sorry for not feeling the need to shout about how caring I am about people’s lives and jobs – see I don’t think there’s any need to shout about it.

Well **** me, that’s a first, eh Mat.

Surf-Mat – Are you alright today? You seem particularly objectionable?

< pulls up comfy chair and flicks kettle on! >

Unlike you of course.

Ahh, grum old chap, can always rely on you.

Personally I reckon that we have been prepared over the last few months for some seriously nasty axe wielding and having set our expectations so low, have actually provided us with a best case scenario (i.e. within the 25-40% range that they were asking people to plan for, they have come in at more the 25% end).

This was tactical and probably fairly sensible. They have made some of the right noises by protecting the NHS and Education, though not universities which fits in very well with their elitism agenda (though I do tend to agree that if everyone goes to university then who is going to do all the real work?). They have talked about investing in Science which pleases me.

They have also (apparently) found £6billion that they can cut from Whitehall and have reduced the size of the treasury by a third, which is both impressive and unlikely.

Welfare was always going to take a kicking but we are not too clear on what they are going to do yet. I do like the idea that those on benefits will be limited to the average working families income though it remains to be seen whether they come good on this claim.

I reckon they have made a lot of the right noises, penalise the banks, look after the elderly, downsize the military, simplify the benefits system, axe chunks of Whitehall. Details were not so forthcoming so we will have to wait and see what the small print says but those complaining about 40% cuts will be cut off mid stride and our dear NHS (The UK’s largest employer) is looking pretty safe.

Now all we have to do is have a massive boom in employment and zero inflation and we will be laughing. (as if).

Grum and Matt: Good god. You 2 should really take a long hard look at yourselves. Your bickering is now beyond pathetic.

I call it as I see it. They guy is a tool – never contributes anything other than boasting about himself. Anyway – I’m off for a nice walk in the Dales now.

Mat, you’re always up for an argument, aren’t you? AntiSTW-man, the lone voice of truth, crusading against the baa-ing masses of STW.

Well, everyone has opinions, and you’re absolutely entitled to yours. But – and it’s just a suggestion – why not find somewhere that you like a bit more? You know, the sort of place where you agree with people on more than the occasional point, where you can feel a little more at home.

Or is there a masochistic streak to you which makes you come up with a nugget of nonsense on a daily basis?

Any ideas where the private sector will generate circa 500,000 jobs? Are we going to have a massive increase in our exports or something?

Any ideas where the private sector will generate circa 500,000 jobs?

We could swap all of the brooms in the country for toothbrushes, that would do it.

Certainly never been a Tory supporter but the cuts seem quite fair to me. God knows how we have got into a situation where state spending has doubled in 10 years and thats not including the bank bailout. Where is all this money going!! There seems to be far to much waste and people living off the state. There needs to be a wholesale review of what we actually think the states responsibility is. What makes me really sick is that because there are so many people scrounging off the state in all manner of ways, the people that really need the money (child carers, soldiers with their legs blown off, handicap people, cancer suffers, proper asylum seekers) don’t get what they need. Its a bloody disgrace. Why are we paying for people to get more on benefits than the average family earns, bloody madness. Your life and lifestyle is your responsibility and not the states. The state should only help out people that have had a shitty stick of luck thrown at them and should be the last line of support, not the first as is now the case.