The "coalition cuts" megathread

[Wildcat]

There are gentle murmurings from Labour benches that the Queens Speech was rather good.

 

It could have been a lot worse, but we already see that the Tories are breaking the promises on which they were elected.

 

“we will take immediate action to cut a net £6 billion of wasteful departmental spending in the financial year 2010/11, with further savings in future years … Former government advisers Sir Peter Gershon and Dr Martin Read have advised us that savings of £12 billion across all departmental spending are possible in-year without affecting the quality of frontline services”

 

So voters could put their cross in the Conservative box, safe in the knowledge that only “wasteful spending” would be cut this year, “without affecting the quality of frontline services”.

 

Would-be university students, many of them voting for the first time, could confidently vote Conservative, secure in their belief that a cut of 10,000 university places in the forthcoming academic year would never happen, because higher education couldn’t possibly be classified as “wasteful”. More vulnerable would-be employees, who might look for support from the Future Jobs Fund, could support the Conservatives, since efforts to help them into work clearly depended on a high quality of frontline services.

 

Indeed, to highlight their point about efficiencies, the Conservatives, in their manifesto, spoke of a freeze on new ICT spending, negotiations to achieve a better deal from government suppliers, better public sector recruitment, reductions in discretionary spending and reductions in public sector property costs.

 

So when David Cameron gave his first interview as Prime Minister on the ‘Today’ programme this morning, the least he could have done was to apologise to those who have already been let down, after only two weeks of his Government.

 

http://www.touchstoneblog.org.uk/2010/05/cameron-fails-first-big-test/#more-7309

[RonJeremy]

I have no position on it but the facts remain that it is not a subsidy, it is tax relief.

 

That kind of financial illiteracy is exactly what's got us into the brown stuff.

 

precisely - it's not taking money from people. It is not a subsidy.

 

Your definition of a subsidy is like going up to someone in the street not robbing them of the £20 they have in their pocket, then claiming to have given them £20.

[Wildcat]

precisely - it's not taking money from people. It is not a subsidy.

 

Your definition of a subsidy is like going up to someone in the street not robbing them of the £20 they have in their pocket, then claiming to have given them £20.

 

Taxation isn't robbery, it is payment for a service

 

Anyone funding a 20% offer on a service is subsidising that service.

[RonJeremy]

there's no further discussion necessary if that's what you think.

[kabacha]

There is no need to throw your toys out of the pram.

Has someone thrown my friend truconstruct out of the pram along with the toys?

[marshlad]

At least Capita are going to suffer from loss of business due to the cutbacks.

 

http://m.channelregister.co.uk/2010/05/24/capita_shares/

[rich5315]

what about the one the other day! there gonna get 5 million people off incapacity benefit and put them into work, seems a good idea to me apart from two things 1, how are they going to conjour up 5 million jobs, the people out of work and available cant get one already and 2 so are they going to add 5 million to the jobless figures? i dont think so, although it seems that what people get on benefits is too much (myself and family are on benefits) i will say that we struggle quite severely to get by, what we get is considered as living on the poverty line, most jobs available are paying around £6 to £7 an hour thats £4 an hour less then we get on benefits based on a 40 hour week, my local job center works by a back to work calculator which means if your worse off taking a job they wont make you take one because they dont expect you to live below the poverty line, so how are they going to pay for these extra 5 million jobs, i think they are just trying to kid the public that there are changes coming, they have to make it sound like there doing something

[Wildcat]

rich5315,

 

Labour already had plans to get loads of people off ESA. The new regime so far has only applied to new claims but the plans were to apply them to all from Autumn this year.

 

You aren't the only person with concerns about the sense of doing that during a recession:

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/10159717.stm

 

The Tories have plans for one single benefit system, something I have seen costings for that would cost us about £4 billion more a year to achieve the same results. As to whether they will go ahead with that and what their plans really mean hasn't yet been announced. Something is expected to clarify that in the next few weeks.

[marshlad]

what about the one the other day! there gonna get 5 million people off incapacity benefit and put them into work, seems a good idea to me apart from two things 1, how are they going to conjour up 5 million jobs, the people out of work and available cant get one already and 2 so are they going to add 5 million to the jobless figures? i dont think so, although it seems that what people get on benefits is too much (myself and family are on benefits) i will say that we struggle quite severely to get by, what we get is considered as living on the poverty line, most jobs available are paying around £6 to £7 an hour thats £4 an hour less then we get on benefits based on a 40 hour week, my local job center works by a back to work calculator which means if your worse off taking a job they wont make you take one because they dont expect you to live below the poverty line, so how are they going to pay for these extra 5 million jobs, i think they are just trying to kid the public that there are changes coming, they have to make it sound like there doing something

 

You say your family struggles but you can afford the internet. It is disgusting that you are getting more money than me and I work full time. The sooner the government makes people earn their benefits the better. You and your family have got no self respect. People will get work if they really want it regardless of the recession you just have to be less fussy and choosey about what you do. Council tax benefit & housing benefit should be scrapped. People on benefits should only get dole money and have to pay rent and council tax out of that because people in work are paid their salary and have to pay their rent or mortgage and bills out of that money we don't get extra money to pay it, why should scoungers on benefits get their rent paid for them. If they can't afford it they will have to get a job. Before anyone says that the unemployed won't have time to look for a job if they are working for benefits, how do you think people in work manage to look for new jobs and attend interviews. If you really want something you will find a way. David Cameron I am with you all the way.

[lawz]

Digging this up again - BBC news now reporting the pretty obvious - "Coalition government axes £2bn of projects" including the Sheffield Forgemasters £80m loan and the suspension of the Sheffield Sevenstone Retail project at £12m.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/politics/10341015.stm