The coalition wants to take us back to Thatcher era of cuts
My memory may not be perfect but one thing I have no problem remembering is that during the Thatcher/ Major years of government UK public services were allowed to decay and deteriorate through under- investment and poor funding.
Our hospitals and school buildings were in terrible condition. There were enormous shortages of teachers, doctors, nurses, police and so on – so bad that we had to scour the world for staff such as nurses – because the Government had slashed the training of vital staff.
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In power from 1997, the new Labour Government used the windfall tax to get people back to work, started to invest in vital public services, and thousands of extra teachers, doctors and nurses were trained and employed. The improvements in the quality of the outcomes for those of us who use our public services have been impressive.
The improvement in the quality of NHS care, including shorter waiting times (all but eliminated in the case of serious illnesses) is universally recognised.
The British Crime Survey continues to show that crime has fallen. Can anyone doubt the link with the investment in policing? There are not just more police on the streets but in all aspects of fighting modern crime.
More teachers meant smaller class sizes, giving our children better opportunities. Teaching assistants have been invaluable in helping those children who may need extra attention without slowing down the whole class. More university places equip young people for the future.
The rise in public service employment has been absolutely necessary, not a luxury. How else are we going to meet the increasing need for health care or care for the growing elderly population?
The majority of people no longer live in tight family groups able to care for elderly relatives. It isn't a luxury to have home care workers that help people stay in their own homes. It isn't a luxury when people can no longer cope and need residential care.
If people are caring for elderly or disabled relatives they should be able to get some help with respite care – a necessity not a luxury.
Figures vary but if Conservative-Lib Dem coalition plans to cut 725,000 public sector jobs go ahead it would cost the UK economy £6.6 billion in lost tax revenue and add an extra £8.8 billion to the state benefits bill – hitting any chance of economic recovery and making the deficit worse.
As former Bank of England economist Professor Blanchflower said, cuts in public spending on the scale proposed by the coalition could send us back into recession and push unemployment to five million.
Local businesses rely on councils and public sector workers to keep spending in local shops and businesses. Every £1 spent by local councils can generate up to £1.64 of spending in the local economy.
Job opportunities vanish and this hits young people hard.
Sadly the coalition wants to take us back to the Thatcher era. It is totally unnecessary and it is predicated on a lie – the lie that there is a crisis that can only be dealt with by massive cuts in public services.
In fact the opposite is true. The truth is that elements in the coalition are ideologically linked to Thatcherite economics. And the evidence is that they are alive and kicking in Somerset.
In Somerset the coalition is not just struggling to implement cuts passed down from central Government, council leaders are planning to make matters worse. The proposal to freeze council tax for another year will mean that the cuts bite deeper.
Let's be clear. The threatened world financial meltdown was not caused by excessive spending on schools and hospitals. It was caused by irresponsible borrowing and lending in parts of the private sector.
Before the credit crunch UK public sector debt was 40 per cent of national income, and our annual spending on public services was also less than 40 per cent.
Not only are these figures affordable they are absolutely right for the people of Somerset. The ordinary people of Somerset get huge benefits from accessing education, health care and social care. Unlike the Camerons, Osbornes and Cleggs of this world it makes sense for us to access these services through local councils where we get the benefits of economies of scale.
Also, far from being a burden on our communities and economy, public services are evidence of a civilised, compassionate society and an efficient, sophisticated and mature economy.
Even on a global scale the UK is a wealthy nation, albeit not all our people can enjoy its fruits.
Our wealth today is built on the intelligence, enterprise and hard work of our people. That has not always been the case. Less than a century ago the UK was still exploiting the people and physical resources of countries across the globe.
If we can ensure that all of our people are healthy, motivated and educated to be able to contribute their maximum potential we will be even more prosperous. And crucially we will probably be a more equal society.
If we can gradually end worklessness caused by social exclusion, ignorance and ill health, our economy will be able to support better services and a fairer society for us all.
7 Comments
by Southwest_One, Wellington
Monday, September 06 2010, 2:30PM
“The elephant in the room is the disastrous outsourcing to IBM and the failing £400m contract with Southwest One.
Southwest One is 3 years old this month and the contract has another 7 years to run.
This newspaper in 2007 and 2008 reported that £200m of savings could be expected from this private sector involvement.
With a £75m shortfall leading to these savage service cuts and 1,500 job losses, then where is the money from IBM for the promised savings?
After borrowing another £30m to pay IBM for a shiny new computer system called SAP that has been a nightmare, the Council reports that it has only received £2m in savings.
The deal with IBM was approved in 2007 by a commitee led by a Conservative Councillor David Huxtable. It cannot be solely blamed upon the last lot!
This failed deal with IBM, a US HQ multinational, is a scandal which the Bridgwater MP Ian Liddell-Grainger has raised & even spoken about in parliament:
http://www.liddellgrainger.org.uk/ian/MOGGTHEBLOG.html
Somerset services for all of us are being cut: Libraries closed, schools affected and key services like caring for the elderly will be reduced.
With the spending of 1,500 people lost to the local Somerset economy, then when will this Conservative Council stop wasting our taxes on profits for IBM in America?”
by Alan Priestly, Bristol
Monday, September 06 2010, 2:19PM
“It's no good just blaming one political party or another for the state of the nations finances.
All governments borrow, including the last one.
What wasn't foreseen was the looting of the Treasury by the banking cartels.
Put simply, the greatest theft of the peoples money in world history.
It is they, and their greed, which now means this, and many other nations, are unable to balance the books.
Don't let yourselves be manipulated into blaming governments of one stripe or another, or those on benefits, or immigrants.
The banks looted the Treasury and the we are all having to pay for their crime.
The least well off paying proportionately more than the privileged.”
by Tim, Bristol
Monday, September 06 2010, 9:58AM
“The effects of the Thatcher doctrine of public spending cuts in maintenance alone was the appearance of the hospital superbug MRSA and the severity of the Kings Cross underground fire.
Cuts kill.”
by A worried teenager, Bristol
Monday, September 06 2010, 9:51AM
“I'd love to live a Lottery Jet-Set lifestyle... set out tomorrow and travel the world, starting on the Independance of the Seas, then jetting and Island hopping around the Med before flying to the Americas and touring for a few months. I'd return home to new furniture, an LED TV, a small pool in the garden and a flash new car.
To do all of this I would need to use up all of the credit of my credit cards, use my overdraft with the banks and owe to all of my friends and family.
The Labour government borrowed £740bn and wanted to borrow £300bn more. Of course results are possible for a short time but when do we decide that we the country is on the verge of collapse? Do we want to be rescused by Germany? Told to sell off our cities and islands?
Everything that Labour achieved was a lie and now our great grandchildren will pay the bills.
I'm only 19 years old!”
by Michael, Midsomer Norton
Monday, September 06 2010, 9:50AM
“A whole long article about cuts, without once mentioning the deficit. I'm afraid you don't get much more partial and prejudiced than that. Gordon Brown recklessly spent, year after year, more than his government raised in taxes, burdening the taxpayer with debt and interest payments far into the future. A quarter of all government spending is borrowed money. Public spending continues to increase. If this isn't stopped, the effects of compound interest mean that the cost of borrowing will become easily the largest item of taxpayer funded government expenditure in a few years time.
The alternatives, apart from cutting the government's coat according to its cloth, are to raise already crippling taxes, thereby reducing the incentive to work and sending the country back to the Marxist era of the seventies, or - as a temporary respite - to debauch the currency with inflation. The latter is already happening to a degree, and unsurprisingly as a consequence, the pound has lost a quarter to a third of its value in the past few years, to that degree impoverishing us all.
Saying that it would be nice to have well funded public services is to state the obvious. The difficult bit is paying for it. The even more difficult bit, which is what the Coalition government is trying to do, is to improve the efficiency of the public services so that they deliver a good service while spending what the country can afford.
There is nothing more immoral than what Gordon Brown has done. He had no mandate to spend the future earnings of taxpayers, but he did. Here I am referring purely to the structural deficit. The money spent to bail out the banks, which was absolutely necessary or the economy would have collapsed, is a different matter. It is also possible that in the long run the taxpayer will not be out of pocket on that. The credit bubble which led to the crash was of course largely Labour's failure of regulation, but that also is a separate matter.
The real test of this government will be whether it can turn around the ridiculous and heart-breaking welfare state we've got ourselves into. The welfare budget takes the whole amount raised by income tax. So of course we've got insufficient money for public services, infrastructure and defence. We can pretend, and live in denial, like Gordon Brown, but that won't last.
If Iain Duncan Smith is allowed to implement his programme of welfare reform, there is hope. If George Osborne fails to back him with the necessary kick-start money, and he resigns, then that is the signal that this government is going to fail like all the rest, including Thatcher's.
Difficult to beat this article for ignorance about Thatcher, by the way. Public spending rose under Thatcher, and she never got anywhere near dealing with the welfare disaster. She saved the economy however - no mean feat after the final collapse in 1979 and following the utter humiliation of the Labour government having to go cap in hand to the International Monetary Fund to finance government expenditure, like any other third world country.”
by Sherlock's bones, Under the Water Tower
Monday, September 06 2010, 9:47AM
“I find it incredible that the Evening Post can consider this example Socialist, fantasy splxen-venting, even worth printing. . But I suppose a passage like this will continue to make us all laugh.
"The British Crime Survey continues to show that crime has fallen. Can anyone doubt the link with the investment in policing? There are not just more police on the streets but in all aspects of fighting modern crime."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38cdHXnn5Y4
Notice no one even blinked an eye as she was assaulted when she was dragged in.
Of course this one was a real villain!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10888435
.”
by Sherlock's bones, Under the Water Tower
Monday, September 06 2010, 9:45AM
“I find it incredible that the Evening Post can consider this example Socialist, fantasy spleen-venting, even worth printing. . But I suppose a passage like this will continue to make us all laugh.
"The British Crime Survey continues to show that crime has fallen. Can anyone doubt the link with the investment in policing? There are not just more police on the streets but in all aspects of fighting modern crime."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38cdHXnn5Y4
Notice no one even blinked an eye as she was assaulted when she was dragged in.
Of course this one was a real villain!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10888435
.”