Overkill

[hilltop]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/23/budget-welfare-poor-ifs-report

That Libcon is cutting deeply is applauded by some, but the extent of the cuts is only slowly emerging.

Further cuts to the benefits system could run into difficulty from Frank Field and Ian Duncan Smith who see additional spending as a neccessary precursor to economies. If as a Government, you include free thinkers you cannot be surprised if they do not sing off your hymn sheet.

In a modern economy running a deficit is a given, so why we should face debt reductions so steep and so far that they will beggar the economy is simple political dogma.

Happily, I cannot see the Coalition lasting past Christmas.

[Reck B]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/23/budget-welfare-poor-ifs-report

That Libcon is cutting deeply is applauded by some, but the extent of the cuts is only slowly emerging.

Further cuts to the benefits system could run into difficulty from Frank Field and Ian Duncan Smith who see additional spending as a neccessary precursor to economies. If as a Government, you include free thinkers you cannot be surprised if they do not sing off your hymn sheet.

In a modern economy running a deficit is a given, so why we should face debt reductions so steep and so far that they will beggar the economy is simple political dogma.

Happily, I cannot see the Coalition lasting past Christmas.

forget it.

Edited June 24, 2010 by Reck B

[ElPapasito]

http://www.guardian....poor-ifs-report

That Libcon is cutting deeply is applauded by some, but the extent of the cuts is only slowly emerging.

Further cuts to the benefits system could run into difficulty from Frank Field and Ian Duncan Smith who see additional spending as a neccessary precursor to economies. If as a Government, you include free thinkers you cannot be surprised if they do not sing off your hymn sheet.

In a modern economy running a deficit is a given, so why we should face debt reductions so steep and so far that they will beggar the economy is simple political dogma.

Happily, I cannot see the Coalition lasting past Christmas.

You could be right. Coalition collapses by Xmas, downgrade happens by March 2011, IMF arrives in April, second labour based coalition fails June 2011, Redwood leads a Austrian school idealogical free-market majority into a 5 year term from Autumn 2011 and reduces the state by 50% over 5 years, in which police and state security spending triples to keep the masses in line. Careful what you wish for.

[lurker07]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/23/budget-welfare-poor-ifs-report

That Libcon is cutting deeply is applauded by some, but the extent of the cuts is only slowly emerging.

Further cuts to the benefits system could run into difficulty from Frank Field and Ian Duncan Smith who see additional spending as a neccessary precursor to economies. If as a Government, you include free thinkers you cannot be surprised if they do not sing off your hymn sheet.

In a modern economy running a deficit is a given, so why we should face debt reductions so steep and so far that they will beggar the economy is simple political dogma.

Happily, I cannot see the Coalition lasting past Christmas.

Some would argue the cuts are not big enough.

Do you realise the implications of overpriced housing stock on a viable economic nation?

[Executive Sadman]

I wouldnt call 'more than reversing liebour spending' 'overkill'

[Si1]

http://www.guardian....poor-ifs-report

In a modern economy running a deficit is a given,

????????

[SarahBell]

I wouldnt call 'more than reversing liebour spending' 'overkill'

Minor household budget maintenance.

Tweaking.

I am pretty certain they haven't and won't be able to cut hard enough.

[DeepLurker]

In a modern economy running a deficit is a given, so why we should face debt reductions so steep and so far that they will beggar the economy is simple political dogma.

Ok, I'm no economist, but I've never understood why spending more money than what you have is 'A Good Thing'.

The usual argument of "as long as it's less than GDP increases it's ok" just washes over me, seeing as GDP is a poor measure of a nation's wealth (Broken Window fallacy etc...)

[bobthe~]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/23/budget-welfare-poor-ifs-report

That Libcon is cutting deeply is applauded by some, but the extent of the cuts is only slowly emerging.

Further cuts to the benefits system could run into difficulty from Frank Field and Ian Duncan Smith who see additional spending as a neccessary precursor to economies. If as a Government, you include free thinkers you cannot be surprised if they do not sing off your hymn sheet.

In a modern economy running a deficit is a given, so why we should face debt reductions so steep and so far that they will beggar the economy is simple political dogma.

Happily, I cannot see the Coalition lasting past Christmas.

Running a debt is a given, but not a deficit.

Aditionally, these are not debt reductions, they are reducing the rate at which the debt is increasing.

[neil324]

You could be right. Coalition collapses by Xmas, downgrade happens by March 2011, IMF arrives in April, second labour based coalition fails June 2011, Redwood leads a Austrian school idealogical free-market majority into a 5 year term from Autumn 2011 and reduces the state by 50% over 5 years, in which police and state security spending triples to keep the masses in line. Careful what you wish for.

+1

[jareth]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/23/budget-welfare-poor-ifs-report

That Libcon is cutting deeply is applauded by some, but the extent of the cuts is only slowly emerging.

Further cuts to the benefits system could run into difficulty from Frank Field and Ian Duncan Smith who see additional spending as a neccessary precursor to economies. If as a Government, you include free thinkers you cannot be surprised if they do not sing off your hymn sheet.

In a modern economy running a deficit is a given, so why we should face debt reductions so steep and so far that they will beggar the economy is simple political dogma.

Happily, I cannot see the Coalition lasting past Christmas.

That won't run into difficulty with either. Both are relatively sensible men. Field in particular is keen on a tighter focus of benefits on the poorest and trying to reduced the effect of the welfare trap. Doing both would stand a good chance of reducing the size of the benefits bill.

[dissident junk]

If running a deficit is a given for a modern economy, we'd better prepare ourselves to be vassals in the New Chinese Empire.

[Stars]

You could be right. Coalition collapses by Xmas, downgrade happens by March 2011, IMF arrives in April, second labour based coalition fails June 2011, Redwood leads a Austrian school idealogical free-market majority into a 5 year term from Autumn 2011 and reduces the state by 50% over 5 years, in which police and state security spending triples to keep the masses in line. Careful what you wish for.

Very well put. The above is in my opinion what will (more or less) actually happen

[ralphmalph]

The OP obviously just believes the propaganda spouted by the Labour party without engaging brain.

The subtitle of "Cuts to wipe out Labour spending." is just factually incorrect.

Here are the total govt spending levels for the budget.

2009-10 (Last Labour year) £669bn

2010-11 £697bn

2011-12 £700bn

2012-13 £711bn

2013-14 £722bn

2014-15 £737bn (£68bn or 10% above Labour level)

Looks like Govt spending is increasing every year.

[dissident junk]

Reducing the state by 50 per cent would probably not be enough in a stilted economic climate of next to zero growth.

That is what is so frightening about our situation. The whole economy is totally out of whack -- in educational, business, social, cultural and geographical terms.

What I think we face, and what I don't think any media commentator has specifically mentioned in regard to public finances, is that we are now experiencing the consequences of failing to prepare for the switch from an industrial economy to a post-industrial knowledge economy -- this is the reason, I believe, for our problem in public finances.

I lay blame for this failure at the doors of the entire political elite from right to left. They have avoided tackling the problem; instead, they have swept it under the carpet with welfare brooms.

To me, it is severely, morally, criminally wrong to do this. This failure has led to thousands of people just left to deteriorate and die of drink, drugs, obesity and a myriad of other social and economic lifestyle causes. It's a kind of genocide really.

[Fudge]

I give this ConLib government 18 months max.

When the economy goes back into recession and the impact of the public services and welfare cuts are felt and the private sector are losing jobs

instead of creating them.

Cameron, Osbourne and Clegg wont look so clever.

[blankster]

We know that whatever government won the election, the things they were going to have to do would be unpleasant. Now it's happening.

[Oliver Sutton]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/23/budget-welfare-poor-ifs-report

That Libcon is cutting deeply is applauded by some, but the extent of the cuts is only slowly emerging.

Further cuts to the benefits system could run into difficulty from Frank Field and Ian Duncan Smith who see additional spending as a neccessary precursor to economies. If as a Government, you include free thinkers you cannot be surprised if they do not sing off your hymn sheet.

In a modern economy running a deficit is a given, so why we should face debt reductions so steep and so far that they will beggar the economy is simple political dogma.

Happily, I cannot see the Coalition lasting past Christmas.

People like you give us Socialists a bad reputation.

Learn the difference between debt reduction and deficit reduction for starters.

[Lone_Twin]

I give this ConLib government 18 months max.

When the economy goes back into recession and the impact of the public services and welfare cuts are felt and the private sector are losing jobs

instead of creating them.

Cameron, Osbourne and Clegg wont look so clever.

Squeal piggy, squeal!

Were's my magic free money! Its just so UNFAIR

[Rare Bear]

Very well put. The above is in my opinion what will (more or less) actually happen

The question before the election was really who was going to implement IMF type policies, a Tory government sooner or a Labour government being forced tp do it later with more draconian cuts.

[crash2006]

The OP obviously just believes the propaganda spouted by the Labour party without engaging brain.

The subtitle of "Cuts to wipe out Labour spending." is just factually incorrect.

Here are the total govt spending levels for the budget.

2009-10 (Last Labour year) £669bn

2010-11 £697bn

2011-12 £700bn

2012-13 £711bn

2013-14 £722bn

2014-15 £737bn (£68bn or 10% above Labour level)

Looks like Govt spending is increasing every year.

it only looks like that but in reality its not.

[Guest BetterOffOnBenefits]

I give this ConLib government 18 months max.

When the economy goes back into recession and the impact of the public services and welfare cuts are felt and the private sector are losing jobs

instead of creating them.

Cameron, Osbourne and Clegg wont look so clever.

and then we can have Labour back and let the good times roll again

Hooray!!

[mikthe20]

We know that whatever government won the election, the things they were going to have to do would be unpleasant. Now it's happening.

No, for all their talk Labour would never have implemented even modest cuts - one public sector strike and it's "u-turns all round", "let's print some more", "can anyone remember the phone number for the IMF?". Shameless, negligent, treacherous *****ers.

Edited June 24, 2010 by mikthe20

[huw]

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said the chancellor and Nick Clegg could only assert that the better off were the big losers from the austerity move by including reforms announced by Labour, such as the changes to pension contributions.

Now, that's just disingenuous. It's the legislative programme that gets implemented that counts, not who proposed a particular reform.