Call for £50bn public spending cut

[Anarcho-Socialist]

Plans to tackle the UK's debt "crisis" by saving £50 billion of public spending through measures such as a pay freeze on the state pension, abolition of the identity card scheme and a 10% cut in non-frontline staff in the NHS and schools have been put forward.

The Institute of Directors and the TaxPayers' Alliance outlined 34 specific measures inspired by the "dire state" of public finances.

The two groups called for the reduction or removal of "unproductive" items of Government expenditure which did not work or were not essential.

Suggestions included targeting spending on free bus passes for the elderly and disabled on those who genuinely needed it; a one year freeze on the state pension; a one year pay freeze across the public sector; abolition of child benefit and the child trust fund while increasing child tax credit, and abolition of free TV licences.

More: http://news.aol.co.uk/call-for-50bn-public-spending-cut/article/2009091019035619739821?rsp=Money%20News

I wonder if the Tory Party itself wants to implement this? That would really stick it to the working class.

[oldironside]

1. If the Tory Party signs up to this...

... it will be the nearest thing to political suicide since Caligula made his horse consul. Labour might not be able to mobilise the working or pensioner votes, but this would do it for them.

Any cuts in the health service would make the Tories look like they agree with Daniel Hannan, abolition of free TV licences, bus passes, child benefit, etc would make them into the party of Scrooge, and a pay freeze brings back memories of the Winter of Discontent. Cameron knows this so will probably keep schtum until he's actually in number 10, then bring it out in dribs and drabs.

If they want to save money on "'unproductive' items of Government expenditure which did not work or were not essential', they can just cancel Trident and abolish the Civil List. That would put them over half way there. Making the rich pay their share would do the rest.

[ikri]

2. You can add a lot more military spending to that list

The country pisses away a fortune on military spending. I believe that our military budget is something like the 3rd highest in the world (after the US main military budget and the US black-ops budget), we spend more than China, India and Russia despite having a fraction of the population and a (comparatively) minuscule amount of land.

We spend fortunes developing parallel systems to those developed by other nations, we're developing our own unmanned drones where we could simply buy them from the US instead. For what we're spending on helicopters we could have bought a fleet of them from Sikorsky and had them delivered in plenty of time and for less money but instead of buying tried and tested machinery we'll buy them and spend a few years (and a few billion £) figuring out why they don't work to specification. How much time and money was spent on rifles for the army that didn't work in the sand? How many soldiers ended up using cheaper, tried and tested, AK47's instead? (there were reports that special forces were doing just that). Why are the next generation of aircraft carriers set to cost far far more than their US counterparts? Why do we not buy elsewhere?

UK jobs. The deal to buy helicopters from AgustaWestland will provide 900 jobs in the UK, but the difference in cost is enough that we could pay those 900 people not to work.

The government is spending a fortune on propping up the UK arms industry just so we can have an arms industry. I doubt the MOD budget covers the money that the government guarantees to the industry when it sells arms abroad and the buyer doesn't bother paying. It would be possible to cut huge swathes out of the MOD budget and actively improve the military if we had a government really serious about money and less interested in getting a place on the board of directors of some of the arms companies.

[oldironside]

3. Or how about those two waste of time aircraft carriers...

... they've ordered but will probably never finish? The MoD website admits to a cost of £3bn, so you can easily treble that by the time they enter service.

[ikri]

6. And another MOD project to add to the list

Most expensive RAF aircraft ever takes to the skies

We just pissed away £3.6 Billion on 9 upgraded Nimrod aircraft, designed to hunt Soviet submarines which will be really useful if we ever go back in time 30 years.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

5. I'm not so sure

If the Tories come through with a thumping majority then they may have the political capital to pass off some seriously regressive fiscal policies. The cheerleaders in the Tory press would help them too.

In 1976-79 the Callaghan government implemented free market policies which undermined the income of poorest half of the population. The electorate punished them and ended-up electing a party that was even more intent on free market dogma. Sound familiar?

If the New Labour-weary electorate carries their attitude into the next year then the Tories would likely still will the General Election if they write their manifesto in crayon and felt-pen.

[LeftishBrit]

4. Very depressing, Just the sort of thing I'm afraid of.

'That would really stick it to the working class.'

Yes - and indeed to all but the rich. Especially the elderly.

[fedsron2us]

7. But surely there is no debt crisis

Has not the nice minister for the City Lord Myner said the government was going to make a profit on its bail out of the banks ? Does not this mean not that there will be huge amounts of wonga for public spending going forward ?

Of course the real truth is there was no real public debt crisis until the financial institutions needed rescuing. In fact most of the debt that has been run up in recent years has originated from the private sector not the state. Even some of the more honest hard nosed ultra capitalist bloggers admit to that fact.

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/01/brink-of-debt-disaster.html

Meanwhile Creditaction give the gory statistics for the UK

http://www.creditaction.org.uk/debt-statistics/2009/september-2009.html







All that has happened in the last year is that the lousy stinking rotten corrupt bastards who rule us have decided that the tab for this excess should be picked up by ordinary working people

What essentially we are seeing being built is a society that offer socialism for the rich and capitalism for the poor.

If that does not provoke you to riot in the streets then you are going to get the society you deserve.

BTW my suggestion for hard time is that we take out the fat bastards who belong to the Institute of Directors,the Adam Smith Institute, the Taxpayer Alliance etc kill them and eat them