Inkwell Institute
International Studies Group
European Desk
I know there will be opinion upon opinion about the new government in the UK…..there seems to be the same anger there as in the US, but I would like to hear from my friends in the UK on a story that I read…..please, I just want a take on the story, I am not condemning or condoning…just wondering…..
In a story by Chris Talbert:
Conservative Chancellor of Exchequer George Osborne and Liberal Democrat David Laws, chief secretary to the Treasury stood side by side to announce a £6 billion package of cuts on Monday. Laws said that the announcement was intended to send a “shockwave” through every department of government.
The package of cuts reflects the priorities set out last week in the coalition’s Programme for Government. Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron and his Liberal Democrat deputy Nick Clegg unveiled the programme amid some nervousness from the Tory right, which feared that their visceral class instincts might be toned down by the presence of Liberal Democrats in the government. But, as the Daily Telegraph immediately recognised, “behind some obvious Lib Dem language, the hard-line Tory policies have survived almost precisely intact”.
I realize that every country has to make decisions on where to cut the “fat” but is it the best place to start? Could not the bureaucracy of these countries be the place to start? Maybe save the entitlement programs for last? I realize this is not the only answer but is it just easier to attack entitlements first? It seems so in the US….entitlements are ALWAYS the root of all deficits…..the Boogie Man if you will……..
It is ideological warfare. The Tories always have had a glint in their eye, when talking about public sector cuts.
The irony of the situation, is that it wasn’t the public sector that caused the mess we’re now in. It was the financial sector…….. which was deregulated…….. by the Tories under Thatcher!
Welcome back futiledemocracy…..it seems that the US and the UK are a lot more similar than we would like to admit……
Lobotero: Sorry about that. Now, where were we? Yes, the trouble is that so many do see this as some kind of class war (on both sides, but it is largely the left that is far more rabid about it) and frankly, it’s really almost by accident that the opinion does divide on class lines.
The truth that Brits will not face is that we can’t afford the kind of services they want. The public sector in the UK is HUGE and the £6 billion quoted is just the small tip of an iceberg that could sink a thousand Titanics – we need to save AT LEAST ten times that amount PER YEAR – for the foreseeable future and that has little to do with the “recession” – it’s just that we don’t have the money and, MUCH more importantly, we never DID have it, even though Gordon Brown spent it by borrowing and mortgaging all our futures.
Few Brits understand even basic household economics and living within their means is something many of them have NEVER DONE in their lifetimes. Kids grow up with the idea that if they’ve no money, parents will pay and then that becomes the “State” will pay later on in life. Unfortunately, those parents who pay are also often getting much of it from the State too. It simply isn’t sustainable.
That ideology is based on the principle of an ever increasing population that we don’t have the room or facilities to accomodate (and less and less indigenous people contribute to because they don’t want children) and the false assumption that this means more people working, but there is little work for them and even if there was, many of them neither want to do it, nor are they actually capable of doing it.
What I loathe is the apparent belief that some of these people seem to have that the world owes them a living – well it doesn’t and, apart from relatively rare exceptions who DO deserve help, we are more of us quite capable of doing a better job for ourselves by responsibly “paddling our own canoes” through life than the second rate, dumbed down and hugely expensive State way of doing it – but the lovers of State are afraid – afraid of standing on their own feet and living their own lives.
This sort of society is unsustainable and simply cannot and will not continue. The cuts have to come from ACROSS THE BOARD and that means MUCH – HUGELY – smaller government bureaucracy. In fact, though people talk about Magaret Thatcher’s “cuts” there were in fact no cuts at all during he reign – largely because bureaoucrats (mostly socialist driven) sacked a few workers, shouted about it and then gave themselves rises or employed quangos to replace themselves and then went to work for them at inflated wages.
In truth, IF people would STOP arguing about ideology (I know – fat chance!) and start being realistic and helping our society, then we probably could have much better services than we have now, but at a fraction of the current cost.
What people have NOT understood is that we don’t have to save this money ONCE, we have to save this much money EACH AND EVERY YEAR from now on, or we will lose our world “triple A” credit rating and, if THAT happens, we will end up paying much, much more in INTEREST ALONE than those savings the government wants just to service the EXISTING loans that Labour took out! In which case there will be NO services at all!
Look a Greece, Spain, Portugal and other socialist driven states across Europe – there but for the grace of these cuts go WE!
The anger you refer to is ONLY really from the left wing (and those who have been pushed that way by 13 years of Labour rule during which time enormous taxes dragged them back and down) who believe in a fully socialist style system and have little ambition in life except to get as much money from others for doing as little as possible for society in return (if anything at all).
To understand that, you have to realise that there is a MAJOR difference between the UK and the US. It’s a generality of course, but nevertheless an important cultural difference – Americans have ambition and LOVE winners! Brits often have little ambition and LOVE losers (frequently I suspect because they can empathise with them).
Holy Moly…I struck political oil! LOL
It is the same here…most families are living on borrowed money….credit and such…Americans do NOT want to live within their means…most of them……they want all the benefits that the rich have and are willing to gamble with their livilhood to get them…and look where they are now…in the crapper.
I see that the EU is setting up a $1 trillion rescue fund for its members…how will this play in the UK?
Lobotero – EU package. Personally, I hope we won’t contribute, but I bet we do. Frankly, I personally love it every time the Euro drops a notch or two – more money for me – 🙂
Sadly – it’s not the public sector and it’s not the financial sector or the Tories that caused all this – it’s the utterly stupid attitude of the a section (a large section) of the British people. There is only one large and important “ideologically driven” sector in Britain – the jerks who think that they can live on the work and wages of others – i.e. old style Labour (spelt Gordon Brown)!
When class ridden Brits (Labourites) grow up and live in the REAL world as decent adult human beings (about the same time as hell freezes over), THEN we will be able to have proper public services – until then forget it because we can’t afford it!
You know we could go on about taxes and such…but we have played that tune many times……we here attack the entitlements (public sector, I would imagine) and NEVER look elsewhere for those cuts….like defense spending and foreign entitlements like foreign aid….our Reps would rather screw a guy in retirement than piss off the defense contractors or the financial sector or the oil industry or the health industry or….well you get the the point….
Lobotero (this is my only problem with this theme – comments seems to end up in the wrong place??) I accept what you say, but the truth is in the UK at least, we would have to shut down the WHOLE of our armed forces COMPLETELY and FOR GOOD in order to save this sort of money and hope that others (like the US taxpayer for instance) would shell out the cash to protect us.
I suspect you don’t think much of that idea…
No not much but it would be a start…get the people to believe that they are more important than some Dark Ages dirt pile…..
I get the point you make. I’m sure you’re right and it is a factor, but just think on this… if you DID seriously piss off those industries you quote, then just meybe they’d say “screw you then” and go somewhere else in the world where they felt more welcome – because they CAN! In that case, how many less jobs would there be, less services for all and how much even less taxes would be paid?
So, you COULD (maybe so and maybe not) wind up worse off than now!
Government – almost ALL government and its attendant bureaucracy (and that includes all the wasteful and convoluted administration of the public sector) – is a complete waste of time, effort and money for all of us. We only need 90% of it because we do NOT live in an ideal world and people are NOT perfect – so, the less of it there is the better until you get down to the minimum level that will sustain society in a desirable manner.
Most of them have already gone elsewhere, at least for some of their processes…..so we would NOT lose too much and we could make that move more hurtful financially if they did try…
How could you make it hard for them to move their money and businesses? You don’t control them or their money! THEY are bigger than the US and the UK put together! It’s about time we ALL faced that reality…
By using tariffs and penalties…how exactly I would have to do some research….but I think it can be done.
No chance – you need them more than they need you! Fact of life!