Tuesday 22 January 2013

Advice to No.11

For a man who is trying to cut the debt Mr Osborne isn’t very good at it. Today it was announced that borrowing went up by £15.4 billion pounds in December which isn’t very good really, to put it bluntly. Our national debt is now £1.1 Trillion. Osborne is doing far better than Balls, Darling, Cable would have ever done as chancellor. But I think he isn’t taking cutting that seriously and seems to be relying on weak growth to bring down the deficit rather than sorting out the problem.

Now you could argue that the debt isn’t that big a deal, if we continue to cut the deficit with a stronger economy or small cuts then our country will be alright. I don’t believe this. Even if this model was economically sound, which it’s not, it would be totally destroyed when Labour comes back into power. Sadly they will do some time in the future, as they will borrow more and more till bankruptcy.

So where would I cut alternately. Well I’d leave the EU so that’s a big chunk, foreign aid would virtually all go, HS2 would be gone, I’d privatise many services like bin collection and that’s just to start. We seriously need to examine the amount the welfare takes up. I’d also switch the NHS to focus dramatically to prevention, which is much cheaper and more effective than cure. The government has committed itself to a rise in the NHS budget this parliament and it has carried it out. But my own personal view is that such a policy may be unsustainable and should be re-examined in 2015. Benefits wise there should be a reduction virtually everywhere with a lower benefits cap to minimum wage level.

We seriously need to decide what government does otherwise we’ll never escape from the austerity.

4 comments:

  1. Elliot, your ideas are a joke. Privatising the bin collection will solve nothing - how will council tax be changed for this, will it be more expensive in terms of admin? Changing the NHS from cure to prevention will take decades and cutting its budget is stupid - if your mum got ill, and she couldn't be treated becuase of the cost, then what would you think? HS2 is a drop in the ocean and the investment it could bring will help the economy, did you ever study that?

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  2. Privatisation means that the bin collection will not be tax payer funded individuals would pay for their own rubbish disposal. We are moving at a snails pace compared to other countries when it comes to preventative medicine and because it is cheaper you could easily cut areas of the NHS. If we want to solve the crisis we are in we can not have sacred feelings for not cutting some areas, although of course people will still get treatment. HS2 is a waste of money, the investment going in is no where near what the benefit for the economy will be, it is an over priced Victorian relic (I'd point you to the Tax Payers Alliance for the details). I would much like to see the money used for super fast broadband which will give much greater value for tax payer money.

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  3. "Individuals will pay for their own rubbish disposal". How will this work? Am I going to have to ring up some skip firm to bring me a skip and empty it every few weeks? Can I leave my rotting rubbish in the street to attract rats? It'll cost far more in regulation and admin hassle than to keep it as it is. I agree with privatisation but bin collections isn't one of them. And how do we know it won't help development massively in the north if HS2 is built, or do you not care about that becuase you're drinking port at the top table with your rich tory friends debating which cigars are best? Get in the real world, council bin collections are the best solution, building HS2 might not be a massive failure and cutting the NHS isn't practical - it's great until it hits you!

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  4. The service would work the same as a telephone bill, you'd get a bill every month or so and the company would empty your bins just like the council would. But its not for me to dictate the system TBH because the best system would win out. HS2 will help the North's economy but its not well spent money it could be used more effectively and I think tax payers money should be the best spent money. We need to cut the NHS its budget is getting too big, you seem to think cutting the NHS budget is the same as deciding that people should die. As I said we should shift to preventative medicine to save money. I don't smoke cigars and port is generally cheaper than vodka.

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