Curiosity wrote:
Monbiot aside, you should read the letter from Cameron and the reply. Even presented without comment they are a shocking indictment of how out of touch Cameron is.
And this is in a wealthy Tory borough, where the effects of the cuts are felt less harshly than in inner cities.
Doctor Glyndwr wrote:
Cavey wrote:
Must admit, I refuse point blank to read Monbiot's laughable outputs. Zoomer-fodder IMO.
Don't read the article. Just read the two letters embedded in it, the one from Cameron to the Oxfordshire council, and the reply from the (Conservative) head of the council. Amongst other things, Cameron confuses annual saving with cumulative total saving to date, writes off a cut of 37% as unimportant, and appears to have no grasp of what central government funding cuts is actually doing to frontline services.
Fair enough gentlemen, point conceded (with a few small caveats
).
Cameron displays breathtaking ignorance as to the impact of his own government's policies, there; the very notion that a swinging 37% cut in funding will have anything other than a devastating effect, is absurd and speaks volumes - agreed.
Of course, it's worth noting *why* such huge cuts are considered necessary in some quarters, ergo the complete collapse of the UK economy for lack of effective Banking regulation by the preceding Labour government; hopefully you will appreciate I'm a relatively fair-minded, not-too-conceited guy (see above) but I'm sorry, for me at least there's just no getting away from this, though doubtless none of us wants to redo the entire UK govt-vs-world banking crisis thing again, least of all me. That is my view, for reasons previously stated at length.
It's also worth noting that, although as a 'one nation Tory' I oppose the Tax Credit cuts as they currently are (not to say, though, that I wouldn't want to see working benefits cut to middle class earners of £40k or even ~£50k who apparently still receive these benefits, truly absurd and not what the Welfare State was ever conceived for), I also find the notion that no further
wholesale savings and efficiencies being possible in your average Local Authority as absurd. Have a frank, honest conversation with any friends who work in such places, or the NHS come to that, chances are they'll candidly tell you about waste on a pretty large scale? (Sorry, I know this falls into the "anecdotal pish" category and I'm not offering this up as scientific evidence or something, but I think as a broad discussion point it's valid)
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Beware of gavia articulata oculos...
Dr Lave wrote:
Of course, he's normally wrong but
interestingly wrong