Cuts Are Not a Necessity, Nor Are They Inevitable

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/mar/07/spending-cuts-labour-election-tories
Compelling case made there.

Should public sector workers, the listeners of BBC6, students in FE/HE be penalised for the recession? A recession caused by a corrupt financial system - unchecked capitalism - aided and abetted by our politicians.

The nerve is extraordinary for Conservatives - and to a large extent, Labour - to be claiming public sector cuts would in effect be victim-less. Try lopping 20% off the budget of any area which provides frontline services to the public... The excess auditing and the culture of yearly mock-OFSTED inspections would be savings that could be made.

Redundancies in the civil service or education sectors may only amount to miniscule savings, considering the redundancy payments and future welfare benefits that the state will have to pay out.

Across-the-board pay freezes and reductions in managerial salaries might be part of the answer.

No cuts are wholly victimless - e.g. not renewing trident would mean cuts in Cumbria, getting rid of ID cards would affect the Durham passport offices. But these would at least be principled decisions - unlike the main parties' application of warped 'realism' to HE / FE / Local Authorities / Civil Services.

The BBC comes into this too. The strategic review talked about 'Quality' but not Public Service Broadcasting. I urge all to read the Strategic Review here and then respond to it...:
https://consultations.external.bbc.co.uk/departments/bbc/bbc-strategy-review/consultation/consult_viewAlso, sign this petition for good measure; ensure it exceeds 100,000 signatories:
http://www.petition.fm/petitions/6musicasiannet/1000/

Preserve and support what is good public service: libraries, health care, BBC, NHS. The battle is only beginning and the General Election outcome will play a significant role in this. The debate must be joined now by all who care about retaining the vestiges of enlightenment to be found in Blighty. One cannot sit back resigned and watch the things you care about disintegrating; the forces of ignorance will win otherwise.

Same old lies

So, the nutters find an ally to peddle this hateful nonsense.

Obama's plan isn't even looking to establish a health service free at the point of use; he isn't Nye Bevan, more's the pity - but, he is looking to moves things in a better direction.

'Eccentric' views, eh, Mr Cameron? He well knows that the Daniel Hannan position is representative of many in his party... why should anyone believe the NHS would be safe in Tory hands? Cameron is following to the letter Thatcher's strategy of saying as little as possible before getting into power. It is so frustrating to see Prescott and others making the right sort of noises on this now, when they have so comprehensively rejected the collectivist way of thinking embodied by the NHS in how they have governed this country. Quite a perceptive piece on current signals from Cameron here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/aug/14/alan-duncan-expenses-cameron-tories

So, the worst side of America comes in the open, yet again; erroneously trying to use Stephen Hawking and others to back up their campaign. We do things differently here, at least on this topic. There is vast public support for, yes, our socialist way of doing health - it is about caring best for all in the country.