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

JP45

Benefits

bodgerx wrote: »

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

It certainly is, witness the following article from last weekend's Sunday Times:

MORE than 225,000 public sector jobs cuts are quietly being forced through by councils, the NHS and police forces, despite Gordon Brown’s pledge to protect frontline services.

The losses, disclosed in a wide-ranging analysis by The Sunday Times, include tens of thousands of nurses and midwives, social workers, teachers and police officers. Management and administrative workers will face the biggest cuts.

The cutbacks are already being implemented. Deeper cuts are expected to emerge after the general election, whichever party takes power.

Kohoutek

JP45 wrote: »

It certainly is, witness the following article from last weekend's Sunday Times:

So much for protecting the NHS...

The health service will bear the brunt of the cuts. Documents obtained by The Sunday Times show that three of the country’s 10 strategic health authorities are planning to reduce their staff by 30,132, an average of 8.7% of their workforces. If similar cuts are imposed across the NHS, more than 120,000 jobs will be lost.

Money will also be saved by cutting the number of hospital beds and reducing the number of patients admitted to A&E

StevieJ

'Efficiency' savings

Graham_Devon wrote: »

The whole "don't punish the poor you nasty vile little man" thing is beyond stupid. It's used time and time again....simply to avoid actually looking into the benefits being paid in the first place.

The main point was that a number of people were not interested in efficiency savings, but you go off on one Dev - I am used to it by now It is now 26 BTW.

Procrastinator333

Other - please describe below

I voted for all areas, share the pain.

kabayiri

Other - please describe below

Halve the number of MPs.

We really don't need 600+, most of our rule book comes from Europe nowadays, plus we could outsource crappy rule making to Scottish or Welsh assemblies.

tartanterra

Reduce public sector pensions

Whoever wins the election, there are going to be cuts. Whilst I am one of these who think this is long overdue, I fear how they will be implemented.

When the "efficiency savings" are handed down to the various departments, the "management teams" will go into their huddles and brainstorm their savings targets. As turkeys are unlikely to vote for Christmas expect the managers to come out of any savings relatively unscathed; as usual, cuts will come from the bottom of the food chain - i.e. the people who actually get their hands dirty and do a proper job.
This has been going on for years.

The Military are past masters at it. Whilst the number of sailors/airmen/troops numbers have been slashed over the past twenty years along with bases, military hardware, ships and aircraft, those of Commander/Lieutenant-Colonel/Wing Commander rank and above have not only managed to avoid being cut, but have actually increased.

I used to think that this was purely a military phenomenon, but when was the last time you saw a council "worker"? All those jobs seem to have disappeared since all our councils have gained Chief Executives.
In my local paper the County Council are constantly advertising jobs, but to be honest, I don't have a scooby doo what the jobs actually are. It's "manager" of this or "team leader" of that.

I read a story once about how everyone would be an Elvis impersonator in a hundred or so years if the exponential rise in Elvis impersonators continues.
Let's hope that the exponential rise in public service managers continues. We can all get public service jobs then, as all the real jobs disappear.

FATBALLZ

Benefits

public sector pay
public sector jobs
public sector pensions
health (aka NHS money black hole)
benefits

Problem solved.

Old_Slaphead

Reduce public sector pensions

FATBALLZ wrote: »

public sector pay
public sector jobs
public sector pensions
health (aka NHS money black hole)
benefits

Problem solved.

Your wish etc etc

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7103348.ece

Spartacus_Mills

Other - please describe below

robin_banks wrote: »

I still don't know what 'efficiency savings' mean, ask 20 people you'll get 20 different answers.

It's a bullsh!! phrase to reassure the public. It is meaningless.

The real point, as the very capable Vince Cable made, was that if there are efficiency savings to be made then why have they not already been made ?

People are sticking their heads in the sand about this problem, encouraged by the politicians. We will have one hell of a shock whoever gets in on May 6th.

tartanterra

Reduce public sector pensions

Spartacus_Mills wrote: »

We will have one hell of a shock whoever gets in on May 6th.

Ah well....at least I've finally found a party that's honest with the voters.