Austerity; purely dogma?

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urn them in to things that people want. Add cafes or toddler play zones, council help centres, cash machines, job centres, citizens advice, charity shops, markets, planning drop ins etc.. No need for them to be a burden to the tax payer, offering things people no longer want.

Our library was recently modernised - no cafe, toddler play zone, school kids study area, council help centre, no cash machine, drop-in, death recording(???), Internet, copying, and of course the books.

A beautiful, wood panelled one, a couple of miles away, was closed last year.
 
I was wondering if tax cuts and austerity would help mend our crumbling schools or shorten our NHS waiting lists.

Probably not.

I happened to see this:

"Torsten Bell, director of the Resolution Foundation think-tank, said a 1p cut to the basic rate of income tax would benefit 36mn people who would gain an average of about £200 a year.

He noted that because income tax and national insurance thresholds are currently frozen, rather than increasing by 6.7 per cent in line with September’s inflation figure, taxes for many people would still rise.

He said the “fiscal drag” effect would raise £8bn next year, and cost all basic rate employees £270 and pensioners £170.

Referring to a possible 1p income tax cut, Bell said: “You’d only be a winner in April if you happen to earn between £40,000 and £51,000 from these offsetting tax changes.

“Someone on the median salary [£27,000] would be around £120 worse off, and the biggest loss — in both cash and proportional terms — would be for someone earning around £13,500,” he added.

FT.com
 
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It's unbelievable this freezing of the tax threshold to at least 2028, so often it's glossed over when talking about tax.
Another is vat, one of the advantages of Brexit was we could set the rate, yet its still at 20%.
How much renovation work could be taken on if they dropped it to 15%.
Stop keep voting them in all parties I say and more more seem to be coming round to that way of thinking, election time will tell us if that is so.
 
I was wondering if tax cuts and austerity would help mend our crumbling schools or shorten our NHS waiting lists.

Probably not.
Maybe a Labour government would deliver better results.. Perhaps have a look at Wales to see how much better the NHS is being run under Labour?

Probably not.
 
I have no particular loyalty to the blue or red side. In all my adult life, I've observed government spending grow. Pretty much every year. Taxation is now at record highs, isn't it? Highest since 1945?

I know the activists and media (one in the same?!) would have us believe that Blair re-built all the schools and hospitals. But wasn't that all PFI jollies? On the never-never. Another story often told is that the Tories 'reduced public spending'... but really? Total public spending seems every higher each year: I believe they reduced the rate of increase (!) and this is presented as 'cuts'. Is that right? I see little evidence of less spending when I look at the local council or our universities, for example.

I find it odd how the rhetoric, from the media or the politicians themselves, doesn't seem to square with reality. Similarly, look at the 'scary Suella/Tories hate immigrants' line... really? What are the immigration levels like? What happened over the last decade? Pretty high, wouldn't you say? So the rhetoric is saying one thing, but the observable reality something else. This baffles me!
 
Maybe a Labour government would deliver better results.. Perhaps have a look at Wales to see how much better the NHS is being run under Labour?

Probably not.
Perhaps we should compare the Blair years to the Tory govts since...lets see waiting times for Dr appointments, operations etc
 
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Similarly, look at the 'scary Suella/Tories hate immigrants' line... really? What are the immigration levels like? What happened over the last decade? Pretty high, wouldn't you say? So the rhetoric is saying one thing, but the observable reality something else. This baffles me!
the Tory party always need somebody for the public to hate....their brand of r/w populism depends on division.
 
I have no particular loyalty to the blue or red side. In all my adult life, I've observed government spending grow. Pretty much every year. Taxation is now at record highs, isn't it? Highest since 1945?

I know the activists and media (one in the same?!) would have us believe that Blair re-built all the schools and hospitals. But wasn't that all PFI jollies? On the never-never. Another story often told is that the Tories 'reduced public spending'... but really? Total public spending seems every higher each year: I believe they reduced the rate of increase (!) and this is presented as 'cuts'. Is that right? I see little evidence of less spending when I look at the local council or our universities, for example.

I find it odd how the rhetoric, from the media or the politicians themselves, doesn't seem to square with reality. Similarly, look at the 'scary Suella/Tories hate immigrants' line... really? What are the immigration levels like? What happened over the last decade? Pretty high, wouldn't you say? So the rhetoric is saying one thing, but the observable reality something else. This baffles me!

Plenty of guesses and assumptions from you.

Have you got any actual figures?
 
Plenty of guesses and assumptions from you.

Have you got any actual figures?

Are you seriously suggesting public spending has gone down?. **** me.
Why don't you prove him wrong with some 'actual figures'.
 
Are you seriously suggesting public spending has gone down?. **** me.
Why don't you prove him wrong with some 'actual figures'.
Pretty much every public service in this country is destroyed.

So what da f**k have the Tories done with the dough?

NHS
social services
mental health
criminal justice system
prisons
home office
school buildings
police
etc
etc
etc

wheres it all gone?
 
Are you seriously suggesting public spending has gone down?. **** me.
Why don't you prove him wrong with some 'actual figures'.
He has made some assertions based on vague guesses.

If he can find some numbers, I shall examine them.
 
Are you seriously suggesting public spending has gone down?. **** me.
Why don't you prove him wrong with some 'actual figures'.
How much "public spending" has gone into off-shore accounts in the time the Tories have been in power?
 
https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/5326/economics/government-spending/ has some figures in £, rather than GDP nonsense. 99% is up, with a couple of rounding errors the other way in recent history.

MPs and the media seem to keep asking what the government can/should do. I don't look at life like that.

I keep hearing how Thatcher sold all the council houses, and it's a massive problem. But are not some of those people still living in them? Which they would have done anyway with their lifetime tenancy agreements? And why should the government be involved in the provision of housing? It sounds like something the private sector could provide - if the government would just get out of the way.

Why can't we consider health and education in the same way? Oh, that's right... we are told that without the sacred NHS, people would die in there street, 'just like America'. We seem unable to ponder the fact that there are 100+ other health systems in the world, so forget about the USA. If the NHS was great, someone else would have copied it. 'Free at the point of use' seems to mean that I pay a fortune in tax, have a GP appointment merry-go-round, and am refused dental treatment - the envy of the world indeed.
 
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