Extra £4bn welfare cut

amcluesent

So nothing to do with diverting the press off Coulson's phone taps or Hague's twin bed shennanigans...

treliac

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Apparently a "lifestyle choice to live on benefits" is coming to an end.

While it sounds great in principle, where are all the jobs going to come from?

Graham_Devon

ceridwen wrote: »

Well....I hate chav phrases - but there certainly is one that comes to mind literally every time Bendix "shares his wisdom;)" with us - the one "What IS your problem?"...as every single post I ever noted from him is "having a go".

Do correct me if I'm wrong and he has ever given anyone helpful advice or expressed sympathy for one....:rotfl:

He taught me how to snare a chav without being noticed once.

That was useful

treliac

ceridwen wrote: »

Well....I hate chav phrases - but there certainly is one that comes to mind literally every time Bendix "shares his wisdom;)" with us - the one "What IS your problem?"...as every single post I ever noted from him is "having a go".

Do correct me if I'm wrong and he has ever given anyone helpful advice or expressed sympathy for one....:rotfl:

In a word.... No! (I've deleted the rest)

Optimist

misskool wrote: »

School funding cut, higher education cuts, great way to create a better Britain? It's not going to be as easy as having cuts and not having a detrimental impact towards society.

It's going to be bad.

Indeed we can always spend money we haven't got.

That brilliant economist Ed Balls thinks that because we borrowed £12 billion less than Alistair Darling forecast, that £12 billion is a windfall and we should spend it !

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/aug/31/ed-balls-affordable-homes

chris_m

Optimist wrote: »

Indeed we can always spend money we haven't got.

That brilliant economist Ed Balls thinks that because we borrowed £12 billion less than Alistair Darling forecast, that £12 billion is a windfall and we should spend it !

Of course we should spend it - a good starting place would be to pay back some of the rest of the reckless borrowing that has put us in this mire.

treliac

misskool wrote: »

School funding cut, higher education cuts, great way to create a better Britain? It's not going to be as easy as having cuts and not having a detrimental impact towards society.

It's going to be bad.

The trouble is, imo, that education hasn't been well targeted. Invest in practical skills, technical subjects more and I'm all in favour of investment but the emphasis has been too weighted towards over-saturated subjects, such as media and psychology, that aren't leading many of those ex-students anywhere.

jim-22

Graham, while I am sure you pay for your offspring (a bit), said offspring is still a child of benefit claiming 'single-parent', do you ever pause to think that your child would suffer if the cuts cut too deep?

Masomnia

Balls: "The public finances are around £12bn healthier than forecast at the time of the budget. The coalition government wants to use the extra money to pay down the deficit faster.''

Am I getting cleverer or is everyone else getting more stupid?

Is this really someone that has designs to run the country? Someone that a good number of people actually think would make a good leader?

There isn't any extra money. Just less borrowing. He really is an idiot.

JP45

misskool wrote: »

School funding cut, higher education cuts, great way to create a better Britain? It's not going to be as easy as having cuts and not having a detrimental impact towards society.

It's going to be bad.

I agree. Frankly, anyone who thinks that the spending cuts are going to be limited to cutting out waste, eliminating surplus staff, tackling benefits scroungers and so on, without any detrimental effect to public services (and by extension the private sector) has clearly failed to grasp the extent of the problem.

These cuts, necessary though they are IMO, are going to hurt. There is simply no way round that. So yes, we can all cheer if the government manages to cut the record number of people on Incapacity Benefit, but that's merely the start. The rest of the cuts are going to involve painful choices and very real sacrifices (with the private sector experiencing its own share of the pain).