Scotland’s budget review proposes mass layoffs, end to universal benefits

[Hannah Bell]

Commissioned in early 2010 by the Scottish National Party (SNP) administration in Edinburgh, the 174-page Independent Budget Review was put together by a three-man team led by Crawford W. Beveridge. The review team was tasked with outlining the options for spending cuts available to the Scottish government ahead of the British government’s spending review, due in October.

Funding available to the Scottish government, from the UK, is expected to fall by 12.5 percent over the period to 2015. Of this, the most serious cuts are expected next year, when £1.7 billion is expected to be slashed from a total Scottish budget of around £29 billion. Capital expenditure is also expected to fall by over 28 percent by 2015. This will result in a huge increase in unemployment... as many as 90,000 public sector and 37,000 private sector jobs are imperilled by total cuts of up to 14 percent by 2015. Unemployment in Scotland currently stands at around 216,000, or 8.1 percent...the report advocates far greater outsourcing of social services to the private and voluntary sectors...The report’s main target, however, is the public sector pay bill, where various combinations of pay freezes, recruitment bans, redundancies and pay cuts are considered...

The review also targeted universal benefits, asking the Scottish government to consider whether “all free or subsidised universal services should be retained in their current form.” The panel demanded “immediate action” to review eligibility for free travel. Free personal care for the elderly should be either be ended, or restricted through the targeted introduction of charges. Further planned reductions in prescription charges should be stopped. “Immediate action” should be taken to review free eye tests, while a graduate tax or the introduction of student tuition fees should be considered.

Further measures proposed include expanding the role of the Scottish Futures Trust—an instrument devised by the SNP to channel private capital into infrastructure and building projects—and the de facto privatisation of Scottish Water. Charging for the use of public roads should also be considered...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/aug2010/scot-a06.shtml

[villager]

1. I thought the Scottish National Party was considered an alternative...

...to existing power structures, as opposed to a group of errand boys for the IMF...

[xchrom]

2. This just goes to show deeply embedded neoliberalism

Has become in the democratic western world.

The Father of it here was European - taught
In a major university. He learned it there.

Neoliberals are churning out their advocates and gaining agreement
Without debate on the worthiness of
Their ideas.