What would you like to see cut?

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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/

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 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.

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.

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

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.

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

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 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”.

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.

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.......

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!

Labour

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.

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?