Chancellor's autumn statement 2015

The Guardian reports that the Local Government Association chairman, Gary Porter, a Conservative peer, described Osborne's plan to change the funding of local governments as a tragic missed opportunity to protect the services “that bind communities together, improve people’s quality of life and protect the most vulnerable”.

Some councils warned that the changes would hit hardest the poorest parts of the country, where there were fewer businesses and taxpayers to make up for lost Whitehall grants.

Lord Porter said ”even if councils stopped filling in potholes, maintaining parks, closed all children’s centres, libraries, museums, leisure centres and turned off every street light, they will not have saved enough money to plug the financial black hole they face by 2020.”

Dr Rhidian Hughes, the director of the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group, said the social care funding settlement was “woefully inadequate” and that the failure to invest in the sector was “a disgrace”.

Tragic. This is just what has been expected - that local authority services like libraries, leisure centres and parks will be closed in order to try to protect the services that go to the most vulnerable in society (social care, child protection etc)
Many of the things that make communities good places to live will disappear under this regime. Indeed many of the things that make this country a good place to live will disappear.
We should all log on to our local authority websites and have a good look - maybe take screen grabs - so that we can see what we have lost by the time of the next general election.
Meanwhile the top 1% - and of course the bankers who are probably in the top 0.001% - have been doing very nicely since the recession and will continue to do so. And they will be insulated from all this because they can afford to have private gyms and swimming pools, belong to expensive sports clubs, buy books by the ton, go to the Royal Opera House, and pay for anything and everything that they need.
I hope their lamborghinis fall down the pot holes.
And before anyone cries "class envy" or indeed "far left" I have no problem with people working hard, running successful businesses and having luxuries as long as they pay their fair whack of tax.

Osborne may have cleverly used smoke and mirrors yesterday so as to present a statement that disguised the fact that he is the most evil politician this country has produced since Oswald Mosley. But the conjuring act cannot possibly last very long.

Fully and totally agree JessM, i too have no problem whatsoever with people rolling in cash, spending it on toys like cars or fripperies as long as they have paid their taxes first. Their is a looming issue with social care due to the growing differential between what the staff need and deserve to be paid, and what local authorities are able to afford to pay. It is already common knowledge that staff agencies will not provide care staff to local authorities as the rates paid are insufficient to cover wage costs and what is deemed to be a reasonable profit for the business. I have not studied the statement in full , but I truly believe that if they are allowed to go ahead, these changes will alter the face of this country, and for the worst. The amounts of money being saved are penny pinching in isolation, but have a terrible effect in general. Even ignoring the moral argument and looking at things purely from a balance sheet/accountant's point of view it still doesnt work. A small but typical example in my home town: a pensioner's lunch club, run mainly by volunteers but with legally required employed staff receives a subsidy of under £40,000 per annum, for this it provides essential services such as a square meal but more importantly, it helps relieve the terrible loneliness of some elderly people, loneliness which can lead to isolation, depression and illness. They also advise on help with additional pension, benefits etc. The cost per person attending is minute, yet this is set to close as the local authority has to tighten it's belt even further. The cost to the country as a whole for just one bad fall by just a couple of these lunch club members is more than £40,000. It doesnt even make me angry anymore, it makes me sad. Sad that so many people just cannot see what is happening in front of their eyes.

Slightly off the subject but an issue that is not currently receiving much coverage is the policy of selling public assets in order to reduce debt.

An article in the New Statesman in June this year stated that the government is hoping to net billions more from the sale of public assets.

Mrs Thatcher saw privatisation as an opportunity, through the purchase of shares in newly privatised companies, for ‘popular capitalism’. But shares bought by members of the public were mostly sold immediately and share ownership is reported to be even more concentrated today than in the 1980s. A large number of these companies have been bought up by private – increasingly foreign - owners.

In the Guardian in August 2015 it was reported that George Osborne is to take direct control of all government assets as he prepares to accelerate the sell-off of more state-owned businesses, which may include Channel 4, land around King's Cross and other stations, Companies House, Land Registry, Met Office, Ordnance Survey, the Royal Mint, etc. It is pointed out that this will affect the government's commitment to "open data" since private commercial organisations are not subject to public oversight.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies say such sales will "generate no improvement to the UK's underlying financial position and nor will they help the government achieve the cuts required to annual expenditure because they cannot be repeated in future years".

Sale of "the family silver" will result in short term gain in exchange for the permanent loss of collectively owned public assets and the income that they generate. It is therefore argued that it will aggravate the problem of indebtedness in the long term.

We can say goodbye to the important research carried out by the Met office then.

weownit.org.uk/take-action/dont-sell-our-top-trumps

Believe it or not, there is a group intent on stopping it.

I heard on the radio this morning that Citizen's Advice is worried that next year its funding will disappear altogether. Something else to be concerned about.

JessM, the BBC has said it will not use the Met Office much longer. Ridiculous, I think.

I've signed the petition on your link dj. and shared it on FB and Twitter.

Thank you durhamjen - I've signed it.

Thanks, anno, particularly for sharing it. I do not do facebook or twitter, so I always send links to people I know who do.

The Green Party view of the autumn statement, with a few more areas which are having cuts that were not mentioned in parliament.

www.politics.co.uk/comment-analysis/2015/11/25/comment-osborne-s-spending-review-shows-this-is-an-extremist

speye.wordpress.com/2015/11/26/99-9188-of-ha-tenants-do-not-have-the-right-to-buy/

I do not think we need to worry about all housing association houses being sold off.

Thanks DJ I have signed and posted the page on facebook. This is really scary, the man is a megalomaniac.