Well here it comes, The Cuts are starting to be announced. Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander has announced £2bn of cuts. This is not a massive surprise as I think I half blind turtle could see that the Labour Government had given out money that it did not have and could not afford in a shameless effort to purchase votes. (I thought this had ended in the 19th Century)
Mr. Alexander said "As a result of the poor decisions made by the previous government, I have taken the decision to cancel certain projects that do not represent good value for money, and suspend others pending full consideration in the Spending Review. "
Which sounds fair to me and I think is something that would be hard to argue against, However true to his delusions Liam "the Joker" Byrne has tried to reply saying that the statement "smashed the coalitions claim that Labour spent unwisely." - Now I assume that like his previous comments that he had spent all the money, this is also supposed to be a joke. How can finding £2bn of projects that the last government agreed too without the necessary funds to complete be anything other than proof positive that Labour's financial mismanagement is worse than we thought.
Although in "Joker Byrne's" fantasy world they have done nothing wrong whatsoever, I have a terrible feeling that Joker and his mates simply believed the view that seems to be shared by Labour Treasury ministers and No win, No fee lawyers, that governments simply have their own money, they don't, the money does actually have to come from somewhere.
Back to the actual topic, among the projects cancelled was the Stonehenge visitor centre, which is a shame as Stonehenge is one of our main tourist attractions and the facilities are really lacking for a site of it's worldwide prestige, however I understand that it has to be delayed as that is what happens when you have no money. Also cancelled is Outukumpu - £13m if anyone can tell me what this is I would appreciate it.
The full list of projects cancelled:
Stonehenge Visitor Centre: £25m
Local Authority Leader Boards: £16m
Sheffield Forgemasters International Limited: £80m
Rollout of the Future Jobs Fund: £290m
Six month offer recruitment subsidies: £30m
Extension of Young Person's Guarantee to 2011/12: £450m
Two year Jobseeker's Guarantee: £515m
Active Challenge Routes - Walk England: £2m
County Sports Partnerships : £6m
North Tees and Hartlepool hospital: £450m
Local Authority Business Growth Initiative: £50m
Outukumpu: £13m
Showing posts with label Liam Byrne. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Liam Byrne. Show all posts
Thursday, 17 June 2010
Monday, 7 June 2010
Cameron Comes out Truthful on Hard Times Ahead
Cameron spoke today about the cuts facing the country, he has stated that there is no one in the country who will be unaffected by cuts or tax rises, they include cuts of 6.2bn this year. Unsurprisingly he blamed the former administration ( I Say unsurprisingly as it is the way of politics to blame your opposition – Oh and also it is their fault.)
It turns out that the last government tried to hide the fact that in five years time we would be paying more than £70Bn a year just in servicing our debts. More than is paid on Schools/Traffic and climate change. Obviously there was the usual outcry from the Unions; Hugh Lanning (Public and Commercial Services Union) said the Prime Minister was “Trying to paint the public sector as a problem.”
Now whilst I agree that the Public Sector should not be made scapegoats, the problem is that almost 1 in 4 people work in the public sector, in fact I was reading a fact book last night which stated that last year people employed in the private sector would each have paid more into the pension of a public sector employee than into their own. Whilst I do not blame the civil servants (I blame New Labour and their “Job Sweetners” in exchange for votes.) clearly it is unsustainable.
Dave Prentis (Unison) said the speech was a “Chilling Attack on the public sector.” Saying “There was nothing in the speech that told the rich, the banking and financial sector or the city speculators that their privileged way of life will change.” Obviously a Union representative trying to make this a class issue is of no great surprise, and I am sure Mr. Prentis thinks that it really is as simple as taking all the profit from the banks and using to provide extra public sector posts, unfortunately that shows a complete lack of understanding how the world works. If you hit the banks too heavily they will leave the UK, the only ones who will stay will be the ones who have to (Basically just the High Street chains – and just the High Street Business the investment banks will leave as well.) and guess what 1) the High Street Banks do not make any money, 2) The Government are the biggest shareholders in the banking sector. So basically Mr. Prentis’ great idea to bring down net debt is to remove our highest earning sector from the economy and lumber the government with even more publicly funded loss paying businesses.
After all the blame is not entirely shouldered by the bankers, after all each loan deal has people on both sides, the people accepting credit they could not afford are just as guilty as those doing the lending, unfortunately in the nanny state we expected someone else to tell us if something was ok and we forgot to look at it ourselves. If anyone should feel hard done by it is someone like me who has:
a) Never defaulted on a payment
b) Only taken credit I could afford
c) NEVER VOTED FOR NEW LABOUR
Personally however I think it is time to stop trying to blame people and start looking at some facts.
FACT – The Civil Service Must be cut
FACT – Taxes must go up
FACT – it is going to be a very unpleasant time
FACT – if we stay focused we will get through it.
I will however let the last comment on this post go to the former administration.
According to the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasurery – Gaff Prone Liam Byrne,
"The coalition has inherited an economy that is growing, borrowing which is falling, and unemployment lower than in America or Europe,"
To me this seems a quite remarkable “rose tinted” outlook on the economy, which seems quite at odds with the note he left after leaving his office last month. ‘Dear Chief Secretary, I’m afraid there is no money. Kind regards – and good luck! Liam’
It turns out that the last government tried to hide the fact that in five years time we would be paying more than £70Bn a year just in servicing our debts. More than is paid on Schools/Traffic and climate change. Obviously there was the usual outcry from the Unions; Hugh Lanning (Public and Commercial Services Union) said the Prime Minister was “Trying to paint the public sector as a problem.”
Now whilst I agree that the Public Sector should not be made scapegoats, the problem is that almost 1 in 4 people work in the public sector, in fact I was reading a fact book last night which stated that last year people employed in the private sector would each have paid more into the pension of a public sector employee than into their own. Whilst I do not blame the civil servants (I blame New Labour and their “Job Sweetners” in exchange for votes.) clearly it is unsustainable.
Dave Prentis (Unison) said the speech was a “Chilling Attack on the public sector.” Saying “There was nothing in the speech that told the rich, the banking and financial sector or the city speculators that their privileged way of life will change.” Obviously a Union representative trying to make this a class issue is of no great surprise, and I am sure Mr. Prentis thinks that it really is as simple as taking all the profit from the banks and using to provide extra public sector posts, unfortunately that shows a complete lack of understanding how the world works. If you hit the banks too heavily they will leave the UK, the only ones who will stay will be the ones who have to (Basically just the High Street chains – and just the High Street Business the investment banks will leave as well.) and guess what 1) the High Street Banks do not make any money, 2) The Government are the biggest shareholders in the banking sector. So basically Mr. Prentis’ great idea to bring down net debt is to remove our highest earning sector from the economy and lumber the government with even more publicly funded loss paying businesses.
After all the blame is not entirely shouldered by the bankers, after all each loan deal has people on both sides, the people accepting credit they could not afford are just as guilty as those doing the lending, unfortunately in the nanny state we expected someone else to tell us if something was ok and we forgot to look at it ourselves. If anyone should feel hard done by it is someone like me who has:
a) Never defaulted on a payment
b) Only taken credit I could afford
c) NEVER VOTED FOR NEW LABOUR
Personally however I think it is time to stop trying to blame people and start looking at some facts.
FACT – The Civil Service Must be cut
FACT – Taxes must go up
FACT – it is going to be a very unpleasant time
FACT – if we stay focused we will get through it.
I will however let the last comment on this post go to the former administration.
According to the Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasurery – Gaff Prone Liam Byrne,
"The coalition has inherited an economy that is growing, borrowing which is falling, and unemployment lower than in America or Europe,"
To me this seems a quite remarkable “rose tinted” outlook on the economy, which seems quite at odds with the note he left after leaving his office last month. ‘Dear Chief Secretary, I’m afraid there is no money. Kind regards – and good luck! Liam’
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