We must pay more tax, or be complicit in the slow death of public services
What is it with these people? Sure there is now a £2Bn hole in Hammond’s budget. There are plenty of places where public spending can be reduced that will swamp this pittance and more. We most certainly do not need to pay more tax. What does need to happen is for the government to obtain some sort of fiscal competence and stop hemorrhaging money like it’s going out of fashion.
Cut hard, cut deep and cut some more and don’t stop until you have reduced the state to its core principles.
As our population ages in the 2020s the pressures for more spending on health, social care and pensions will rise. The choice before Britain is clear – either we find a way to grow our revenues and expand our tax base or the state will simply have to withdraw from some areas of activity. We will be left with a much smaller state far more focused on the needs of older people.
Oh, so you do get it. That smaller state is a good thing, not a bad one.
But with public spending pressures rising and the stock of public debt at the highest it has been in decades, the choices before politicians are becoming starker: find a way to increase revenues or face the collapse of some public services.
Or perhaps not.
Stop all spending on foreign aid. Cease all charitable giving by the state and de-fund all NGOs. Close the department for Media Culture and Sport. That’s just for starters.
If Duncan Weldon cannot see this, he is an idiot. But, then, he is writing for the Grauninad, so it goes with the territory. State sponsored theft gives these people a hard-on.
@LR
+1
Some more:
Abolish Gift-Aid, close Equalties & HR comisison, close Environment Agency, close Public Health England, reduce Cabinet members & Ministers of state by 50%, close Climate Change Commission
Others: add to list
We can add dept. for international development as well.
DfID budget is GBP11.1 billion, so that closes the gap, and some more savings for good measure.
Double thumbs up. All flawless ideas.
You do realise that “foreign aid” is used to grease the wheels for British exports. Less “aid”, fewer exports. I thought that brexshitters saw our future in exports. Time to readjust the narrative, methinks
Um… Yes, not a bad idea if aid really worked like that. A quick glance at where the aid was sent to would give the lie to that one. Don’t see how aid can get much of a return if the bulk goes to Pakistan (A Nuclear power!?!), Ethiopia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tanzania, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and India (A nuclear power with it’s own space programme?!) What are we exporting to these people? Apart from money.
You’re wasting your time. As I mentioned to RAB the other day, Stephen drops in here and leaves the usual boilerplate leftist dogma then leaves, never to defend or engage. As I said, drive-by trolling. Don’t bother feeding.
Ah. Kick him as you go past, he digs the attention type of thing? So not worth losing the shine off my boots. Gotcha.
Aww, I really wanted to point out the massive hole in his logic. I really don’t know where people get the idea that socialists are economically illiterate.
Heh!
The NHS spends billions on making people live longer while social services are complaining of lack of funds because, er, people are living longer. Rather than cutting foreign aid, aka, palace building funds for despots, I can see the Government bringing in a Logan’s Run form of euthanasia system where those who have reached their four score years and ten are trotted off to a nice little booth (sponsored by the Soylent Corporation) and given a tasty drink. Of course, there will be exemptions to this, such as government officials, politicians, their families, their sponsors, their bankers, their friends, people who know their friends, and Simon Cowell, who will live forever. Science fiction? Just wait.
If I’m led there by a young Jenny Agutter look-alike in a mini toga, I’ll go willingly.
Totally right ! Start with scrapping all foreign aid.
Do you ever get the impression they don’t know the hell what they’re doing?