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Our chancellor

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Comments

  • Generali wrote: »
    It's working better than taking on so much debt that you end up bust which appears to be the suggested policy alternative.


    An even bigger worry for me is when Mervyn King come out with "I have no idea what is going to happen so have no plan, we will have to wait and see".

    I am sorry but if you are in one of the top jobs in the country you have to have a plan for any eventuality that might come our way, the thought of this man just sitting with his hands under his !!!! doing nothing is a disgrace,
  • pqrdef
    pqrdef Posts: 4,552 Forumite
    our chancellor claimed the government would now focus 110% on the economy
    So these go up to 11
    "It will take, five, 10, 15 years to get back to where we need to be. But it's no longer the individual banks that are in the wrong, it's the banking industry as a whole." - Steven Cooper, head of personal and business banking at Barclays, talking to Martin Lewis
  • paulmapp8306
    paulmapp8306 Posts: 1,352 Forumite
    we are in the biggest recession we have had since the Great Depression. we NEED to cut back on spending. Why don't people understand we will be in recession for a long while and there is NOTHING that can be done to stop it. Time is the only healer. When there is genuine confidence, things will change.

    In the meantime, they need more austerity measures. Govt spending must be cut back to pre-1997 levels.

    more sackings and reduced pensions for all public sector workers.

    the biggest area of public spending is salaries, benefits and pensions - they are UNSUSTAINABLE. they need to be slashed.

    I agree with this mostly - except the wages part. The majority of public sector workers are not well paid - and the generous pension is one reason they work in the sector. I agree that current pensions are not susstainable, but to cut their wages as well is ludicrouse. It would just mean toppin them up in benefits so they can live.

    There are some in the sector who are paid WAY too much, but its a small % if the sector in general.

    I say re-instate the pay rises they cut - at the rate of inflation - for all those who earn less than £25k per year (most). Continue with the pension reform which is needed - and cut back on benefits for those who claim more than £20k as a single person or £30-£35k family (two adults with children - if one adult works that income has to be taken into account).
  • ......The majority of public sector workers are not well paid ......

    Majority? Don't know how you define "well" [paid]. Fact is, people take the jobs, so I'd call it the 'correct' wage.
    There are some in the sector who are paid WAY too much, but its a small % if the sector in general.

    That, I think, is propaganda by Public Service unions. I agree if you 'cap' these middle/high manager jobs, then you save peanuts. But simply by getting rid of them, you save big bucks. Look (just as a tiny example) at the 'Director' of Job Centre Plus shown on 'Dispatches' last night. This woman is probably on £100K plus, and yet did not give me any confidence that she would be competent to work as a supermarket check-out operator!
    ......and cut back on benefits for those who claim more than £20k as a single person or £30-£35k family (two adults with children - if one adult works that income has to be taken into account).

    Goats and Monkeys!

    A person on standard tax code has to earn £48,654 a year to take home £35K. If I were working hard and earning £25K a year and living on it, I would find this deeply offensive.

    Look around. Notice the huge job to be done in "public service". Re-surfacing roads. Tending public gardens/areas. Picking up litter. Repairing public buildings. Road clearing in winter. Manning libraries......

    We should be doubling/trebling the number of workers here. All from the dole queue. This should be the only form of welfare for everyone except the genuinely disabled.

    Certainly wouldn't cost any more. Probably cost less. And if the only 'complaint' from the tax payer was that their school is always covered in fresh paint, that their bin is emptied twice a day, and their street tends to smell of fresh tarmac..... then so be it. I could live with that.

    We should learn to thunder against the concept of benefits for staying at home. We should applaud a more general right to earn a 'decent' [but small] wage if we have no alternative source of income (such as a 'commercial' job).
  • pqrdef
    pqrdef Posts: 4,552 Forumite
    Look around. Notice the huge job to be done in "public service". Re-surfacing roads. Tending public gardens/areas. Picking up litter. Repairing public buildings. Road clearing in winter. Manning libraries......
    But everything is contracted out to the private sector now.

    I can remember when there were always loads of vehicles going round with the corporation coat of arms on the side. The coat of arms became a logo, but it's so long since I saw the logo, I can't remember what it looks like.
    "It will take, five, 10, 15 years to get back to where we need to be. But it's no longer the individual banks that are in the wrong, it's the banking industry as a whole." - Steven Cooper, head of personal and business banking at Barclays, talking to Martin Lewis
  • BobQ
    BobQ Posts: 11,181 Forumite
    Ninth Anniversary 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    ........I agree that current pensions are not susstainable, but to cut their wages as well is ludicrouse. It would just mean toppin them up in benefits so they can live.

    http://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2012/07/long-term-cost-of-public-sector-pensions-set-to-drop/

    The OBR appears to accept they are now sustainable.

    Although your argument is still fair.
    Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are incapable of forming such opinions.
  • oldvicar
    oldvicar Posts: 1,088 Forumite
    Maybe IDS will be made Chancellor soon?
  • Fella
    Fella Posts: 7,921 Forumite
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    It made me cringe for a different reason. How can they NOT have been totally focussed on the economy up until this point?
  • grizzly1911
    grizzly1911 Posts: 9,965 Forumite
    Fella wrote: »
    It made me cringe for a different reason. How can they NOT have been totally focussed on the economy up until this point?

    Focused on all the other headlines that allow them to wriggle out of it.
    Olympics, News Corp, Banks, HS2 etc.
    "If you act like an illiterate man, your learning will never stop... Being uneducated, you have no fear of the future.".....

    "big business is parasitic, like a mosquito, whereas I prefer the lighter touch, like that of a butterfly. "A butterfly can suck honey from the flower without damaging it," "Arunachalam Muruganantham
  • I can't help it but when I see this thread title I just think of;


    Our Chancellor, who art in Downing Street,
    Gideon be thy name,
    Thy economy be botched,
    Thou me and my mates are fine
    on earth as it is in London.
    Give us this day your daily gaff
    and deliver us from Balls
    For thine is thy kingdom
    and for the power and glory
    please consider stepping down
    For ever and ever.
    Amen
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