What would you like to see cut?

Apparently Osborne said today on Radio 4 that the cuts achieved so far have been without pain.
What planet is he on?

Planet Fat-git-I'm-all-right-Jack, I think it is.

I found that to be a useful link dj.

I dont get the 44% cut figure. I dont know if Mr Osborne said that himself.
He should know, obviously, but I dont get how there would need to be that big a cut to remove the deficit.
Obviously, I am probably very wrong.

Thanks for the link, dj. It has made things clearer to me, and it's very alarming to think that is the direction we are headed, unless we do something about it.

Quote from the article in the link:
{Spending other than schools, health and development} will fall from £3,020 a head in 2009 to £1,290 in 2019 if Osborne’s plan is to work. The cut is 25% to date. The total required cut is 57%. The cut to come is 44% of current service supply.

The 44% is how much needs to be cut, from today's level of spending, to make up the planned total of 57% cut by the year 2019-20.

Thank you. Too many numbers make my eyes somewhat glaze over.

On the other hand, I dont have a clue who Richard Murphy is, and whether his figures are worked out correctly.

Hyperbole hmmm! Lets see now who is good at that?

Well before the last election we were told that if we lost our triple AAA the roof would fall in. Oh dear what happened within a year our dear chancellor lost his Triple AAA, and thank goodness my roof is still on.

Before the lost election we were told that if the deficit was not reduced to nil by 2015 Britain sink below the waves. Oh dear what happened - our dear chancellor failed to even remotely hit his target, and thank goodness Britain is still afloat.

Before the last election we were told that our national debt must be reduced by stringent cuts in order that our debt did not reach the size of Greece's. Oh dear what happened - our dear chancellor applied stringent cuts to those people who were least able to afford it and thank goodness leaving the rich alone, our debt is now larger than Greece's and the largest in the developed world.

Who said all these things?? None other than our dear chancellor - he of the new slim image.

Is our debt larger than Greece's [I assume you are correct as I am too lazy to read too far into all these things], because we are a bigger country and economy than them?
Are you at all correct about our debt being the largest in the developed world? I find that hard to believe. It cant for instance be larger than the USA.

Agree with the rest of your post I think.

Yes as % of GDP which is what counts. At the moment we are still selling our debt at a reasonable rate but if GO continues on the current path we can't be certain that our debt will be so attractive and then glory be!

Well I have to say that I am totally disillusioned with politics at the minute but can't help but wonder what will/would happen if Labour suddently came to power?

Spend spend spend at an alarming rate?
Massive increase of public sector non-jobs?

One thing for certain they won't do anything for small businesses.

Agreed gillybob.

My parents used to say that Labour were no good with the economy back in the sixties.
Nothing has changed in that regard.

I often how they work their own personal finances.
Nothing like the country's economy if Tony Blair is anything to go by.

When Labour were in power, did they try and tackle the tax problems at the top?
I dont recall that they did. If not, why not?

Cancel Trident and reduce military budget;

Stop involving ourselves in wars;

Cancel HS2 - improve efficiency of current lines;

Stop funding "vanity" projects like the Garden Bridge which is estimated to be likely to incur annual maintenance costs of £3 million);

Cancel new road building projects (more roads have been found to create more traffic);

Abolish House of Lords, subsidised food/drink in Houses of Parliament, lavish catered events;

Pare down numbers of Royal Family supported by the state and reduce allowances;

Reduce food waste in schools (the education sector produce 13% of non-domestic food waste - most of which goes into landfill);

Abolish the discounts given under "Right to Buy";

Stop subsidising private schools through tax relief;

Stop using agency nurses and locum doctors;

Stop paying private companies to assist in bringing down unemployment - they have been largely unsuccessful;

Stop privatisation of public services, which will in due course result in higher costs for the population;

Monitor charities properly to ensure they are genuine charities and therefore entitled to tax relief;

Return schools to local authority control where spending can be monitored more closely to prevent fraud.

Eloethan for PM!

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

I think they will find they do not have such a cushion to land on there as they do here!

Osborne has criticised the BBC for reporting what he said accurately.

www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2014/12/05/osborne-is-attacking-the-bbc-for-accurately-reporting-what-h

Soontobe, this is who Richard Murphy is. You probably will not want to read all of the link.

www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/richard-murphy/

Another excellent post from Eloethan! Definitely E, you should stand for parliament and become PM within 6 months!

Yes they did, soontobe, by putting the top rate of tax up. However, Osborne put it down again straight away.

Which party would you stand for, Eloethan? Or would you start your own?
It would be interesting to see how many rightwingers on here would vote for your party.

By the way, I agree with everything you said in your last post, Eloethan, apart from the fact that I do think the A1 should be dualled all the way up to Berwick. Leaving it as it is is dangerous. They could have actually done that instead of widening the A1 through Newcastle.

Sorry if agreeing with you reduces your chances of becoming PM.

The government has found something else to cut. Does anyone else find this worrying?

www.politics.co.uk/news/2014/12/05/too-little-too-late-electoral-commission-denies-complacency

Oh dear. I didnt write clear enough again.
When I said "tax problems at the top", I meant businesses and institutions not paying tax properly, like top hotels and international coffee shops and internet businesses, who dont pay tax into this country. Did Labour try and do anything about that? I cant remember now.

I am not in agreement however with putting the top rate of tax up further for individuals.

I will click on the RM link later.

durhamjen I suppose the Green Party has the policies with which I agree the most. However, I think the party that has the most chance of getting rid of this horrible government is Labour (possibly with the support of the Green Party, SNP and Plaid Cymru). I'm very reluctant to vote Labour though so I'm not quite sure what to do.

soontobe It's not so much about putting top rate income tax up, but about the Conservative party saying that their aim is to bring the top rate down, in the first instance to 40% but possibly even more in due course. There are certainly plenty of Conservatives who believe in lowering income tax rates and even having a "flat" income tax rate.

Recent research conducted by the think tank Equality Trust found that people believe that the richest pay the most taxes relative to their income. In fact, the poorest 10% pay 8% more of their income than the richest - 43% compared to 35%.

The poorest pay roughly 23% of their gross household income in indirect taxes (such as VAT) and more than four times as much of their income in Council Tax as the top 10%.

www.theguardian.com/money/2014/jun/16/british-public-wrong-rich-poor-tax-research

I scored 5 out of 8.

I need time to digest what you and the link say.

Either I am adrift, or there is something else adrfit.

I suppose you are talking about more as a % of income.

Not more as in £10k versus £2k or whatever.