EYES WIDE SHUT

Half the story, all the time. B-BBC contributor Alan writes;


“The Unions, the IFS and the BBC have come together to put the boot into the government cuts. The BBC has been giving much air time to Union complaints over the last few days…all of which seem to be part of a concerted plan.

First there was the Border Guards who claim that government concentration on immigration meant more drugs and guns were on our streets. The BBC naturally loved this….any immigration control is an anathema to them…so claims it causes death and crime are good news.

Then there was the complaints about the recalculation of pensions using the CPI instead of the RPI….the BBC’s business correspondent on ‘Wake up to money’, whom I won’t name to spare his blushes, asked why were the government doing this, the government and business would save money but why would they do it? Odd that…who knows…maybe they just wanted to save money! Quality journalism form the BBC financial experts.

Then we have union warnings that youth funding cuts will only lead to riots…coincidentally released at the same time as the IFS report on education cuts….’Unites’ ‘Doug Nicholls said the August riots had shown that the “devil makes work for idle hands” and it was in communities where there were few youth services that “difficulties had occurred”. ‘
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15443138
The BBC gave free rein to Nicholls on 5Live this morning and again on the Today programme.
This is what the BBC itself tells us….’cuts to youth services would – not just could – hurt Britain’s future….these youngsters demand to be heard – or else, they say.

Without a youth club or an after-school club, they say the young people of today are destined to fail. ….they fear Britain could see a repeat of August’s riots – but on an even wider scale – unless people their age have enough to do.

….’they’ point out that their area was free from the rioting in the summer because they have services for young people.
“We should be their highest priority because we are tomorrow. We are the future.” ‘
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15446724

It’s curious what the BBC choose to publish from the IFS…..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-15430189

They give headline pride of place to cuts to education but ignore totally this also from the IFS which is even more revealing….in that it condemns social spending as the drag on the nation’s economy and the reason why growth is held back….
http://www.ifs.org.uk/bns/bn119.pdf
 ‘The changing composition of public spending

Our analysis is quite revealing. At the time of the OBR publication there was much commentary on the fact that spending on pensions and health look like taking an increasing portion of public spending going forward.
In 1990–91 health spending accounted for 12.2% of total public spending but by 2010–11 its share had grown to 17.5%. Over the same 20 year period, spending on pensions increased from 10.6% of the total to 12.6%.

The obverse of this, of course, is that other areas of spending must have become relatively less important.

Defence is one of the most notable….and…Over a slightly longer time scale the role of the state has changed more substantively; in the late 1970s much more significant amounts of money were spent on housing and support for business than are spent today.

Over the past 30 years or so the role of the state has changed to accommodate increased spending on health, pensions and other areas of social protection. Spending on defence, housing, and direct intervention in the economy to support business, has taken the strain.’

In 1978-79 we spent 45% on health, welfare (including pensions) and education…now it is 60% of public spending….and ever increasing. Support to business has slumped from 9% to 3% as funds are redirected from these areas to pay for social costs. Defence and housing also lost huge amounts of funding.

Clearly such costs are not sustainable….it is business and economic growth that funds social spending and therefore to cut back support for business undermines the long term viability of the system and means future social spending will be impossible….or rather the spending we have now as labour met these demands by ever more borrowing. The BBC seem not to keen to publicise the conclusions here….that massive rises in social costs are eventually going to bankrupt us.