AAA,not today..

[ianpdq]

Osborne's not a fool .. he's playing a long hand - don't believe everything you read in the press. We'll see if it pays off.

While he is playing the long hand the country going down the pan they have no idea what is happening they live in there own little world all of them they need to get out on the streets and talk to the people they are the ones that are suffering?

[Fretwired]

While he is playing the long hand the country going down the pan they have no idea what is happening they live in there own little world all of them they need to get out on the streets and talk to the people they are the ones that are suffering?

And you don't think he knows this .. looked at the US or France lately? Easy to criticise, but truth is there's no magic fix and regardless of what he does we're at the mercy of the global economy.

[Viz]

So, I think that while the global economy is shite, they need to match up the people that are unemployed but able & willing, with the jobs that need doing - everything from large governmental capital projects to pothole repair - so that when everything's ok globally again and everybody's frantically busy making money, at least we won't have to use time on the potholes. After all, citizens aren't temps, you can't just ask them to leave when the work dries up - you have to look after them in the bad times as well as the good. If they yearn to learn and earn, the government needs to do everything it can to use that and help them. That's the long game. It means a small investment during the downturn which is painful for the government but not for the people, which is what governments are for, and whether they win or lose next time round, the COUNTRY will be better for it, which is their job - they're only looking after it for a spell after all.

[evilmags]

The UK has seen no cuts in net expenditure. Every time I here somebody (usualy a Labour supporter) trot this tired and frankly false line of "Evil government cuts" I really have to wonder what planet they are on. Take a look across the channel and check out the level of unemployment (much of it in countries with no universal benefits either) in Greece and Spain is over 26%. Youth unemployment is over 50%. Adult unemployment is over 40% in some provinces. Civil servants, police, doctors and teachers have seen their pay packets cut by as much as 15%. Why? Because their governments joined the Euro and ran up too much debt.

In relative terms, and given how uncompetative our economy is, I am genuinely surprised that things are going as well as they are. Most Economists are also very surprised and about the only thing holding any confidence in the UK together at all in international markets is the fact that nobody expects a spluge in government spending.

In reality we should try and cut spending as a % of GDP by around 15%, but that needs real growth in tax revenues to be achieveable. That requires significant tax cuts to reach a more optimal system of taxation. And that requires ignorant fat shadow chancellors to have rather less of a platform within the LibDems than they currently do.

[Fretwired]

The UK has seen no cuts in net expenditure. Every time I here somebody (usualy a Labour supporter) trot this tired and frankly false line of "Evil government cuts" I really have to wonder what planet they are on. Take a look across the channel and check out the level of unemployment (much of it in countries with no universal benefits either) in Greece and Spain is over 26%. Youth unemployment is over 50%. Adult unemployment is over 40% in some provinces. Civil servants, police, doctors and teachers have seen their pay packets cut by as much as 15%. Why? Because their governments joined the Euro and ran up too much debt.

In relative terms, and given how uncompetative our economy is, I am genuinely surprised that things are going as well as they are. Most Economists are also very surprised and about the only thing holding any confidence in the UK together at all in international markets is the fact that nobody expects a spluge in government spending.

In reality we should try and cut spending as a % of GDP by around 15%, but that needs real growth in tax revenues to be achieveable. That requires significant tax cuts to reach a more optimal system of taxation. And that requires ignorant fat shadow chancellors to have rather less of a platform within the LibDems than they currently do.

It would also help if the economic statisticians got their facts right. It now appears the economy has been growing at, wait for it, 0.2 per cent over the last 12 months. The deal with the Chinese to make London the centre in which their currency gets traded should cement London's position as the centre of world finance, and give HMG £250 million of revenue per annum.

And for all the glum news employment is at an all time high.

However, I can see us heading off to La La Land like Italy after the next election with Ed Ballsup and co promising a Nivana of no cuts by promising to borrow more money.

[evilmags]

It takes ages to get decent numbers for GDP because so much of the data needed to accuratley calculate it comes in much later than the point when the market is crying out for a number, so people use estimates. Sorting the economy is not really that difficult. It would just piss off a load of trendy interest groups. Were I in power I'd

1) Inmediatley start shale gas production.
2) Remove all tax on the energy produced by that gas. This would allow manufacturing companies to operate in the UK, as opposed to farming out high value added production to Korea.
3) Legalise all drugs and prostitution. Regulate them and tax them.
4) Make sure the UK had the lowest corporate tax rate in Europe.
5) Cancel all of the debt owned by the Bank of England.
6) Make it constitutionally impossible for governments to run deficits at all.
7) Introduce a simple 28% flat tax on income, kicking in at all earnings over £12,000 a year. No allowences, loopholes or exceptions.
8) Introduce a water tax on the springs used to make Whisky, ensuring some of the massive profits from said induistry actually stay in the UK.
9) Build a modern Airport in the South East and a proper high speed train line on the west and east coast.
10) Turn the whole of the A1 into a 5 lane motorway.
11) Withdraw from the EU, and negociate unilateral free trade agreements with the Anglosphere and Commonwealth
12) Place a 5 year term limit on benefits, with an extra year earned through each three years in employment.

In 5 years you would have full employment and 4% GEDP growth per annum.

[fatherjack]

I work in local government (boo, hiss) and I'm also our union branch president (boo, hiss). There are some people on our executive committee who talk about getting the public involved in the fight against cuts in local government funding. Some of us older members are saying that it'll just make us look whiny and greedy and that we haven't seen cuts anything like those experienced in the private sector.

Having said that, it does get a little frustrating when people think of the public sector as one entity. Local government is very different from the Civil Service. Most of our funding comes from the central government grant - Council Tax is just a sop to local accountability, and in the case of non-metropolitan/unitary authorities, most of it goes to county anyway. Over the period 2010 to 2016, my council's senior management are predicting a cut in central govt grant of about 40%, and we've been making people redundant for the last five years and it'll just carry on.

Waaaah, poor me...

[Fretwired]

I work in local government (boo, hiss) and I'm also our union branch president (boo, hiss). There are some people on our executive committee who talk about getting the public involved in the fight against cuts in local government funding. Some of us older members are saying that it'll just make us look whiny and greedy and that we haven't seen cuts anything like those experienced in the private sector.

Having said that, it does get a little frustrating when people think of the public sector as one entity. Local government is very different from the Civil Service. Most of our funding comes from the central government grant - Council Tax is just a sop to local accountability, and in the case of non-metropolitan/unitary authorities, most of it goes to county anyway. Over the period 2010 to 2016, my council's senior management are predicting a cut in central govt grant of about 40%, and we've been making people redundant for the last five years and it'll just carry on.

Waaaah, poor me...

I have some sympathy with your plight, but I worked in local government years ago [as an auditor] and saw all the waste and theft. My local council is useless. You can't speak to anyone about anything. I'm helping my mum get permission to cut down a tree with a preservation order on it - a local tree surgeon says it's dangerous and has written a report to that effect. You can't speak to anyone at the council, nor can you email them. You have to write to them and wait six weeks and when she complained to the woman on the switchboard she got the cuts mantra. They seem more interested in making money - parking charges up.

Council tax is expensive. It should be replaced by a service charge based on your usage of local services like waste collection. I bet my council could be run more efficiently with half the staff [there seem to be more managers than anything else] as just about everything service-wise has been privatised.

[fatherjack]

I have some sympathy with your plight, but I worked in local government years ago [as an auditor] and saw all the waste and theft. My local council is useless. You can't speak to anyone about anything. I'm helping my mum get permission to cut down a tree with a preservation order on it - a local tree surgeon says it's dangerous and has written a report to that effect. You can't speak to anyone at the council, nor can you email them. You have to write to them and wait six weeks and when she complained to the woman on the switchboard she got the cuts mantra. They seem more interested in making money - parking charges up.

Council tax is expensive. It should be replaced by a service charge based on your usage of local services like waste collection. I bet my council could be run more efficiently with half the staff [there seem to be more managers than anything else] as just about everything service-wise has been privatised.

Sounds like you've got a crappy council (or at least those parts of it you're encountering at the moment) - don't talk to me about our planning mob.

It seems daft that they haven't embraced email - chucking people towards electronic communication and service request is a way of saving money, which all councils have got to do.

A service charge based upon use? How do you know what services you'll use over the charging period? OK, waste collection (although some people generate more wast than others - should they pay more - should Eric Pickles allow microchips in wheelie bins?) is reasonably predictable, but what if you want to use a 'one-off' service, such as making a noise complaint? Should you have to pay for that? If so, how (especially if the finding is that enforcement isn't required)?

A lot of councils have merged aspects of service provision with neighbouring authorities (we have with two other LAs for several things, and there will undoubtedly be more to follow), and it's almost always management who are the first to be made redundant - you just give those that are left more staff to manage.

Having said that, I'm quite happy about the idea of food businesses paying to be inspected (it'd need a change in the law, though), as it would encourage them to buck their ideas up - the better-run they are, the less often the council comes out to inspect, the less they have to pay...

[Fretwired]

Sounds like you've got a crappy council (or at least those parts of it you're encountering at the moment) - don't talk to me about our planning mob.

It seems daft that they haven't embraced email - chucking people towards electronic communication and service request is a way of saving money, which all councils have got to do.

A service charge based upon use? How do you know what services you'll use over the charging period? OK, waste collection (although some people generate more wast than others - should they pay more - should Eric Pickles allow microchips in wheelie bins?) is reasonably predictable, but what if you want to use a 'one-off' service, such as making a noise complaint? Should you have to pay for that? If so, how (especially if the finding is that enforcement isn't required)?

Yes my council's very bad - it's Tory as well. There are email addresses, but they claim they may or may not respond due to high volumes.

The service charge could be easy to calculate - for example take the refuse charge, divide it by the number of households, take out those who get subsidies [poor, elderly and those on benefits] and you have a fair charge. The fact I pay a tax based on some idiots notional value of my house is irrational. It's not my fault house prices are rising, and I don't care if the government decide to increase inheritance tax charges as a way of clawing back profits made due to property inflation.