The New UK Spending Cuts

[gallaetha_matt]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11569160

That link speaks for itself I think, if you're not scared yet - here are the main points that shocked me.

* About 490,000 public sector jobs likely to be lost

* £7bn in additional welfare budget cuts

* Police funding cut by 4% a year

* Retirement age to rise from 65 to 66 by 2020

* Regulated rail fares to rise 3% above inflation

So basically the retirement age is still going up when it should be going down. A lower retirement age would create jobs for younger people (like say, me!) and stop them from having to fall on state benefits to survive (like say, me!). It says this won't start until 2020, but we know what most companies are like. They'll gleefully force their older members of staff to keep their jobs, since this will save them the trouble of searching for younger workers to replace their older members of staff.

While we're waiting for any decent jobs, benefits are getting slashed. So we'll have nothing to live on while we're unemployed. We can't pick up work from the public sector anymore - they're going to be closing their doors for a while. Osbourne (that sluggy, chinless bastard) says;

Mr Osborne told BBC Breakfast he expected many more private sector jobs to be created over the four year cuts programme.

Hey! We can expect more jobs in the private sector! Because that worked the last time we tried it, didn't it?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Premiership_of_Margaret_Thatcher

So ladies and gentlemen, smart, young, talented people - McDonalds and the service industry beckons to you. Because you're not likely to get employed by anyone else over the next seven years or so.

Oh and if you can't drive yet (like me!) you can expect to pay more in rail fairs in order to get around.

If nothing else though the police budget has been cut, so if you'd prefer to turn to crime you're less likely to get caught.

I've recently become unemployed. This new budget looks set to hit me hard. I'm especially annoyed since it has echoes of Margaret Thatcher's time as prime minister. Anybody who knows their history knows how that turned out (if you're American, she had a lot in common with Ronald Reagan, except instead of 'reaganomics' she just raised VAT, increased interest rates and drove millions out of their jobs). This all seems very scary.

Anybody else affected by the new budget cuts? Anybody else (like me!) looking for jobs outside the country? How do non-UK people feel about the new budget? Has your country tried anything similar?

This is normally where I'd put a joke, but I'm so terrified that I can't even think straight. Plus it's very early in the morning.

 

[The Cheezy One]

Read about this this morning. I wonder if the government realises we are in about one trillion pounds debt. No amount of scrimping will solve that in 4 years, and will only make peoples lives worse in the meantime. Labour, come back! All is forgiven!

 

[tomtom94]

I would say the cuts are a necessity but in truth I've lost all faith in the coalition already following several idiotic policies:
- a cut in corporation tax that will cost the country an estimated £2bn
- caving in to lobbying from investment banks that ensures in a few years they'll need another bailout
- giving in to pressure over child tax credit cuts
- privatising almost everything

Frankly, the sooner they pass the new voting system and call another election the better.

 

[gallaetha_matt]

I would say the cuts are a necessity but in truth I've lost all faith in the coalition already following several idiotic policies:
- a cut in corporation tax that will cost the country an estimated £2bn
- caving in to lobbying from investment banks that ensures in a few years they'll need another bailout
- giving in to pressure over child tax credit cuts
- privatising almost everything

Frankly, the sooner they pass the new voting system and call another election the better.

I agree that we probably did need some amount of scaling back on our spending. But I also believe that the coalition government are slicing the wrong things. I mean, the police budget? In a few years they'll be complaining about a higher crime rate. Also raising the retirement age doesn't help anybody except wealthy business owners.

But you're right. This government is awful. I warned people not to vote Tory because this always happens when you do. Their 'gut the rich and feed the poor' policies have been in practice for as long as the party has been around. Putting a new leader in charge of the party hasn't changed it.

I miss Gordon Brown. I never had a problem with his leadership at all, he was actually starting to pilot the country out of the recession whil the Tories just seem to be plunging us right back into it.

Read about this this morning. I wonder if the government realises we are in about one trillion pounds debt to America, and have been since WW2. No amount of scrimping will solve that in 4 years, and will only make peoples lives worse in the meantime. Labourm come back! All is forgiven!

I don't think the government realises much of anything to be honest. Be prepared for that trillion pound figure to triple by the end of their term, since as tomtom94 said, we'll be needing another bailout soon.

 

[Kayevcee]

Anybody else affected by the new budget cuts? Anybody else (like me!) looking for jobs outside the country? How do non-UK people feel about the new budget? Has your country tried anything similar?

I graduated in 2008, struggled to find a job in the UK then wound up out here at a new university in a compound in Saudi Arabia [http://www.kaust.edu.sa/] where they give students a living allowance that's more than I was making stacking shelves in Toys'r'us (the same job I had as a student). The degree I -hopefully- get from here will be unaccredited back home and will essentially be worthless, but I'm hoping the facility's ties to local industries will get me some experience that I can put on the CV. Every job I got turned down for in the UK (those I got feedback from anyway) was due to someone with similar qualifications but years of experience getting the role instead. I can't compete with that.

I was hoping that the UK job market would have recovered a bit by the time I graduate. Possibly not.

-Nick

 

[The Cheezy One]

snip

one hilarious PoV I heard from a right-winger in the opinions page of the Metro (owned by the daily mail, not to be trusted) was that Labour did a bad job fixing the problems caused by the tories after they came in in '97. Thats right. The argument was 'You did a bad job fixing problems I caused'. Also, the Con-men are not a good choice to lead us through this. I know this is stereotyping, but most of the party are financially secure, so there will always be a disconnect between them and the problem
I am on an apprenticeship as an IT techy, earning while getting qualifications equal to a foundation degree, and so I also miss all the increases in Uni cap. I am the perfect example of a supporter, or at least a neutral party, of the current regime, but for my friends, who all went to uni, sakes, I am against most everything going through this government. Today, I am honestly scared for our country's future.

 

[Katherine Kerensky]

The NHS budget has risen?
Phew.
If they had cut it, I would have been dead...
And if they do cut it, I'm going to take them to the grave with me...
We'll just have to find a way to survive until Labour comes back and fixes the damage that the Conservatives do to this country once again...
Ah, Labour, always labouring to fix the mistakes of the other major party...

 

[Delusibeta]

So basically the retirement age is still going up when it should be going down. A lower retirement age would create jobs for younger people (like say, me!) and stop them from having to fall on state benefits to survive (like say, me!). It says this won't start until 2020, but we know what most companies are like. They'll gleefully force their older members of staff to keep their jobs, since this will save them the trouble of searching for younger workers to replace their older members of staff.

Heard of the phrase "ageing population"?

Ultimately, I'm coming to the conclusion that the Tories are rubbish, although not *quite* as rubbish as Labour was (Iraq war, mainly). Lib Dems remain no-hopers, so I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion of: don't vote and take it on the chin.

 

[merman]

(Just a quick correction. This is not a new "Budget". This is the Spending Review, which happens every four years and decides what share of the Government revenue each department gets. The next Budget - with announcements on changes in tax - will be in the Spring.)

Right, the cuts. Yes, the UK had to cut spending and cover its structural debt. However, the depth and severity of the cuts makes it more likely we will have a double-dip recession. And in particular the VAT increase (our equivalent of sales tax, currently 17.5% on most products, will be going up to 20% in January) will slow down or even stop retail sales growth. That's a bad thing.

Labour did overspend. But that was an attempt to correct nearly twenty years of cuts and changes from the Conservatives that had done real harm. Like Greyfox, I'm in a position where I am glad that we still have a National Health Service providing care free at the point of service - I could not afford private health care, and struggle to pay for my prescription drugs anyway. But under the Conservatives we are once again facing the prospect of part-privatisation and an increasing reliance on market forces to run the health care system. Not good.

 

[LongAndShort]

Shit, does that mean we're gonna have even more old Poms retiring on the Gold Coast?

 

[gallaetha_matt]

Anybody else affected by the new budget cuts? Anybody else (like me!) looking for jobs outside the country? How do non-UK people feel about the new budget? Has your country tried anything similar?

I graduated in 2008, struggled to find a job in the UK then would up out here at a new university in a compound in Saudi Arabia [http://www.kaust.edu.sa/] where they give students a living allowance that's more than I was making stacking shelves in Toys'r'us (the same job I had as a student). The degree I -hopefully- get from here will be unaccredited back home and will essentially be worthless, but I'm hoping the facility's ties to local industries will get me some experience that I can put on the CV. Every job I got turned down for in the UK (those I got feedback from anyway) was due to someone with similar qualifications but years of experience getting the role instead. I can't compete with that.

I was hoping that the UK job market would have recovered a bit by the time I graduate. Possibly not.

-Nick

That sounds exactly like what my problem is too. Most companies value experience over pretty much anything else. This has been a problem since forever, that age-old cycle of "I haven't got experience so I can't get the job to learn the experience."

I feel like we're all living in a really bad D&D adventure, where all the fun and exciting stuff is happening to the 10th level people, while we're all stuck at 1st level with a DM that keeps pitting us against rats.

snip

one hilarious PoV I heard from a right-winger in the opinions page of the Metro (owned by the daily mail, not to be trusted) was that Labour did a bad job fixing the problems caused by the tories after they came in in '97. Thats right. The argument was 'You did a bad job fixing problems I caused'. Also, the Con-men are not a good choice to lead us through this. I know this is stereotyping, but most of the party are financially secure, so there will always be a disconnect between them and the problem
I am on an apprenticeship as an IT techy, earning while getting qualifications equal to a foundation degree, and so I also miss all the increases in Uni cap. I am the perfect example of a supporter, or at least a neutral party, of the current regime, but for my friends, who all went to uni, sakes, I am against most everything going through this government. Today, I am honestly scared for our country's future.

Well said. You can't trust anything that the daily mail has been associated with. It's good to see that even though you're doing okay at the moment, you're still annoyed about the state of the rest of the country.

The Tories tend to come from richer, middle to upper class backgrounds. So naturally they're going to be looking out for the best interests of people like them.

So basically the retirement age is still going up when it should be going down. A lower retirement age would create jobs for younger people (like say, me!) and stop them from having to fall on state benefits to survive (like say, me!). It says this won't start until 2020, but we know what most companies are like. They'll gleefully force their older members of staff to keep their jobs, since this will save them the trouble of searching for younger workers to replace their older members of staff.

Heard of the phrase "ageing population"?

Ultimately, I'm coming to the conclusion that the Tories are rubbish, although not *quite* as rubbish as Labour was (Iraq war, mainly). Lib Dems remain no-hopers, so I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion of: don't vote and take it on the chin.

So? Just because the population is aging doesn't mean that young people have stopped existing. There are thousands of people under the age of twenty five that can't get the jobs they're qualified for because people over sixty are being forced to stay in jobs they don't want.

I could argue that a lot of the problems we're facing now can be traced back to people not voting. I know lot's of intelligent people that decided not to vote this term because, as you say, 'it wouldn't make a difference.'

I will say that politics is politics, and most political parties tend to be as bad as each other. But there is such a thing as the lesser of two evils - that's what people need to be voting for.

I say that though, but this time I fell for Nick Clegg's line of rhetoric. I watched the debates and thought 'this guy knows what he's talking about!' so I voted Lib Dem for the first time in my life. Then I watched that vote get perverted into a vote for the conservatives, a party I swore I'd never allow into power within my lifetime.

So I'm just as much to blame for all this as anyone else, I guess.

I will agree that the Iraq War was bollocks though. But that's a debate for another time.

 

[Lono Shrugged]

All I can say is good news. Alan Moore needs to off his arse and write more like he did in the 80s, Hopefully the shit state of England will give us another Watchmen or at least V for Vendetta.

Gotta look on the bright side.

 

[YouCallMeNighthawk]

Snip

The main thing i can say about when you was going on about the companies keeping there older workers is basically down to the youth of today, there not exactly the gleeming stars of the future, compared to older folk who have worked all there life and will know what they are doing. Would be cheaper to keep them on aswel as in some jobs training will have to be given costing the company.

 

[gallaetha_matt]

(Just a quick correction. This is not a new "Budget". This is the Spending Review, which happens every four years and decides what share of the Government revenue each department gets. The next Budget - with announcements on changes in tax - will be in the Spring.)

Cheers, I fixed it.

Right, the cuts. Yes, the UK had to cut spending and cover its structural debt. However, the depth and severity of the cuts makes it more likely we will have a double-dip recession. And in particular the VAT increase (our equivalent of sales tax, currently 17.5% on most products, will be going up to 20% in January) will slow down or even stop retail sales growth. That's a bad thing.

Labour did overspend. But that was an attempt to correct nearly twenty years of cuts and changes from the Conservatives that had done real harm. Like Greyfox, I'm in a position where I am glad that we still have a National Health Service providing care free at the point of service - I could not afford private health care, and struggle to pay for my prescription drugs anyway. But under the Conservatives we are once again facing the prospect of part-privatisation and an increasing reliance on market forces to run the health care system. Not good.

I'm glad that the NHS is still limping along, we may get a few good years out of it yet. But it's future is still uncertain. The last thing we want is for the NHS to get completely privatised. I read that the new Tory party has their eye on doing just that.

Imagine what would happen if we lost our NHS just as America was getting free healthcare? It'd be like living in Bizarro world.

I reckon America would end up seeing a lot more immigrants from Britain.

All I can say is good news. Alan Moore needs to off his arse and write more like he did in the 80s, Hopefully the shit state of England will give us another Watchmen or at least V for Vendetta.

Gotta look on the bright side.

There's that at least.

 

[gallaetha_matt]

Snip

The main thing i can say about when you was going on about the companies keeping there older workers is basically down to the youth of today, there not exactly the gleeming stars of the future, compared to older folk who have worked all there life and will know what they are doing. Would be cheaper to keep them on aswel as in some jobs training will have to be given costing the company.

Yeah - and if we keep driving them out of work and onto unemployment, then they're never going to be the rising stars of the future. They'll never get the training or experience they need to better themselves.

Plus eventually these 'older people that've worked all their lives' will die or retire. Then the company will have to hire new people to replace them. These people are far more likely to be younger and inexperienced. It's going to happen. We haven't discovered the fountain of youth yet.

Also it'd cost money to train new people, this is true. But why should this be a problem? It cost money to train the workers we have already, after all. It always has done. This is just a thing that most companies need to be prepared to do.

Every generation has said that the 'youth of today' would bring the downfall of society. Right back to the ancient Greeks.

 

[KaosuHamoni]

The NHS budget has risen?
Phew.
If they had cut it, I would have been dead...
And if they do cut it, I'm going to take them to the grave with me...
We'll just have to find a way to survive until Labour comes back and fixes the damage that the Conservatives do to this country once again...
Ah, Labour, always labouring to fix the mistakes of the other major party...

This is what most people do not understand. They don't realise that Gordon Brown was better than Cameron or his smarmy sidekick will ever be, and that he did not put us into this mess in the first place. Blair was to blame, and if the Cons took over when he abandoned ship, the shitstorm that we are in now would be tenfold. Greedy bastards...

 

[Simalacrum]

I have to admit, there are aspects I'm actually pleasantly surprised about in the spending cuts: NHS is being protected, as is education (for the most part, except building finances), and green projects such as wind turbines aren't being hit too badly... however, I still dislike the fact that they seem to be insistent on Trident (with merely a delay), and that higher education (like university) is going to be hit badly.

Overall, there are some good points and some bad points, but really? It's actually not as bad as I feared it might be.

 

[Kinguendo]

Fucking conservatives... "Oh no, we arent evil... look at our young faces and smiles, look at what Labour have done and trust us with the country." then as soon as Cameron gets into power who does he invite to No. 10? Fucking Thatcher!

They dont even care about getting back into power, they dont care about doing good for the country. They are clearly just looking out for their rich banker friends who screwed us royally in the first place... Something has to be done about this crap, why do they think they are entitled to live while the rest of us suffer?

I am getting so pissed off about this. Looks like we can expect riots in our near future.

EDIT: Gonna talk to my buddies about starting up a business because we damn sure arent going to get anything out of this cock up. We should be able to come up with some good ideas.

 

[AndyFromMonday]

Do what we did:

1. Riot

2. Revolution

3. Allow former ruling party to rule again under a different name

4. Vote former party members to rule your country, again under a different guise

5. Watch as they destroy your country... again.

 

[Mr_spamamam]

I voted Liberal Democrats for years, since I was first eligible to vote, but have always been told that they would never get into power. And now they have power of a sort what do they do with it? They play roll over and fetch for the cuntservitives.

Where are the measures to close the loopholes that allow legal tax avoidance? And why is that little shit Vince Cable gets to do an astonishing about turn on the issue of university fees with no comeuppance?