What would you like to see cut?

No wonder the owners of The Ritz could be so generous in their hospitality of the sainted Mrs T in her twilight years eh? In exchange for them paying their Corporation Tax I am sure we as a country could have managed to pay for her to stay in a warden controlled flat with 3 visits from harassed, underpaid carers 3 times a day, being fed reheated pap. Slightly off topic I know, sorry. Still, at least I can stick to my principles, I cant afford to visit The Ritz!. I do my bit though, I dont shop in Arcadia shops, dont use Vodaphone, dont use Tesco, shop locally mainly. But back to the point of the original post, The HS2 project is an absolute nonsense vanity project, and I have listened to many a discussion about it on Radio 4 and remain unconvinced of the arguments for it. I understand that cities and regions outside the M25 area need cross rail and inter city connections to be improved, and all for it, but do think that all HS2 will do is put the commuter ring even further out. We already have people travelling on a daily basis from Peterborough, Northampton and such places to work in London in a desperate attempt to afford a home, all this HS2 will do is extend that commuter belt. The money earmarked would be better spent on improving local lines all over the UK and improving broadband connections.

I see several posters have mentioned 5% cuts, or "5% across the board." Can I refer you back to the OP, which mentioned 50%? In fact, going from £3000 to £1300 would take more than a 50% cut.

In reality, the general public dont know anywhere near enough about how all or most of the departments operate to be able to come up with a good guess answer.

gracegran and everyone, - If you read my post I originally suggested that you need not accept the original argument for cuts. I was simply playing devil's advocate and putting the governments case.

I will come clean and say that what GO is suggesting is so outrageous that it is beyond comprehension. I would defy anybody to come up with a plan to achieve what he is suggesting.

What he is suggesting is that our annual public expenditure should be 35% of GDP which is less than any other developed country in the world, and exactly the same % as in the 1930's. The man is a lunatic.

I see that questioning the possibility of where these cuts are going to come from is now bringing a charge of hyperbole by the government to the BBC, seems to me that they are trying to close down debate on the subject.

I wonder if their scaremongering has backfired? Maybe the suggestion of massive cuts and return to pre-war austerity was a ruse to make us all grateful when the cuts are only say 20%. If as a government they make worrying if not terrifying statements like Osborne did yesterday they have to take the questioning that comes along.

Well you succeeded in getting us going whitewave

I am glad that this government has got rid of some anomalies. Mr Osborne has said the personal tax allowance will go up to £10,600 next year. If he actually makes that £10,660 he will have aligned all working and pension age tax allowances I think.

Simple things like this must save money on administration.

Do you have any ideas how to make it impossible for companies such as the Ritz to avoid paying their taxes GillT57. I do realise my idea of cutting all tax relief measures would not be possible in one fell swoop but they need to be hacked down where possible surely?

Where 5% and 50% are being discussed the common figure coming up on the news and political programmes appear to be that we have cut 40% of what is necessary so 60% to go. Even the news channels seem to be taking that as a fact and not challenging it. I have heard a couple of Conservatives say that everyone said things would fall apart when they made the earlier cuts and look ... it hasn't happened. Stupid people! Currently, many services are surviving on the goodwill of those working in them. The scarcity principle means that the money they have is filling short-term gaps and often being wasted where more, for a period of time, might help them take long-term money saving measures. Add to that the thought that many businesses often survive until they collapse so completely they cannot be saved and yes, I see them as stupid.

To cut % spending to the pre-war level is to completely obliterate the Welfare State in which we have all grown up and some of us grown old. We once set an example which much of the world (except the USA) aspired to copy. This is shameful. Nye Bevan et al must be rotating in their graves.

It might end up that many people lose their jobs in order to make the books balance.
And many people leave the country. A brain drain.

It has happened down the centuries hasnt it. People migrating to Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the Far East.

The budget in the spring will be about two months (if that) before the General Election. Can we expect a relaxation of this austerity as an electoral bribe and will the electorate be fooled?

I am wondering if they are going the other way.
Making it sound awful, so that people will realise that something needs to be done, and think that Lavour are not up to it.
Which actually, they just wouldnt do it. They would rather the country go under. Or send out a begging bowl to other countries.

Labour

Sad to say the only hope for ordinary people is the Labour Party. This despite the legacy of the Blair/Brown years. If the Tories are allowed to continue, with or without the support of their Liberal lackys, the country as we know it will cease to exist but will enter a new dark age and a return to Victorian values. So the grim choice facing the electorate is clear - vote Tory and write off your future or vote Labour and pray that you still have one!

Why do they (politicians, media) keep talking about pensioners and tax payers as though they're two different groups? If you have any pension over the state pension, you pay income tax! And if you haven't any extra, it isn't much to live on so you don't pay income tax, just VAT and council tax and road tax.......

Maybe it would help to recognise that Britain is no longer a massive world power – and hasn't been for a long time – and stop sending soldiers overseas to inflate the egos of politicians who erroneously think they are statesmen. Wars are immensely expensive and Britain has been involved in far too many in the past decade.

I notice the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said that future spending cuts would be “on a colossal scale” under the government’s plans and that they would change the role of the state “beyond recognition”.

A good move would be to get rid of George Osborne and appoint a chancellor who has some grasp of economics and who doesn't see the role as an automatic stepping stone to the premiership.

I can't help thinking that dismantling the Welfare State has more to do with ideology than the need for austerity.

I agree with you Lilygran. Sadly the awful problems world-wide were just the excuse they could use to cover-up what they would never have got away with otherwise.

Do you really think it will come to that?
Cant see it myself.

I do think - although I cannot know of course - that it is the aim of some members of the conservative party (the majority?) to roll the state back to an absolute minimum soontobe.

If they do that will be the end of the NHS as we know it and heaven knows what they will do to pensions.

I wouldn't like to see any cuts but thinking out of the box here goes. The 1. health visiting service( G.P's could give advice my daughters generally tell her to see her g.p for medical needs. Scales for weighing your own baby in the surgery. Social service provide child protection. Midwives visit directly after baby is born other advice for sleep, weaning, behaviour via mums net) 2. the family nurse partnership(they give in depth support for teenage mums( must cost a fortune) 3 children's centres ( we did without them.). 4 some non urgent plastic surgery. 5 overseas aid. 6 working family tax credits (we didn't have them either and managed,& businesses didn't go bankrupt)7 library's. 8The arts, 9 armed forces 10 tighten tax loopholes. 11 Look at management structures of public sector and scale it back significantly. I don't want any of these to go but I was thinking along the lines of the cuts I will have to make when I retire. I will have to cut back on all my none nescessary expenditure before I looked again at other cut backs. So don't shoot me down. You did ask I hope things are not as bleak as they look.

It will only come to that if you vote for it. I agree with everything GillT says, apart from one thing.
People haven't only just started travelling to London from Peterborough as you seem to imply.
In the 70s my husband was an architect working for the Peterborough Development Association. The new town areas were designed as London overspill back then. Most of our neighbours came from London, and people we knew worked in London even forty years ago. The fares were cheaper then!

I know some of you do not like me putting links on but this has to be read by some of you.
Richard Murphy was on BBC2 yesterday after the statement.

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2014/12/04/osborne-is-planning-to-destroy-society-as-we-know-it-what-are-we-going-to-do-about-it/