So the facts, figures, cuts & ring fenced departments have now been delivered by the Chancellor, I am sure you have all had time to reflect on the areas that either affect you, your family or loved ones, but with the media hype on certain areas, such as the retirement age being increased to 66 by 2020, yes 2020 surely that needs to be put into rational terms. We are living longer as a population, it is not happening overnight which gives everyone time to perhaps adjust long-term plans, even add an extra year to your pension! (The previous Government were going to implement this anyway.)
Should the NHS be ring fenced with budget increases every year till 2015? I know at one time the NHS was one of the world’s biggest employers, only coming in third behind the Chinese Army and the Indian State Railways!! I can imagine it is still up there, but I am not saying we should be cutting front line staff, because of all the valuable work the nurses and doctors do, it’s the pen pushers and the over paid management structure they have in place. The MOD are cutting 25000 civilian posts, surely there should be real reductions in non-nursing staffing? I know £20bn in efficiency and productivity savings is sought in the NHS by the end of the parliament, but is that sought or demanded?
The Government also needs to intervene with the drug companies that supply the NHS and force lower prices for medicinal supply. Yes they need to invest in research, but profits far outreach this argument from certain drug companies.
There has been an array of comments on the defence review since a news article I posted on LinkedIn, so I will leave you to BLOG your views on those cuts here….
The UK Border Agency are to lose 5000 posts at a time we are trying to control not just immigration, which is the easy part by putting in quotas etc…..the hard part is the illegal entry and the huge problem of our net migration into this country from our new European ‘partners’, so I am sure this reduction in staff will have a further impact on schools, the NHS, our benefits system, local authorities, etc, as we again open our borders to all and sundry.
I could continue such as the International Development budget to increase by £3.9bn to £11.6bn over the next 4 years to honour our UN aid commitments?? (Feeding and funding terror and warlords?) But let us hear your viewpoint as I step down from my BLOG soapbox!!
How do the proposed spending cuts affect you? Are they justified? Are they too much too fast? Do they target the wrong people or departments? What is your point of view as a serving member of HM Forces, a family member of someone serving, a job seeker, a small business, as a retired or soon to be retired individual or couple, are you or a family member considering university? What impacts are you expecting?