Of cause we need NHS reform?

There has been quite a vast amount of discussion in the last couple of days around NHS reform with the government’s critics and multiple “self-interest” groups attacking the coalition’s plans to reform the NHS. It would have been very funny were it not such a potential danger that the opposition party can not see any need to reform our health system despite the fact that the NHS is the worlds third largest employer and that the budget for the NHS actually accounts for more of the nations tax income than any other service (I seem to remember reading somewhere that the NHS actually costs more than is collected via Income Tax, but I can’t remember where so it’s just here say.) Anyway to have the Shadow Health Secretary claim that plans to reform the NHS are driven by ideology is a chilling indictment that Nu Layb’r seem to think that all of the issue caused by their incompetence are now all forgotten, There seems to be from these people a denial of the problems that they have caused which does not just extend to their usual trick of “Not our fault gov.” and start to point towards an actual policy of “Let’s prevent anyone from trying to improve it.” A policy which could well end up being Labour’s greatest legacy to the anarchic state formally known as the UK.

Anyway the reasons for the reform for the NHS are simple so I will not spend to long labouring the point.
1) It’s too Big
2) It Costs too much
3) It does too much
4) It wastes too much
Now as a resident of the United Kingdom I love the NHS, I think deep down so do most of us, however it IS unsustainable, if you as an individual were in as much debt as the Country is and you were renting a Lamborghini at £2000 a month, it would not be considered very prudent for you to cut your £10 a month newspaper bill (Although I would advise that you also cut out the non-essential items.) instead you would be suggesting that this imaginary person got rid of the Lamborghini and got something more reasonable like an Astra. The problem faced by the UK however is that we are paying for the Lamborghini and have got an Astra, albeit an Astra that is staffed by a professional driver but the hard work of the dedicated workforce still can’t make the Astra a Lamborghini.

So if the problem is not the money going in why would Labour think that the solution is to keep adding more money, if it hasn’t worked for the last 13 years I am at a complete loss to see why they think it would work now – but I guess that kind of thinking is how they got us into this mess in the first place! – The time has not just come to reform the NHS, but has come and passed several times, and if the NHS is to be reformed isn’t it infinitely better that it is driven by local medical professionals based on the needs that they see everyday rather than going the “Labour” way and bringing in another level of management to help push the decisions back into the centre where a Bureaucrat can sit with his medical insurance plan and decide that an old lady in Lancashire doesn’t need access to a drug as it will only extend her life by five years!

2011 - My Predictions for the Year Ahead

So here goes, My predictions of the Headlines we will see over 2011.

Unions make reasonable Demands to avoid strike – Only joking of cause they won’t.

Sarah Palin seeks Republican Presidency Support
We should get a better idea of who will face Obama in 2012, Front runners at the moment seem to be the news papers favourite Sarah Palin and Mitch Daniels who is primarily an economist and will appeal to large areas of Republican Support (Daniels was the Budget Director for George W Bush which may work for or against him its hard to tell at the moment.) either way this time next year we should have a much better idea who it will be that starts the race for the Whitehouse. Although I am predicting that in the End Celebrity will beat competence.

Two Tier Euro Zone
After a very troubled couple of years it will be put up or shut up time for the Euro, in 2011 Germany and France will have three choices; first is to give the struggling Eurozone members all of the money they need to survive and therefore practically tie all of the Eurozone countries together in a truly single financial unit; second choice is to abandon the project and all go their separate ways after much cost and a great deal of embarrassment or Third (And what I consider the most likely) To create a 2 tier Euro with Germany, France and the Benelux states having the Euro with the Med Countries and Eastern Europe switching to a separately managed single currency.

Wide Spread Flight Disruption
Two sources for this one, The BA strikes will be returning next year as Unite once again seem to think that with BA leaking cash through every orifice that they should continue to be overstaffed and over paid. The main source of disruption I am talking about however is another Ash Cloud, during the last Ash cloud incident (I don’t feel it really deserves to be called a crisis) it was pointed out that the much bigger Katla Volcano was over due for eruption and I am predicting 2011 to be the year.

North and South Korea on the brink of war
I very much doubt that hostilities between the two Korean Republics will restart however with Kim Jung-Un taking over from his father as dictator of the Worlds least stable nuclear power I am predicting a fair amount of attention to be on the Korean peninsular and as China takes it’s place as the second superpower I imagine that they will want to limit the damage to their blossoming economic superiority which may well see China and America leading the world in a beneficial closer working relationship.

Widespread Protests (Of a minority)
I think we will get a great deal of noise from a very vocal minority of Union bosses and left leaning individuals still convinced that the country should not be trying to balance it’s budget, Whilst these deluded individuals talk about these great disruptions however I also predict that the rest of us will simply get up and come to work (despite their efforts to stop us.) and whilst Labour and the Unions bleat on about how unfair it is that those who are receiving state money are receiving slightly less for a while the rest of us just get on with paying for it.

Student Tuition Fees

As the country prepares for more civil unrest from the nations students I thought I would blog my views on the subject of tuition fees. (Although I doubt anyone will care.)

Anyway, My opinion on this is that why should Students not pay for their own education? surely if someone is to pay it should be the person who benefits? that is just common sense. I have a degree in Politics and Government which I did to improve myself, why should anyone else pay for this? It is my life, my higher earning potential, my cost!

I did not go into the degree thinking the country owed me the right to study, I also worked full time whilst I was studying to keep my bills paid. For some reason though a lot of these Students seem to think that as the country needs doctors they are doing the country a favour; I wounder how many people would be going through Medschool if the wage of a Doctor was capped to Average Wage? perhaps that is what the students would prefer - all jobs to have the same pay level - I would wager that many of the popular courses today would be empty in no time.

Also it is not as if Student debt is real debt, real debt is relentless, it doesn't wait for you to be able to afford it. I have had real debt issues and managed them whilst earning below 10k a year, so I am hard pressed to feel sympathy for those who complain that they will have debt on twice that amount.

My last point on this is that, as seems to be known to everyone outside of Student populations and Government, There are too many people going to university, this is again as it is considered a right not a privilege, a privilege that should not be based on wealth, but on ability, but a privilege none the less.

The Budget Cuts have Landed

Well the cuts are out there, well to be honest the actual details will be coming out over the next few weeks but we know the kind of cuts we are looking at.

Immediately the usual complaints started, The Unions asked why the Public Sector were the hardest hit, Labour asked why young families were the hardest hit, Age UK asked why pensioners were the hardest hit, Disabled groups asked why the disabled were the hardest hit - all whilst at the same time it actually turns out that the top 2% are actually the hardest hit and the top 15% stand to be 10k a year worse off. On top of all this several analysts have actually come out suggesting that Osbourne has not gone far enough. So what does this all mean?

Personally I think that this is probably proof that the cuts are, as Osbourne has been saying, spread across the board surely if everyone is complaining (Well not the middle class as after all there is no one to speak up for the silent majority.) then it means that the cuts are spread out.

Now obviously there are going to be complaints that the poorest are the hardest hit, but as I posted previously that is unfortunately unavoidable, when the country has run out of money it will be the people who are net costs to the state who will be hardest hit. It is very simple maths, if you receive more money from the state than you give then you will be at risk, for those of us who are net contributors then we will simply have to give more, there is a clear limit to what the government can withdraw from me and that is limited to Child Benefit as that is after all the thing they give me, in actual fact it goes to my wife so personally the government can not withdraw anything from me as they do not give me anything in the first place.

The only question that remains to be asked of the government is can they get all of the disparate groups who are feeling like the victims to see the suffering that is being spread around. If the coalition can not give a sense of empathy to the public then we may see that, as predicted by Socrates over 2300 years ago, Democracy is doomed to fail. Socrates stated of the Athenian Democracy Project that Democracy is always due to fail as the demos will always vote in their own interest at the expense of society, eventually resulting in a society which is unable to support itself (Sound familiar?)

Sir Philip Green Set to Save us £20Bn

Sir Philip Green has completed a review into public spending and has announced that he can save the country £20bn a year in efficiency savings based on procurement and economies of scale, apparently the owner of Top Shop suggests that there is a possibility of saving 6-700M in telecoms alone. This is really just confirmation of what we have known about the Labour Governments attitude to our money all along, The attitude seems to have varied from “It’s not our money so why worry.” All the way to “We need to spend as much as possible otherwise we won’t get as much next year.” And it is this attitude as much as the actual waste that needs to be challenged if we are to ever get a real chance of closing the budget gap, and this is not just the civil servants but has been led from the politicians from the top and the Unions who seem to feel their members have a right to waste this money.

Now this £20Bn saving, if it is achieved will help protect many front line services, unfortunately it will not mean a lot in helping the Quangos and other bodies already facing cuts as after all the deficit last year was £159.8Bn so a further £139Bn of cuts are needed (Just to break even, this will not even start to pay off our now 1 Trillion of debt (or 71% of GDP) simply stop us building up anymore debt and interest. But it is 20Bn less to need to spend than if Labour had been allowed to carry on their policies of waste. After all despite what the last administration seem to believe and the attitude of many people currently living off the state – This is our Money, It comes from our hard work and taxes and it is about time someone started to look after it!

Can a Council Outsource all Services?

Suffolk County Council has revealed plans to Out Source all of its services, they claim to be able to save approximately 30% of their 1.3bn pound budget. This will basically transform the council from a service provider to a contract manager.

When I first heard this I suspected it could simply be a headline grab and that there was even a chance that it was simply some grandstanding aiming at making a point to central government however the more I think about it the better it actually seems, after all, why do we feel that the government should be a service provider? I agree that the government have a duty for order and protection of the most vulnerable in society but have we become so convinced over the years that this can only mean direct service provision that we have stopped thinking there is any alternative?

Obviously the Union (Unison this time) have warned that this will lead to danger for the poorest members of society and there will be massive redundancy of the staff, but as I have mentioned before I would take more notice if the unions said something different just occasionally, but I doubt that is happening anytime soon.

Anyway, I do agree that this is a highly risky strategy and if Suffolk are to go ahead with this they really need to ensure that the contracts are well written and contain very clear service level agreements. I also hope that the government keep a close eye on it as although I doubt it will be a fit for all areas it will certainly be a very interesting model.

Whose fault is it anyway?

Time and time again we hear about the greedy bankers who caused all of the problems that we are currently facing. But is it their fault, to listen to the likes of Bob Crow and other Union leaders then the fault has to be placed firmly on the shoulders of the Bankers who made the entire economy collapse with some dark magic. the important thing they tell us is that the fault does not sit at the feet of those working in the public sector or the unemployed.

However if we look at the facts we can see that no one group can be blamed entirely and like all global events there will always be several reasons we can look at for discovering what has happened.

1) The Banks took too many risks
2) People Borrowed too much money
3) the government dropped the ball

if just one of these elements had acted responsibly or even like addicts then none of the mess we are in now would have materialised, but they didn't. However from this list I would actually say that the main fault rests with the People who borrowed too much. at the end of the day as far as I was aware you had to be over 18 years old (i.e. an Adult) to borrow money, therefore you should be able to repay that money, otherwise you shouldn't borrow it, the banks possibly should have said no when you asked but if you couldn't afford it why did you take it?

Now the last government come back for blame here again, for it was the systematic nannying of the Labour government that appear to have removed the common sense of the population so that people are now completely dependant on others to do the thinking they seem to have forgotten how to do. this was perfectly encapsulated when someone called in a talk radio discussion on the Big Society (which is all about thinking for yourself) and asked how the government would bring in these projects.

Now the previous government come back in for more blame here for running a budget deficit during the good times so that the coffers were empty before the hard times even started.

Bob Crow rattles his cage again

Just seen an interview with Bob Crow on Sky News calling for a campaign of civil disobedience in response to budget cuts. Mr. Crow has called for people to sit down in the middle of motorways. It sounds like a good way to campaign to me, just as long as he starts early and lets the tube passengers who are so regularly effected by his ridiculous demands of TFL know where he will be doing it. unfortunately though once again this loud minority will be the one to get the most protection, they probably wont let us drive through them.

Can Budget Cuts Ever Not Hit The Poor The Hardest

Latest story on the Obvious News Gazette comes from the Institute for Fiscal Studies a “leading think tank” - read quango - who in a study paid for by the End Child Poverty Campaign who state that the Emergency Budget apparently hit the poor and those on Benefits the hardest, not in actual terms but as a percentage of income, now I am sure that this is a very worrying trend but unfortunately there are two facts that can not be ignored.

1) All budget changes affect the poorest the most as if you only have £100 pounds and lose a £1 it is 1% if you have £1,000 and lose a £5 it is 0.5% therefore the less you have the more you will be effected, to claim this is a Tory plot is quite frankly ridiculous it is just basic economics.
2) If you are living on benefits and the country runs out of money (Which it has) you will obviously be affected, similarly if you are working for a company that runs out of money you will be at a risk of losing your income, the state is no different.

What the report does not mention however is that what the coalition are attempting to do is increase jobs and keep the country operating, no one in the government has ever said that people who rely on benefits will not be affected, obviously they will as we are all in this together, what they are saying is that if we did nothing and handed out more money we simply didn’t have eventually the facility to borrow money would dry up and the country would collapse, if you are worried about reductions in benefits how do you think it will effect the poor if benefits have to be stopped entirely (And the NHS and all other services) because the government are bankrupt? It will make losing the Child Trust Fund seem like winning the lottery.

It is time that everyone stopped worrying so much about what everyone else may or may not be having that is better than them and instead start to simply look at what is in the best interests of the country.

Unemployment Rises make (Bob) Crow's Day

A leaked presentation seen by the Guardian has announced that there may be a 1.5 Million rise in unemployment from the Public Sector. Now to deal with that first even the Guardian have admitted that the (Independent) Office for Budget Responsibility have said that the Private sector should create 2.5 Million jobs in the same period. These seems like typical Best Case/Worst Case politics, I would imagine therefore that we have to look somewhere in the middle to find the truth, supposing that without the Public Sector millstone round the nations neck the public sector should be able to create 2 million jobs, but there will probably be an increase of around 1/2 a million unemployed from the cut backs. However the main question here is how many people would have been made redundant had George Osbourne not decided to cut quick and fast? I have always believed that if the public debt got to 1.5 Trillion that it would have necessitated the near collapse of our public economy with a near total paralysation of our Private economy - surely a much higher level of unemployment would have followed.

So despite the fact that the case for these figures is in no way proved RMT Leader Bob Crow has called for a summer of wide spread strikes, he has called for all unions to join together with community groups to have full disruption to society. Now Bob Crow is considered one of the more extreme Union leaders (which could explain why the Train Drivers are constantly on strike - £30,000+ for sitting down holding a handle?) but I think this shows the typical arrogance and selfishness of the Union movement.
"WAKE UP, THE COUNTRY IS ON THE BRINK OF COLLAPSE"
This is not the time to try and destroy the economy, this is the time to pull together and work to try and undo the damage of 13 years of the worst financial management

The Emergency Budget Has Landed

Well the budget is out and the usual childish debating has started in Parliament, there were few shocks in the budget with the possible exception of the fact that many commentators believed that the recent warnings from the Chancellor and other key figures were softening us up for a budget which would then look tame in comparison. However I think that this Budget really is the first step towards the pain we will all have to bear in the coming years, however if Mr. Osbourne is to be believed (And I have no reason not too.) then in just five years we will be looking at a balanced budget, this is much quicker than Labour suggested and considerably quicker than even many Tory supporters thought were possible, before you get excited though, obviously this is simply the point at which the government can start to work on clearing the massive debt that it will owe, but luckily that should be less than the 1.5 Trillion that labour wanted us left with. (£1,500,000,000,000 – I feel it is good to see it written in numbers in case we forget what a really large number it is.)

Like everyone else I do not want to take the pain that is coming up, and with only one income coming in and a young baby at home it will be a real struggle, but if it means that within 5 years we can start attacking the debt and dare I suggest that within two parliaments (As long as Labour don’t get back in.) we could be approaching a debt free country. We may even be able to start investing in things again.

Anyway the headline figures of today’s report are:

Increase VAT 20%
Widely expected, and a good tax to bring in extra revenue as unlike income and capital gains it is very hard to avoid, I also think it is a fair tax as it works on what you spend, therefore if you have a lot more money you will most likely spend more and as VAT is a percentage of price you will pay more. I know that Labour are saying that it is an unfair tax on the poor (As they spend a higher percentage of their money) but at the end of the day the Rich have already had a 10% increase of higher tax rate.

Two year pay freeze for Public Servants paid over £21,000
This may bring out the strikers this summer but I think it is fair, my Company have struggled with cash flow recently and a pay freeze has been mentioned, again it is not nice but it may have the effect of reducing inflation as we try and get out of recession. I have to admit that I thought £21,000 was a low threshold as after all if you only have one income this is hardly a great wage, but I guess that is what is meant by sharing the pain.

Housing Benefit a Maximum of £400 per week
I am slightly shocked that Housing Benefit was being paid out at a rate over £1800 a month anyway. I guess this will make it hard for the Express and Mail reporters in coming months as “Immigrant living in luxury gets £X a month in housing benefit” has been a regular shock feature over the last few years. Personally I have often advocated that social housing should not come in larger than 3 Bedroom houses. (I know this will anger a few people.) But surely 1 room for Adults and 1 each for Boys and Girls is all you really need?

Parents back to work when youngest child starts school
I do believe that getting parents back into the workforce quicker is a key element to financial stability, Personally to achieve this I would like to see universal free child care, but I guess instead they will simply look to force parents back into the workforce when their youngest is 5, I have a cynical feeling this may lead to an increase in 4 year age gaps between siblings. (As the current system has increased the amount of siblings born over 16 years apart.) Well as long as there is a marked increase in jobs available where the hours are between 10am and 2pm I guess this will work.

Extra £2bn a year tax on the banks
I guess this was inevitable as the Banks are the villains of the 21st Century, I think the amount mentioned will be easily absorbed by the banks (rather than being passed on to us.) As a general rule I do not like a tax that picks on a particular industry as they always seem like petty vengeance for alleged wrong doings, after all I would argue that the “credit crunch” would never have happened if people were not so greedy that they took money they could not afford. However blaming the Banks stops people having to reflect on themselves.

There were also a few small bits of good news

Raise Personal Allowance
The Personal Allowance is going to be increased, This is a incremental step on the way to the Lib Dem election pledge to raise the threshold of Income Tax to £10,000, this will obviously help all tax payers but obviously will mean the most to the lower rate tax payers so should be some help to the less well off.

2 Year Council tax Freeze
This will help all council tax payers, and along with the Public Sector pay freeze (Without which it would probably not be possible) and no increase on Fuel duty should have an effect to keep inflation under 3%. However when you look at the percentage of tax that is actually council tax, it is really just a token gesture.

I am not sure if anyone else has noticed but there seems to be an extraordinarily large amount of reports coming out of everyone’s least favourite Quango; the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (N.I.C.E.) Last week they were suggesting Sex Education for 5 Year olds and today they have published a report stating that if everyone eats food that is lower in Fat and Salt they would be healthier. I assume that next week we will get the shock announcement that Walking is good for you, or that putting your head in the oven is not a good idea.

I am afraid that this looks to me like a Quango trying desperately to justify their own existence ahead of today’s budget.

Council Tax Freeze

With 24 Hours before what is probably the most anticipated and important budget that I can remember speculation is rife as to what it can include.

One widely expected measure that it is believed will be included is that Council tax will be frozen, this is an interesting initiative, however I would need to see the Brass Tacks before I decide if it is a good idea, the Conservative Manifesto included the scope for awarding councils who kept increases to 2%, an award of the same amount basically cancelling out any increase.

If this was a Labour initiative I would have expected it to be simply an exercise in trying to further squeeze the councils but as it is the Coalition I will give them the benefit of the doubt and wait to see if Councils get a fair deal or not.

the Axeman Comes

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

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’

Child Trust Fund Scrapped

Very unshocking news has come in that the Child Trust Vouchers have been scrapped, I say it is not shocking as it was a stupid idea in the first place; around £2Billion has been given to people in an attempt to “buy” votes by then chancellor Brown. Now obviously when we recently had a baby we received a voucher and invested it, it may seem hypocritical to do this when I am against them but I did not feel that I had the right to reject the money on Alexandria’s behalf.

But the very idea that we should borrow money to give a little bit to our children in exchange for having to take even more back from them in the future, after all it is borrowed money so it will all need to be paid back.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury, David Laws, said people were being 'deceived'.
The scheme is funded with borrowed Government money, he insisted, which will have to be paid back by the next generation.
'We need to be honest about what we are doing,' he said.
'Since government payments into the scheme are being funded by public borrowing, it is also storing up debts which will have to be repaid by the same young people.'