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?

I would also make second home owners pay full council tax.

Cappster - I pay full council tax on our second home - which just happens to be next door to our regular home. That dodge was closed down ages ago.

And we do pay extra btw, if you don't live in a property you have to have special insurance, you have to pay for a keyholder to ensure access if the alarm goes off blah de blardy blah.

Just to quibble a little with Cappster, WhoMovedmychocolate etc: the problem is you save only a minute amount of money by not giving books to people who already have them because these are a minority in the population, the same with taking entitlement to child benefit away from higher rate tax payers, these are ten percent or so of the population and most of them don't have school-age children as they tend to be older. These are just populist gestures. It's just as populist to say cut all public salaries over 30,000 but are we really saying that we want specialist nurses, senior teachers, policemen, prison officers, could go on, to be paid less? Yeah well, how motivated would the head of your child's school be if he or she were forced to take a pay cut to satisfy public hysteria about pen-pushers' salaries?

and we pay for a gardener and cleaner for the second house as well, and shop locally and hire local tradesmen for any work that needs doing etc.

If you get over the factor you can see that actually folks with more money don't actually do as much harm as you think and do actually invest in an area.

When we had 2 homes ( because we could not sell one not out of choice) I am sure we did not pay council tax for a while on both. I could be wrong though

Most private sector workers have effectively taken paycuts.

I haven't had a rise for four years despite billing more chargeable hours, and obv. inflation has had the effect that the money I earn now is worth less than it was four years ago.

why does it have to be jealousy?

LadyBlaBlah - "£4 for every £3" - Try the Office for National Statistics again. They produce regular reports on public sector finances.

For the financial year ended April 2010 the government had total income of £476.3 billion. It had to borrow a further £154.5 billion to fund its spending. That means the government borrowed over 97.3p for every £3 income. Of course, "£4 spent for every £3 coming in" is more memorable than "just over £3.97 spent for every £3 coming in".

So the £4 for every £3 figure is not based on thin air. It is the position the last government left behind.

niminypiminy I think everyone of my suggested cuts would affect me, I am happy to do my bit.

I agree Cappster, I had that lifestyle, I walked away because it did nothing for me. But even if I hadn't it does not mean I need be jealous.

I think we are looking at this very negatively though, what can we do to make money, we need to build a society of business leaders who sell to the world. We need to pull ourselves out of this mess. I would like to see lending to be increased to businesses who produce products and services to other countries.

I would like to see support for companies who encourage their local community to work with them too. Companies like John Lewis who are self supporting and grow organically.

I agree whomoved, we need to look at what we can do to make money but there will need to be big cuts in spending as well.

Actually there is a lot of sense in increasing basic rate tax providing you make it equitable. Remember it's not just tax but national insurance. So in a 25% basic rate, you are looking at I think about 36% taken off your salary - which if you are on 50K is a bit of a but if you are on £15K may make it unfeasible to work at all (unless Dave does indeed take up Mr Blessed's offer of support).

Well as the DW of a well above average earner I'd happily give up my family allowance. But in return I'd like to see a major overhaul of the welfare state to put an end to the benefits 'trap' anyway. I'd phase it in - I'm not totally mean! Some serious tough love is needed there, though. A good talking to about lifestyle choices and personal responsibility needs to be had, for some people.

But there are many 'above average' earners who can ill afford to lose their family allowance. They juggle constantly to stay afloat. Under the previous government's system it's a wonder they bothered to work at all, TBH. It's the lower-to-middle income working poor who are most often hit hardest by these things, I think.

dont know who it was but it screamed out at me... all public workers over 30k take a 5% wage cut or something?
well, for me, after childcare I would be living on less than what i would get on jsa/income support! [being a public sector worker with two kids and who has, in the last 7 years already had at least two pay cuts since I started the job!]

Just wondered what DC makes of the city bankers earning at least 5 times what people like I do and who are a little more responsible for the debt than nurses, teachers, bin men, librarians, the police, fire personnel etc? do we cut their wage so they have to eat baked beans every day aswell?

Maybe. But not sure it would save enough if you kept up the tax credits etc.

prh47

The figures you quote are used totally out of context.

I wonder, could you think of any reason at all as to why the government spending had to sharply increase in the Year up to April 2010.

Banks, maybe?

Bailouts, perhaps?

And was this totally dead money? ?

Exceptional spending in that financial year does not mean that the government policy was to spend more than it earned. It is simply ridiculous to try and insinuate that that was the policy ! As I said before, the figures you quote are meaningless. They do not offer any context as to why the spending sharply increased, and deliberately distort the real picture

And then they raise the personal threshold, but hike VAT and NI, give you a pat on the head and assure you that you should be grateful for what you are getting and assume you're too stupid to realise you're even worse off than before.

and forced to eat baked beans every day.