Dave's cuts are going be deep and they will hurt

[FellatioNelson]

I've been hearing this all day on the radio. I can't take the suspense any longer. They are going to affect the lives of 'every one of us'

I feel like a person wincing and clenching my teeth in anticipation of the big fuck-off needle the school nurse is wielding, and I'm next in the queue....

Come on then, what's it going to be?

Sakura Absolutely not! No joke whatsoever.
I wish it was.

Not a joke...shit we're in more trouble than I thought...

Oh Riven, we've had this before - at least three times I'm sure. Of course I don't mean people like you. What kind of heartless monster do you think I am?! I know it's hard when you are so frustrated but you mustn't assume that every bit of constructive criticism of the way the welfare state is set up is a direct slur on you!

VAT on school fees that ought to raise a few bob.

Does no-one else think they will avoid a lot of "actual" cuts by allowing a significant level of inflation, so that they can claim they haven't cut anything though in real terms everyone's wages, benefits etc will be worth less? That's what I think's going to happen....

Somebody said further down that nobody will end up homeless- not necesarily so; all we have left to cut is our food bill (hard when 4 on dairy free diets including a toddler who clearly needs calcium, I cannot breastfeed forever surely) and that's it I think; after that we can't cover the rent- there's a 30000 waiting list for council house so forgive me if I am scared but if you can imagine a hostel with 2 autistic kids and 2 others- well, who woudln't be?

I'd gladly hand back the CTF funds (can't this be done vulntarily?), and contribute a bit towards the SSD disability summer club placement, but that's about what we could take before it all collapses.

" Labour drove the economy to the brink to force the Tories to live up to their bad image of extreme cuts"

I think with the current strategy of forewarned is forearmed the Tories have pretty much shot the Labour fox on that one. However bad the cuts are, they won't be as bad as we're all expecting or the ones Darling himself was promising ie. "worse than the Thatcher years". Field, Duncan-Smith and the LDs will be watching out for the poor better than Brown with his 10% tax mistake and evident dislike of ordinary 'bigoted' Labour voters. The deathly silence from the opposition benches is quite telling at the moment.

Minthumbug is right.Our financial reputation internationally is on thin ice and we can't afford for it to get any worse.If we look like we aren't going to pay this the K will be downgraded and no one will have anything to do with us and IRs will be extortionate.Having said that I am still dreading this budget as I rely heavily on the NHS and in fact spent 9 hrs in A and E yeaterday and the service was incredible

Uk

Fellatio I know people don't generally mean those like Riv and I

But you see some do

And how do we know who is who on ehre?

I was approached last wek by some old man and yelled at for having 4 kids on benefits to get a council house: I don't have a council house, never applied for one nd we were earning well when all 4 born. heck, the older 2 are older than tax credits anyway!

Soemone on ehre has said I belong in a workhouse; otehrs say that it's because we didn't plan well enough as youngsters- h no? Then how come we were fine before the redundancy, even with me as a carer? TC's yes but nothing else.

So maybe people like me and riv get edgy but whilst you don't mean us, plenty do. Plenty think that looking after kids like mine is a charity that cannot be afforde.

On anotherr thread- claimants only to be givrn a roof and food; no explanation on how we get ds1 to his SNU if he gets in, or collect ds3 from his if he is sick, without a car; or how dh gets to college where he is retraining.

Or how we would maintain ds2's cubs (quite important as we can't have friends in the house and he doesn't get to play out becuase ds1 gets upset and can't be allowed due to the asd etc etc)

The little things that maintain the boy's development to a level where maybe they will hold down a job (ds3 won't but ds1 may well, and ds2 dyspraxic so should but it will be tougher)

just wondering how much the independent enquiry will cost? i work in the public sector and whenever they mention the words 'independent' or 'consultant' you can guarentee it will cost a fortune and be the death knell to commen sense .
I personally think supersalstrawberry should be sorting out the deficit if she can feed a family of four on a turkey leg.
On a more serious note ,id love to know where all the money went that supposedly went into the public sector ?

for you Peachy. Why did some random guy start having a go at you?

Sue52 I currently save the LEA £9,000 a year they don't have to find to educate my children, if you add 20% VAT to school fee's then that's another 3 children they will have to find places for plus another one I'm going to be sending in a few years time.
Plus I wouldn't trust the government to actually educate my children, we've been there and got the Tshirt so I would give up work too in order to spend more time with them, loosing another stream of tax and NI.
I'm not sure that's very helpful.

he was probably one of those old people scroungers who got old just to get the pension.

Maybe if we took a department each we could evaluate every council/school/hospital etc? I'll take my department. I would like to know exactly what the 5 managers above my Manager do when my manager is the last level that deals direct with families there can't be that much managing/evaluatiing surely?

MC because I ahd all 4 kids with me and no DH (and posibly as I don't wear a wedding ring, am allergic)- with the ASD duo screeching I probably do look like mother from hell, I know that! He ahd also been stood behind me with his dd winding himself up about how he couldn't afford anything becuase bloody single mothers and lazy sods were taking his taxes- just his bigot-radar found wrong target I guess.

DH was close by though so I hope he saw that later on, there's no question with our clones that the boys are not his!

I do attract the nuts though: I think I have a tendency to crumple within a word that encourages them to keep going.

I'd like to see DC make up a schedule of CUT/DON'T CUT which would look like this:

CUT KEEP/INCREASE

Poncy art stuff
Disability bens
Pull out of Afganistan
Med support for troops inc. psych. support

Get rid of lots of NHS Improve screening
managers

Stop sending out leaflets PAYG on SOME council services
about paper recycling

My columns got messed up but you get the ghist

Mum and dad just got something like 10% of their pension refunded by after a buy out left many penniless, it's tkaen years

Dad works even though he is over 65 and has a disability (which he won't disclose or claim for, no feeling in leg after botched op).

They get taxed enough that working is rendered pointless but he likes it for the company as mum is fairly reclusive (the ASD genes agin....)

So Is aid 'bet you got annoyed when that turned up' whdsilt indicating set of matching councdil fridge magnets

'Ooh no dear, we all need a good magnet'

ARRGGGH! Buy a magnet from newsagents, pay VAT on it and save £££ from council budget

But please cut the wastaed paper crap

(I should say around hare they're pretty good, no freebies and only one flyer per annum, overall we seem to have an excellent council but we don't live near Mum's)

I think it might be Wales Peachy!

I got harrassed the other day that I was pregnant again with two young kids - got told I should get a job and a husband. I took great satisfaction in introducing myself to them as Dr Peppa and watching them stand open mouthed.

Idiots.

Actually no you can't get the ghist because it all got scrambled.

I'm shite at setting stuff out but basically I think we should be supporting people with disabilities of whatever age, supporting troops who've been injured/have MH problems, improving medical screening and have an element of pay as you go for local services like bin collection, and getting rid of some of the management strata in the NHS/government, get rid of most arts funding, and wasteful leafletting from local authorities. Cut down on university places for silly courses like leisure and tourism and put the money into essential stuff like medicine, physioetc.

Mumblechum I think it would be a good idea to tax things that people can essentially cut down on - so things like pay as you go for bin collection (but not recycling), alcohol etc.

Although again this targets the poor disproportionately and also families. Here we are allowed 4 black bags per fortnight (no bins) per household. My single neighbour has the same allowance as us.

Someone mentioned a superVAT on luxury things - I think that is a fab idea. Of course the issue would be how you decide what to tax and what not to, but in principle it would be fairer.