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?

Taxes have already gone up for higher earners.

No tax free allowance.
50% over 150k
Tax paid on bonuses paid into pension schemes.

Everyone is going to be hit, whether it's people at the lower end of the scale getting smaller benefits or at the higher end getting less take-home income.

Riven - I don't think the mining villages will ever recover - now there is no mining they are just in the wrong place.

I just wish someone would go through the Public sector properly and actually pinpoint waste. Instead they say your budget is now X and that gets filtered down to the bottom and teacher/nurses/Social workers get cut.

Well personally I think that the tax allowance should be transferable within the marriage, £150 doesn't touch the sides does it, we do need a return to family values, things have swung too far the other way.
I know friends who are financially worse off having been single parents and then found new partners.

I didn't especially mean the mines but the car industry, the shipbuilding industry, steel making industry.........the manufacturing base as a whole has gone. We make sod all in this country.

The public sector is an easy target. If the Government cuts wages in the public sector, I think we would see what we are seeing in Spain - strikes and huge unrest. Bankers and lawyers just sit pretty while those on middle to low incomes burn. I can see Cameron capitulating on CGT and this is the Tories all over - buckle to the better off. It's Thatcherism revisited. What happened to blaming the bankers? In my area, all the bankers' bonuses have just come through - you see it in the loft extensions, basement conversions etc.

"you see it in the loft extensions, basement conversions etc."

And the bankers build those themselves do they ? Or do they employ local companies, who buy from local supplies etc etc .... it's how the world works

smallwhitecat second that. We've just come through a very stressful 18 months worrying about redundancy. No every 'banker' has an offshore account and an annual seven figure bonus which dodges the taxman you know! Those who do are a tiny, tiny minority of people who work in the city.

The cappster - you're right. It is the bonus culture I am really getting at.

Re building - actually it's done pretty much round our way by Polish builders who get paid less. (And possibly in cash, so there's not much tax revenue either).

Re redundant lawyers - I genuinely would not wish redundancy on anyone. However, there have been some very flush years in the private sector and if you are on a high wage, you can afford to put the roof on when the sun is shining - as my parents would put it - (and get a loft extension while you are at it )

So what if they are Polish ? They still have to buy materials and then pay bills, buy food, their money stays in the economy too.
If they are avoiding tax on building work then the bankers aren't very smart, where's the guarantee's and more to the point the building regulations and electrical/plumbing certificates ?
It's very hard to work cash in hand these days and rightly so.

The massive difference between the coalition and the Thatcher government of thirty years ago is that there is a moderating factor in the shape of Clegg, Cable and the rest. There isn't the same ideological, market forces jihad driving decision-making. There isn't the sweeping majority of one party allowing everything to go through on the nod, however extreme. They've even got Labour MP Frank Field onside tackling poverty... the man asked to 'think the unthinkable' by the last government and then completely ignored. He wouldn't sign up if he thought he'd get the same treatment. Personally, I believe they have an opportunity & a mandate here to cut out a lot of dead wood before they need to slice into the live tissue.

If our way of life changes at the end of all this, ironically, I suspect it will be because we will be less conscious of government in our lives generally.

MintHumbug, I wish I had your faith.

Unfortunately it's all too easy for the tories to trot out the same old lines about public sector workers and dole scroungers, single mothers and immigrants. The tories will have the full support of the press in the process and a large portion of the public will go along with it all. They always have, always will.

Otherwise how do we explain Thatcher?

"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. "

FellatioNelson this is a joke, right?

I am expecting a wage cut in the public sector. Am not happy about that as I am employed there....but am definitely expecting it.