[Messianic Trees]

The great lie of our times: The Left wail about 'ruthless' cuts. But the reason Britain's credit rating was downgraded is that government spending hasn't fallen by a penny

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Ever since George Osborne became Chancellor nearly three years ago, it has been the received wisdom, thanks to shroud-waving unions and the Left-wing establishment, that he and his Treasury team have imposed 'ruthless' cuts on the state sector.

The constant cry from Labour, the public sector unions, local authorities and many commentators is that the cold-hearted Coalition is engaged in a 'slash and burn' policy that will end in the wholesale destruction of the welfare state.

It is a cynically dishonest analysis which aims to make us believe that the reason Britain is suffering a painful period of austerity is because of the draconian effect of 'cuts' to welfare payments, the NHS and all manner of public services, from libraries to the arts.

The truth is that this is utter nonsense. In fact, Britain's monstrously swollen state still devours almost half the nation's output.

[satnav]

You really have to wonder how bad the cuts will really have to be before the Mail will actually acknowledge that cuts are taking place. The rapid growth in food banks, increased suicide rates and a fall in demand and consumer confidence are clearly not good enough indicators for the Mail.

[BeaBoyd]

You really have to wonder how bad the cuts will really have to be before the Mail will actually acknowledge that cuts are taking place. The rapid growth in food banks, increased suicide rates and a fall in demand and consumer confidence are clearly not good enough indicators for the Mail.

You have to wonder when will the left get the message that cuts do have to be made, one way or another.

[Abernathy]

You really have to wonder how bad the cuts will really have to be before the Mail will actually acknowledge that cuts are taking place. The rapid growth in food banks, increased suicide rates and a fall in demand and consumer confidence are clearly not good enough indicators for the Mail.

You have to wonder when will the left get the message that cuts do have to be made, one way or another.

That'd be about 3 years ago, Bea.

Alastair Darling has conceded that if Labour is re- elected public spending cuts will be " tougher and deeper" than those implemented by Margaret Thatcher"

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8587877.stm

Do try to keep up, there's a good little troll.

[Daley Mayle]

I seem to remember that Mr Brummer, a top notch financial journalist, had his fingers, hands and a godly part of his arms burnt when the money he'd invested in a savings scheme was almost wiped out. This was during the last Tory administration and he's been blaming Labour (New or otherwise) ever since.

[oboogie]

You really have to wonder how bad the cuts will really have to be before the Mail will actually acknowledge that cuts are taking place. The rapid growth in food banks, increased suicide rates and a fall in demand and consumer confidence are clearly not good enough indicators for the Mail.

You have to wonder when will the left get the message that cuts do have to be made, one way or another.

In what way is that a response to Satnav's post? Neither Satnav, nor anyone else here, nor the Labour party are denying that cuts need to be made. We simply disagree about where those cuts should be made, how much they should be and how fast they should be implemented.

Do try to understand, it's really not difficult.

[cycloon]

I have a chum who is an economist. He was adamant around 2010 that cuts were not warranted. I am not sure what he'd say now, but the orthodoxy isn't necessarily watertight, obv.

[satnav]

I totally accept that some cuts were needed after the economy crashed but where I believe the government has gone wrong is in trying to implement cuts at the same time as introducing reforms. Cameron keeps boasting about how he has increased spending on the NHS but where has all that extra money gone? Thousands of people have been made redundant in the last couple of years which have been very costly for the trusts, uncertainty over future funding has led to many trusts taking on expensive temporary staff, many GPs have delayed referring patients to see specialists so these patients will either have been forced to take sick leave or take extra medication.

A friend of mine who works in NHS finance has told me that the office she works in has almost ground to a halt over the last year because the Trust are trying to regrade staff so that a small number of people will go up a grade whilst the vast majority of staff will be down graded, staff are being forced to apply for there own jobs or jobs in other departments all of which has been a major distraction from their role which is to control costs in the hospital.

In education Gove has thrown large sums of money at Academies while LEA schools have seen budgets frozen at a time many of their costs have risen.

People who have been made redundant or who are faced with redundancy are more likely to save their cash rather than spend it which has a negative impact on the economy.

[Messianic Trees]

The Co-op scandal proves once again that the Left can't be trusted to run a whelk stall

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/artic ... z2vjS5NmhD" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Anyone wanting a preview of the likely consequences of a future Labour-led government need look no further than the forces destroying the Co-operative movement.

The sudden resignation of Euan Sutherland, the former B&Q boss parachuted into the Co-op less than a year ago, reflects the clash of cultures between socialist dogma and commercial imperatives that has brought the mutual organisation to its knees.

[Jollity]

I bet this guy delights every time various nominally left-wing people argue with each other, and I bet he fondly remembers the 1980s when the Labour Party was all in a flap. And yet, he (like all these columnists) will still insist upon the existence of a monolithic "The Left". Cognitive dissonance.

[Big Rob]

So I trust the right had nothing to do with the 2008 financial meltdown?

They had nothing to do with unregulated free markets and they did not fuck up royally in that regard?

Right.