The Chancellor of the ExchequerWell, the ConDems have struck their blow(s) for common sense and thrift. Or so they say. I don't propose to discuss all the details of the Mad Axeman's cuts, but a few observations are in order. I have never understood the idea that by increasing national poverty (unemployment), we will somehow increase national wealth. As things stand, at least 400, 000 public sector workers stand to lose their jobs over the next four years. The money saved by sacking them will presumably go on paying their welfare benefits. Another mystery to me is the idea, beloved of the Tory Party, that by cutting benefits, the claimants will be forced into work. Exactly how they will find full-time employment,when the long-term unemployed mostly live in areas where no jobs exist , is not made clear. According to the Mad Axeman ( a veteran enemy of "the workshy"), these cuts will put the UK economy into a position of strength in four years' time, but he did not explain how he could guarantee this. What is guaranteed is that in four years' time, we will be close to the next General Election. The ConDems had better start praying that they've got their sums right.
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I was just listening to Nick Clegg on Radio 4 and he was saying that the public sector job losses will be taken up by the private sector. He didn't say how, of course: he just does the usual dishonest politician's trick of repeating the same deceit over and over again until, like a hippy mantra, it becomes lodged in your mind.
ReplyDeleteCutting back on the public sector will, quite logically, have a deleterious effect on the private sector. Cancelling infrastructure improvements and construction schemes - whether they be roads, railways, schools, hospitals, sewer maintenance or government IT projects - will throw private sector employees out of work. The public sector and the private sector are not two wholly separate systems - they are inextricably linked. And of course, anyone who remains in work will have more unemployed people to support through their taxes.
I heard a moronic businessman on the radio yesterday just saying it was about time the public sector suffered as the private sector had done, as though an equality of misery is the way out of this mess. Well, Mr businessman, public sector cutbacks will make the private sector suffer even more. Don't whinge about that when it happens, because you welcomed it.