Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Man ring-fences his beer from spending review cuts...

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Very interesting exercise, easily showing the limits of the governments comparison of the UK budget deficit to a household budget or a person's credit card bill.

BBC News - 'My own personal Spending Review'

...the coalition government has used the comparison with household budgets to make the case for its own cuts....At the Liberal Democrat party conference, Nick Clegg compared the UK to a family which earned £26,000 while spending £32,000 a year on top of £40,000 debts. David Cameron has also described the deficit as "a bit like our credit cards - we all know the longer you leave it, the worse it gets".

Nonetheless, this line of reasoning has its limitations, Malcolm Sawyer, professor of economics at the University of Leeds, says.

He argues that, because about a third of the government's debt is owed to pension funds, repayments are going from one set of taxpayers to another.

"Politicians like to refer to the image of the housewife doing her weekly shopping budget - it's a powerful analogy that's easy to understand," he says.

"But the reality of why governments run up deficits is harder to explain in a soundbite - it's because tax revenues collapsed."...

Aircraft carriers with...er...no aircraft: alternative use proposed

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This use of aircraft carriers without any...er...aircraft has apparently been put forward by the Tory-Lib Dem Coalition Govt - obviously the 'greenest government ever' - in order to counter one of our real security threats, climate change. Perhaps it will be followed by flowers in guns instead of bullets, bombers turning into butterflies above our nation.... http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/normantebbit/100059722/defence-review-aircraft-carriers-without-aircraft-are-like-a-pub-without-beer/

Capitalist ideology dominates cuts decisions

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Excellent piece by George Monbiot (see quote below). The spending cuts process is dominated by Tory capitalist ideology more than practical necessity. The Lib Dems are backing the Tories to the hilt - so much for Vince Cable's concerns about capitalism (this never did have substance anyway especially given that he is privatising the Royal Mail and backs the establishment of a free market in tuition fees...ie he is extending capitalism!! More on this issue soon.).

Monbiot.com » Britain’s Shock Doctrine

...Public bodies whose purpose is to hold corporations to account are being swept away. Public bodies whose purpose is to help boost corporate profits, regardless of the consequences for people and the environment, have sailed through unharmed. What the two lists suggest is that the economic crisis is the disaster the Conservatives have been praying for. The government’s programme of cuts looks like a classic example of disaster capitalism: using a crisis to re-shape the economy in the interests of business....

   Stockwood Pete: Cutting the debt? No, adding to it

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Stockwood Pete: Cutting the debt? No, adding to it

ENERGY Secretary Chris Huhne paved the way for a new power station at Oldbury but shelved plans for a Severn barrage for at least five years.

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I'm glad to hear that the severn barrage has been shelved - its very expensive and in fact would destroy beautiful and valuable estuary ecosystems (pictured) and some land on either side too. [Interesting to read in the story below that my MP Dawn Primarolo thinks the barrage is actually a green idea - she's never understood what green action means].


The pro-nuclear stance of the Govt is wrong however because nuclear leaves an extremely expensive and extremely toxic legacy of nuclear waste for future generations. Its very much the wrong technology choice, with the prospect of large delays and cost overruns too.

While we are so very wasteful and inefficient with our energy use how can we justify building any kind of power station?

ENERGY Secretary Chris Huhne paved the way for a new power station at Oldbury but shelved plans for a Severn barrage for at least five years.