If you were PM... where would you cut back?

topgranny

All the utilities and transport companies should be re-nationalised so that any profits are ploughed back into the business rather than being paid out to shareholders. We all need to use gas, electricity, water, etc. and people shouldn't be allowed to make money off the backs of poorer people this way. All the current high prices are doing is making bigger and bigger profits to "look after our shareholders"! How about looking after the customers for a change?

I also feel that millions could be saved in the NHS by getting rid of some - quite a lot in fact - of the managers and putting the money back into nursing. What's the point of building or extending hospitals and then having to keep half of the wards closed because they can't afford to pay the staff to use them? Time to prioritise. Also cut down on heating costs; people who really need to be kept in a much warmer environment could be allocated a bed in a special "hot" ward. Providing decent, edible food would save on a lot of waste. Surely it's possible to work out some way of cooking and delivering food to patients without it being totally unpalatable.

Don't even get me started on benefits! And as for letting in more immigrants (of whatever colour or creed) when there aren't enough jobs to go round anyway - sheer lunacy.

harryhound

Most of this Civil Servants ideas I agree with - good stuff.

Would you also agree with:

Increase the Civil Service retirement age to 67.
Reduce the paid holidays to 4 weeks - perhaps an extra week for those with long service?
Do you think the Common Agricultural Policy - now paid on pony paddocks etc is a "good thing"?

Do you think that now government spending is now approaching 50% of GDP (ie those of us in the private sector that actually produces goods and services and can earn exports, now work for six months of the year for the government before getting a chance to work for ourselves and our families) might be getting a bit out of balance.

funandfrugal

glossyhair wrote: »

I would imagine that most of the people suggesting cutting benefits are not in the unfortunate position of having to live on them! :mad::mad::mad: To those people I say, not everyone who is claiming is a lazy scrounger; I am unemployed through no fault of my own and I have paid NI and taxes when I have been in work for the past 25 years . . . why should I not be entitled to some of it back when I am in need??


That is exactly where benefit money should be going - people who hae contributed.

This is not - 'homefinders' tennants
The dad works for cash at the local kebab store
they recieve housing benefit £950 pm
child benefit £100 pm
jobseekers allow £95 pw £400pm
free council tax £120 pm

Free perscriptions and whatever else, neither the couple or their 2 kids speak english yet 'earn' the equivalent of £25k a year in benefits. They have a decent car, satellite dish etc.
This is what we should be dealing with. For housing benefit tenants is the rent is less than the benefit allowed - they can keep the difference up to £15pm - no wonder Enfield have 4 start for benefits!

PaulChelt

I would vote Mcgazz (#31) the civil servant for PM.
I agree with all except the taxing of savings etc. That money was earned by me and taxed before I even got it. Why should any measley interest earned be taxed again for the privilege of lending it to someone else at a much higher rate. No taxes on interest.

onno

It has to be education. I have been in the business for years and since 1997 the amount of money being thrown at educating our kids to lower and lower standards is outrageuoous.

donglefan

Replacing Trident system to cost £100bn
http://www.sundayherald.com/news/heraldnews/display.var.1185412.0.replacing_trident_system_to_cost_100bn.php

Simples...

mcgazz

PaulChelt wrote: »

I would vote Mcgazz (#31) the civil servant for PM.
I agree with all except the taxing of savings etc. That money was earned by me and taxed before I even got it. Why should any measley interest earned be taxed again for the privilege of lending it to someone else at a much higher rate. No taxes on interest.

Because the measley interest wasn't earned. You made money by simply having money.

I honestly think it's fairer to tax unearned income before earned income. I don't see why the likes of inheritances or share dividends should be taxed at a lower rate than money people made through working.

If you don't want the bank to profit from your money, you have the choice of taking your money out of the bank.

rag31

zygurat789 wrote: »

Social protection presumeably includes the money paid to the idle in their subsidised social housing so that they can watch their wall sized plasma TVs, drive their MPVs to see their boyfriends in prison in Devon (you don't go there for nowt) and take frequent trips (presumeably self-financing) to Spain.

What an ignorant eejit.

expat_mike

Benefits should be removed for those who never contributed and restricted for those that have. Public service pensions should demand increased contributions if people want their pension rights guaranteed just as has happened in the private sector. If you cant/wont afford the extra, then your pensions will reduce. In the NHS I believe ALL non life threatening procedures such as IVF, cosmetic or social procedures be charged for ensuring pensioners that have paid into the system for 40 years will be given treatment where necessary. Finally, defence can be cut on non essentials like Trident. This would be a fair way of cutting public spending but Labour wont do it as its against their ideology and I'm sceptical about Cameron.

rcs28

I'm shocked by all the posts advocating cuts to benefits! I live on disability benefits because I have a progressive neurological condition that leaves me too tired to have even a part-time job. From my experience it is very difficult to claim Incapacity Benefit and I doubt that anyone who does not need it could have a successful claim, considering how many people who do deserve it are turned down.
Disability and ill health can hit anyone at anytime, they turn your life upside down and battling to get the benefits you need in order to survive financially is an unbearably stressful experience.
Incapacity benefit is a contributory benefit - I worked before I became this disabled, I paid national insurance, and now I claim IB as my right.
I hope all those who have posted advocating cuts to benefits never have to claim themselves, but show some compassion for those of us who have to rely on the state to survive financially.
So what should be cut? Nuclear weapons and pointless military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq.
And why do we need cuts at all? Increased income tax and tax on bonuses would supply us with all the money that's needed. Why should it always be the poor who suffer?