Quote of the day 26th September 2014
"If we had a responsible opposition, then instead of a shadow chancellor who pays lip service to the idea of cutting the deficit and then proposes £20 billion of extra spending, and a leader of the opposition who forgets to mention the deficit at all, we would have an opposition leader and shadow chancellor who put forward ideas for cutting the deficit which could survive ten seconds of serious scrutiny.
"If we had a responsible opposition, then instead of constantly attacking businesses they would be encouraging the government to help employers provide more jobs and earn more money for Britain.
"If we had a responsible opposition, then instead of constantly promising to spend more they would be calling on the government to further reduce what is still an unsustainable level of public borrowing."
"If there had been any doubt, this week's Labour conference demonstrated that Britain does not have a responsible opposition."
(Chris Whiteside)
"If we had a responsible opposition, then instead of constantly attacking businesses they would be encouraging the government to help employers provide more jobs and earn more money for Britain.
"If we had a responsible opposition, then instead of constantly promising to spend more they would be calling on the government to further reduce what is still an unsustainable level of public borrowing."
"If there had been any doubt, this week's Labour conference demonstrated that Britain does not have a responsible opposition."
(Chris Whiteside)
Comments
One of the largest areas of waste across the UK in the public sector is the flawed way in which finances are managed.
Your yearly budget is £X - lets say £100,000
now if your little team don't spend your budget then you did not need it, so, in April will will take back anything you have not spent and cut your budget next year by that amount.
You see, if it was never needed and its getting close to year end then the obvious thing to do is spend it quick, on what ever, to ensure you have it should you need it next year.
there is no incentive to save money, only what appears as a punishment if you do, followed by a shortfall next year, when you may well need it.
another example would be to tax a public sector office, i mean its senseless. I know the paper format is ending soon, but this example may point out what i mean.
Should a Fire Engine have a tax disc? you see the fire service are funded by taxation, so the taxation that is used to build the fire budget, then a part of it, comes out of the black hole that is tax money, so it can be used to fight fires, goes on buying a tax disc where that money goes into the black hole that is tax money (minus a few admin costs and things from the DVLA and other administration bodies), also an empolyee of the fire service is checking tax discs and applying for them to ensure the fire engines are all taxed, when they could be doing something else, or the staffing levels could be reduced.
Why go to the burden of making a public sector worker pay income tax?, think about it, they are paid out of tax, so why create the burden of taxing them, why not just pay them less in the first place "tax free".
It does not take a lot, just look at the areas where tax is being used to pay tax, or budget rules apply and you will very quickly start to think "who on Earth thought of that"
but I don't think that's true. now I would have agreed if you had said "the conservatives have done more than any other POLITICAL PARTY to cut the deficit" i would have agreed 100%. But the fact remains the Conservatives have not done enough, and don't intend to do enough before the next election to do it.
"We will safeguard Britain’s credit rating with a credible plan to eliminate the bulk of the structural deficit over a Parliament"
do you recognise that statement?
Bulk of the deficit, well to me that means over 75% at least, though its fair to say you could get away with 51%, Still, erm... well.....
You see when Labour left office in 2010 the debt was £759.5 billion, or in my pick up trucks,parked nose to tail, with a million pounds on each of them it was 759,500 pick up trucks long (1726.14 miles long)
Now when the conservatives leave office it will be £1,200 billion or 1,200,000 pick up trucks long (2727.27 miles long)
which means of course that of those pick up trucks each one will a million pounds on the back of it then look at this)
the last 440,500 of them (1001 miles) are painted blue (with a yellow go faster stripe), under the current government alone.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land's_End_to_John_o'_Groats
Every other government ever are responsible for the other 63%
good, and clever what you can do with figures, when you quote the ones you want to, isn't it.
by this i mean - every pound raised in road tax and fuel duty goes on road improvment
every pound in income tax goes on the NHS, fire, and Education etc
every tax is ring fenced and every tax does that which it is there to do.
Of course, part of the impact of borrowing too much money is that it becomes a vicious circle as the interest payments on the money already borrowed make it harder and harder to stay in the black.
Someone wrote a great line the other day about the impact of the money Brown and Balls borrowed makes it harder for Cameron, Osborne (and any future government) to balance the books - they said
"Cameron and Osborne reached the cockpit just as the afterburners kicked in."
Interesting point about government departments paying tax although the particular examples have problems - in a few weeks nobody will need to display a tax disc, and exempting government employees from income tax could have some unexpected and odd consequences. But the basic question - can we save money by making it simpler - is a good one.
"Computer says that cars not taxed, oh, wait, computer says it does not need to be."
Because its just a check box exercise it does not take a lot to make a car "exempt" from the road tax bit. Also, if its ever sold, its very easy to un check that exempt box, at the time the DVLA are made aware of the transfer (which of course they have to be)
Now will this cost jobs in the DVLA, well possibly, but unlikely. it just means the turn around of paperwork is faster which benefits everyone. freeing up resource to be used elsewhere.
so we have a net loss.
!!!NEW SCIENTIFIC LAW!!!
JIM'S LAW
"Every time money is moved, or is pretended to be moved, around the public sector, money is lost"