Cuts post-election - which ones would you like to see?

carolt

Assuming that more or less everyone is agreed that we cannot go on as we have been, and that cuts will need to be made to our economy at some point post-election (although there is disagreement over whether those cuts should be immediate or after a year or at some indeterminate future date when the economy picks up again), I thought it would be interesting to see where others thought the cuts could best be made.

You may tick as many options as are appropriate.

CLAPTON

by the time everyone 'agrees ' on anything you can assume they are wrong

so when everyone agreed that house prices must increase they were wrong

when everyone agreed that 'light touch regulation on banks ' was a good thing they were wrong

and so on

and so your poll leaves out all the important options.

Running_Horse

10% off all of the above would be a good starting point.

Then we could talk serious cuts.

bodgerx

Benefits

Number 1 has already happened. Number two will be happening, and is already happening to a certain extent.

Old_Slaphead

Reduce public sector pensions

bodgerx wrote: »

Number 1 has already happened. Number two will be happening, and is already happening to a certain extent.

Has number 1 actually happened - if so, when from.

Many (not all) in the public sector are still benefiting from the 3 year paydeal giving 2-3%pa increases.

Instead of job cuts why don't the unions put forward alternative ideas like a progressive paycut starting at say 1% at £25k rising to 10% at £100k+ ?

chewmylegoff

Other - please describe below

cuts across the board - realistically savings can be made in every sector. i don't personally buy in to the mantra that health spending has to be increased in real terms year on year - the NHS should be subject to the same sort of efficiency savings as everything else. cameron is hypocritical here, he keeps bleating on with the line "it's only 1p in the £, what small business or family hasn't had to make that sort of saving" re: savings to balance not increasing NI - why doesn't this logic apply to the NHS where there is obviously great waste.

in any case, we can't afford to keep spending more on the NHS every year so it doesn't really matter whether we want to or not.

oh, and foreign aid should go be cut rather than sharply increased.

Pennywise

Benefits

CLAPTON wrote: »

by the time everyone 'agrees ' on anything you can assume they are wrong

so when everyone agreed that house prices must increase they were wrong

when everyone agreed that 'light touch regulation on banks ' was a good thing they were wrong

and so on

and so your poll leaves out all the important options.

Who is this "everyone" you're talking about? Most "man in the street" types realised that house prices were going to crash at some point, most "man in the street" realised that the miracle "economic boom" bubble would eventually burst, most "man in the street" realise that public spending is way out of control and has to be reigned in, most "man in the street" know that a lot of the billions pumped into the NHS hasn't resulted in a proportion improvement in services. In fact, virtually everyone I know has been expecting the property crash, the boom bubble to burst, bank lending to stop, etc., for a few years now. I presume by "everyone" you mean the out-of-touch politicians, economists, etc who seem to have no understanding or interest in the average "man in the street" who seems to have a better grasp of economic reality that the so called experts.

CLAPTON

Pennywise wrote: »

Who is this "everyone" you're talking about? Most "man in the street" types realised that house prices were going to crash at some point, most "man in the street" realised that the miracle "economic boom" bubble would eventually burst, most "man in the street" realise that public spending is way out of control and has to be reigned in, most "man in the street" know that a lot of the billions pumped into the NHS hasn't resulted in a proportion improvement in services. In fact, virtually everyone I know has been expecting the property crash, the boom bubble to burst, bank lending to stop, etc., for a few years now. I presume by "everyone" you mean the out-of-touch politicians, economists, etc who seem to have no understanding or interest in the average "man in the street" who seems to have a better grasp of economic reality that the so called experts.

the OP started with the words .... "Assuming that more or less everyone is agreed that we cannot go on as we have been"

it was that 'everyone' I was referring to

and now those same people (out-of-touch politicians, economists, etc who seem to have no understanding or interest in the average "man in the street" who seems to have a better grasp of economic reality that the so called experts) are all agreeing that we must cut cut and cut.

I this context I am raising some caution about what is so obvious that everyone agrees on it.

robin_banks

Defence eg Trident

Old_Slaphead wrote: »

Has number 1 actually happened - if so, when from.

Many (not all) in the public sector are still benefiting from the 3 year paydeal giving 2-3%pa increases.

Instead of job cuts why don't the unions put forward alternative ideas like a progressive paycut starting at say 1% at £25k rising to 10% at £100k+ ?

Some people will also move up spine points as well as any inflationary awards.

The Housing Association I work for has increased hours with effect from 1 April, also as employees leave certain posts it is not filled for 3 months and reducing the number of temps used.

We're also saving on office costs, i.e. getting rid of photocopier lease agreements for example.

Doctor_Gloom

Defence eg Trident

The Defence budget should be slashed by at least 50%. Tell America if they want to invade foreign countries that they can do so their own. That should save a few quid.

StevieJ

'Efficiency' savings

Interesting that 16 people (up to now) are not interested in efficiency savings, you can bet your bottom dollar that they will be the ones voting for punishing the poor i.e. benefits :eek: