to be disappointed in the apathy of the county

[southeastastralbeing]

and the quickness at which the people seem to roll over and accept all these horribe cuts and looming redundancies - it's so accepting and lambs to the slaughtery (yes i know that's not a word)

i find it very depressing and wish i lived in france, where at least they're prepared to get on their arses and be heard

:(

No apathy here, just awaiting the outcome of the spending review.

I think a lot of people are getting ahead of themselves. We won't now how everything is going to be affected until the spending review on wednesday so people who are saying they are out to get the old/young/disabled/poor etc are being very premature as they have little or no knowledge about what is going to happen.

whelker - you can't go around letting the facts get in the way of heart felt sentiment!

Riven The NHS is not going to have any reductions in public spending so those decisions are being made by your PCT. The others you mention have been announced but we won't know the effects of the cuts until the spending review and so speculating about what the "evil tories" and "treacherous liberals" are going to do is pointless.

Good grief Riven, your dd has a pressure sore and the PCT say she can't have proper nursing? That's horrifying.

Btw, lots of eminent economists disagree with making a fetish out of cuts. It doesn't have to be done the way the current government is doing it. David Banchflower was right about pretty much everything on the Monetary Policy Committee - often the only one to stand up against his peers - so I'd rather listen to him than Osborne.

Oh, and whelker, you are 100% wrong. The NHS has been told to cut almost 20% of its budget (£20bn). Just because politicians claim the NHS budget has been 'protected' doesn't make it true. Go and look at the Department of Health website - the government hasn't made any secret of this when ordering the NHS around, only when talking to the public.

They are also going to privatise every single hospital - look at the White Paper. Every one will be turned into a Foundation Trust - if they can't get there, they will be taken over by another trust - and then floated off as a 'social enterprise' because that sounds less scary than 'privatised'.

Edam the NHS is recieving no cuts in its budget. The department of Health is making cuts but it is responsible for more than the NHS.
Blanchflower is an arch-keynesian and is considered aneccentric by his peers. There is very strong consensus across the world that the levels of sovereign debt are too high and need to be reduced asap.

We owe the money to the people and companies who trade on the bond markets by selling gilts.

whelker, you say 'the NHS' is receiving no cuts in its budget. Actually hospital trusts and PCTs are being told to make budget cuts. Are they not the NHS? Go and look at the Department of Health website, it's VERY very clear that the NHS is being ordered to make £20bn worth of cuts.

The government is not being secretive about this, it's there in black and white if you want to look it up. Perhaps you would like to look up the King's Fund website, or the NHS Confederation, if you refuse to believe me.

Btw, an overall budget figure that stays the same as 09/10 is actually a cut as it doesn't keep pace with inflation. And inflation in healthcare is higher than the overall figure, as we have an aging population and technological developments.

Either you are falling for government propaganda or you are making an ideological point here. Whatever, fact is the NHS is facing 20% cuts whatever you say.

Really there is an incredible level of economic naivety on this thread. It's frightening how you all seem to believe that the money is there because, well it just must be.

What are you protesters proposing should be done about the deficit? Let's be clear about it the deficit was TOO HIGH. We borrowed more than we can afford (and mostly spent it not particularly wisely but that's a whole other story).

We had three alternatives as a nation:

1. Go the way of Greece to a bankrupt economy and believe you me you would have felt far worse pain

1. Increase taxes

1. Make cuts.

The policies being followed are a combination of (2) and (3). All this is necessary. Unpleasant but necessary.

The number of people in denial at the scale of the problems that the country faces is unbelievable. The government is borrowing £1 for every £4 that its spends and he have a seficit of £160 billion. We cannot just ignore these facts and hope they will go away as the markets will lose total confidence in our ability to pay our debts and we will lose our credit rating and all hell will break out.
The fact that the Government spends more money on debt interest then it does on schools or defence is outrageous and the previous Government are totally responsible for this.

That's not an answer to my question, Riven.

What are YOU proposing should be done about the deficit and how should it be tackled?

I'm not going to accept pulling the duvet over your head as a realistic solution for the country, btw.

As to owning the banks, that's probably the best financial decision Gordon Brown ever made. The shares will be sold at a profit and the banks will carry on paying billions in taxes for ever more. You do know that the financial services sector is the largest sector in terms of corporation tax revenues?

Um, have you costed that out Riven? Think you'll find that taxes have gone up significantly more than 1% overall already. S'not enough. Especially as you want to leave me my child benefit.

Riven your measures wouldn't come close to reducing the deficit that Mr Brown has left us. You say tax profits on house price rises they already are taxed in capital gains tax

Profits on sales of properties are exempt from capital gains tax if they are your only or main residence.

But still I agree with the sentiment Popelle, because if you were selling a property in an inflated market then you would likely be buying another one, and therefore haven't really made a gain.

sorry quattro I thought riven was referring to property investors not normal homeowners.