Spending Cuts begin

[rich1231]

At last it has begun, however why does Scotland get special treatment?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8699522.stm

[IforB]

It doesn't.

Next year Scotland will have to make twice the cuts to make up for not having any this year.

[elster]

rich1231 said:

At last it has begun, however why does Scotland get special treatment?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8699522.stm

You mean the deferred cuts?

Rough guess is they don't have the spare manpower to look through the books quickly to see where you can make4 the cuts.

That and to stop people being blown up in NI.

Just my 2 penneth.

[nonuts]

It's about time, but what is £6.25b as a percentage of the budget? Also there's talk on another thread of 300-700k jobs going, again what is that as a percentage of public sector workers?

They are big scary numbers, but I bet they look a lot smaller when shown as a percentage however maybe the thick idiots that are allowed to vote don't understand what either a billion or percentage of a total is so they might as well report things in packets of bensons.

[V88Dicky]

nonuts said:

It's about time, but what is £6.25b as a percentage of the budget? Also there's talk on another thread of 300-700k jobs going, again what is that as a percentage of public sector workers?

They are big scary numbers, but I bet they look a lot smaller when shown as a percentage however maybe the thick idiots that are allowed to vote don't understand what either a billion or percentage of a total is so they might as well report things in packets of bensons.

Dunno, but its 0.66% of the Debt (£950,000,000,000)

[mccrackenj]

0.89% of 10/11 total public spending of roughly £704bn.

[Deva Link]

nonuts said:

It's about time, but what is £6.25b as a percentage of the budget? Also there's talk on another thread of 300-700k jobs going, again what is that as a percentage of public sector workers?

There are approx 6M people in jobs that are public sector, so it's roughly 5-12%.

[XJ40]

So I guess that's about 0.5% of GDP, hopefully the frail economy can shrug that off.

Edited by XJ40 on Monday 24th May 16:41

[nonuts]

mccrackenj said:

0.89% of 10/11 total public spending of roughly £704bn.

Or in other words fk all compared to the cuts some 'private' companies have needed to make over the last 10 years.

Deva Link said:

There are approx 6M people in jobs that are public sector, so it's roughly 5-12%.

Again, nothing different from what most large 'private' companies that have had to face up to reality have been faced with over the last 10 years.

I wish they'd just get on with it even if it does mean serious st for the short - medium term!

[Deva Link]

nonuts said:

Deva Link said:

There are approx 6M people in jobs that are public sector, so it's roughly 5-12%.

Again, nothing different from what most large 'private' companies that have had to face up to reality have been faced with over the last 10 years.

That's true, but the snag is that in a downturn demand on public sector services increases.

My missus works in a government department that is bursting with work (which has to be done against legally binding deadlines) and they had 10% staff cuts at the turn of the year and, as best I can gather, that's not unusual. Departments like HMRC, and Job Centres, have been cut massively over the last few years - in fact they had to take some Job Centre people back on again. They probably should cut pay, like the Irish Government did, before sacking public sector workers - but it's not hard to imagine what the reaction would be.

God knows where all these additional public sector jobs are - people joke about it, but there can't be that many "5-a-day co-ordinators" etc.

[carreauchompeur]

Deva Link said:

God knows where all these additional public sector jobs are - people joke about it, but there can't be that many "5-a-day co-ordinators" etc.

Indeed. I can think of various posts, and the odd entire department that we could do without, however where I work in a core role there really ISN'T any fat to trim. Without incurring massive overtime expenditure- IE counterproductive.

[nonuts]

Deva Link said:

That's true, but the snag is that in a downturn demand on public sector services increases.

My missus works in a government department that is bursting with work (which has to be done against legally binding deadlines) and they had 10% staff cuts at the turn of the year and, as best I can gather, that's not unusual. Departments like HMRC, and Job Centres, have been cut massively over the last few years - in fact they had to take some Job Centre people back on again. They probably should cut pay, like the Irish Government did, before sacking public sector workers - but it's not hard to imagine what the reaction would be.

God knows where all these additional public sector jobs are - people joke about it, but there can't be that many "5-a-day co-ordinators" etc.

Hopefully the new folks will be looking at the informaiton in front of them asking the same question I think we all are, which is hopefully 'where is all the money people trust us with actually going'.

I agree some services will suffer and things will probably get a lot worse, in your example if I was in government I'd look at the rule that says it has to be done by 'x' amount of time and also what is actually being done and if it actually (and I hate the term) adds value.

[voyds9]

The reason the public sector is so large and so busy is the government.

The government wants costings, plans, reviews, targets, paperwork on every imaginable statistic. The departments are busy shuffling useless bits of paper rather than doing 'proper' work.

[Deva Link]

voyds9 said:

The reason the public sector is so large and so busy is the government.

The government wants costings, plans, reviews, targets, paperwork on every imaginable statistic. The departments are busy shuffling useless bits of paper rather than doing 'proper' work.

The private sector is like that too!

Organisations have to demonstrate value - that's easy in the private sector as you can look at the bottom line. But you can't do that in the public sector, hence a myriad of ways are dreamed up to prove what they're doing is worthwhile.

[amir_j]

Ignore this one- the 22nd June budget is the biggie.

The ratings agencies have given the government 2 months to convince them- otherwise we lose our triple A.

The budget is make or break; bring on the 22nd of June!

[nonuts]

Deva Link said:

Organisations have to demonstrate value - that's easy in the private sector as you can look at the bottom line. But you can't do that in the public sector, hence a myriad of ways are dreamed up to prove what they're doing is worthwhile.

So stop it, none of it is real value as it's all just 'cost' So they should stop trying to run things like hospitals, police, fire service? etc. all on fking meaningless statistics. I want those to go, not the front line staff most of which hopefully have enough common sense to realise what needs doing.

[5unny]

It's never nice to see people lose their jobs however the debt situation means this will be inevitable.

However will the electorate ever forgive this Government for doing so?

If all goes to plan these cuts will ensure that in 4 or 5 years time the economy is fairly healthy but I really hope Labour don't just walk in and inherit an economy which has been fixed by Tories/Lib Dems.

Otherwise they will spend, spend, spend and we'll be back to square one.

[Tsippy]

5unny said:

It's never nice to see people lose their jobs however the debt situation means this will be inevitable.

I've seen loads of people lose their jobs, mainly due to tax rises on the private sector in order to pay for public sector, so I have little sympathy.

[amir_j]

5unny said:

However will the electorate ever forgive this Government for doing so?

The Con-Lib plan seems NOT to eliminate the deficit never mind starting on the debt within this term; they have promised to remove the 'bulk of the deficit' which could be 50.5%- the aim is not to be the country with the most debt in the G20.

If labour get back in with most of the easy cuts done and a lean & more efficient country the remaining will be the hardest and Tories and/or Libs will be back after.

[viggen114]

£6Bn is about 10 days borrowing

end of next week we are in the same situation as today then