How will the VAT cut be funded?

Sam Freedman has worked in government and is a highly respected commentator and analyst. I don't always go along with him but this series of comments on Bluesky today is very good.

Sam Freedman
@samfr.bsky.social
· 1d
It's driving me insane. The govt spends £1.4 trillion a year. Borrowing estimates are often by tens of billions over a year. But we're supposed to imagine money is budgeted to the last penny.

Like sure point out that lots of spending promises and no new taxes will likely lead to more borrowing than expected. But the false precision is so misleading.

This is the equivalent of asking how a £1.5m turnover company is going to pay for £100 of drinks at the Xmas party.

bsky.app/profile/samfr.bsky.social/post/3mretxzbm4k2z

tattygran14

He doesn’t know.

How do you know?

The loss of local bus services goes back to the 1970s at least and is partly related to the loss of subsidy by local authorities. It used to be accepted that rural services would run at a loss but were a public service. Alas, local authority budgets have been slashed and slashed.

Side by side with this is the growth of private car ownership which has expanded from 3.5 million in 1970 to a record 36.7 million today. The proportion of households with one car has remained steady at around 44% since the early 1970s while the number of homes with two or more vehicles has risen from 8% in 1971 to over one-third of all households.

Add to this the privatisation of the railways and the extortionate cost therefore of a rail journey and the power of the car lobby to push for the building of more and more roads, it's a wonder anyone can afford to go anywhere on a low income.

Last point as someone who has always cycled but been fortunate to live somewhere where cycling infrastructure is supported, cycling is cheap and good for health. I don't understand the UK knee-jerk hostility against cyclists, where cities have devoted space to pedestrians and cyclists, the shops have been as full as before, the air is less polluted and traffic noise is reduced for the benefit of wildlife and people.

The loss of local bus services goes back to the 1970s at least and is partly related to the loss of subsidy by local authorities. It used to be accepted that rural services would run at a loss but were a public service. Alas, local authority budgets have been slashed and slashed.

I think you'll find it went back to the 1980s, rather than the '70s when Thatcher privatised everything she possibly could.

A lot of local bus services were actually run and funded by LAs as well as the 'National' bus service, a state utility.

Where I lived as a child we had the Corporation buses, National buses and some small local companies on the rural routes.

Interesting, though. Did the growth of car ownership kill the rural services or was it the privatisation of all bus services, which led initially to competition on rural routes, making them unprofitable for multiple operators having to 'share' custom so they all gave up, which led to growth of car ownership?

My home village in Cornwall, had regular bus services which served the community throughout my childhood, but then Thatcher (no such thing as society) stopped the funding and although a privatised service was initially run, it simply couldn’t make it pay, so eventually the village was left without any bus service at all.

People had to rely on neighbours for lifts - so it is entirely unsatisfactory.

Getting to work - especially the young must be almost impossible and a real pain. School holidays and taking the children to the beach etc must also be difficult. Joining in community festivities in other villages another difficulty.

The likes of Putin do all they can to encourage us to snipe at our government- via SM and chatbots & any other influence they can devise.

Thanks for the immigration figures Casdon, those are really very encouraging. Do we even need Shabana's new legislation with everything trending down like that?

Whitewavemark2

Most bus fares to be capped at £2.

Still going in the right direction of travel😊

I like what you did there 😁

Don’t forget it was Starmer who brought in the cap of £3. Is Burnham trying to steal a march on him at the same time?