The BBC, as David has mentioned, has made yet another election attack on the Tories with claims of a ‘revelation’…
Election 2015: Conservative benefit cut options leaked
The Conservatives are considering options for scrapping several benefits, Department for Work and Pensions documents seen by the BBC suggest.
The leaked files, commissioned by Tory officials, also suggest a regional benefits cap and taxing disability benefits as ways to help cut £12bn from the welfare budget by 2017/18.
Strange that that is another very old story that the BBC that has disinterred at a convenient time for Labour…from the Telegraph in January 2014.….
George Osborne pledges £12bn cuts in Government welfare spending after next general election
Chancellor George Osborne announces plans as part of a package of cuts after the 2015 election worth £25 billion in total
‘News’ from the BBC or propaganda? Then again they tried the same tactic when they attempted to stitch the Tories up with a 5 year old story about HSBC and Lord Green…only to find out that their very own head of the BBC Trust, Rona Fairhead, was responsible for auditing HSBC’s books and is still employed by them on a mega salary.
Nice to know that the BBC know what the Tories are going to cut in benefits, because the Tories don’t seem to have a clue if you believe their silence.
Their plan is most likely to ban all white people from claiming any benefit (other than pensioners of course). This will be sold as ‘equality’ which the Tories are very keen on, and after all we all know from Jo Brand that the whites are to blame for everything!
Starving the whites will mean that housing becomes available so the Tories won’t need to built more houses/schools/hospitals !
Of course they will maintain their elite position of rulers while the rest of us starve to death!
You are talking total bollox . I think you have been Chippy Mintoned by the Clapped out busmans holiday . Stop taking the drugs & clear your head .
i know you’ve probably just got in after a saturday night out and youre probably drunk, but, run along and play tory boy. Abuse like what you have just said to thoughtful is what i’d expect from the trolls, and certainly not from a newbie like you and you certainly shouldnt be giving abuse like that to a long established and respected user of this site
Irony defeats you does it Essex Man? I thought that was one of the most amusing rhetorical devices I have recently read, and well used by Thoughtful, but it appears to be beyond your capability of understanding.
If any one was going to do the above from Mr T , it would be Millipeed /SNP , not the Conservatives , what he is saying is total Terry Pratchett .
If any one was going to do the above from Mr T , it would be Millipeed /SNP , not the Conservatives , what he is saying is total, Terry Pratchett .
Well, I don’t think I am a ‘newbie’ and I am rather with Essexman on this one. Thoughtful’s post was well on the level of overexaggeration and I am sure (I hope) that he is therefore not too offended at a slightly over the top response from the man from Essex.
N.B. Thoughtful’s a she.
If the BBC wish to delve into the past perhaps I could jog their memory of Labours Gordon Browns Stealth Taxation between 1997 and 2005
Gordon Brown imposed 157 ‘stealth tax’
The analysis, by some of Britain’s most respected economic forecasters at the time revealed that the number of Labour tax hikes was more than double previously thought.
Labour went into the 1997 and 2001 general elections pledging not to increase the standard or top rates of income tax. Tony Blair went even further in 1995 saying: “We have no plans to increase taxes at all.”
But while Labour has kept its pledge not to raise the rate of income tax, Chancellor Gordon Brown devised dozens of alternative revenue-raising schemes.
The most notable include an increase of 10 per cent in National Insurance contributions to raise money for spending on the NHS.
Duty on a bottle of spirits went up by 19p by 16p on a bottle of wine and £1.03 on 20 cigarettes.
Council tax, meanwhile, has gone up by 70 per cent since Labour came to power ( 1997 – 2005)
Mr Brown refused to raise income tax thresholds in line with increasing earnings. This has dragged 1.5million more people into the higher tax rate.
In addition perhaps the BBC could be reminded of Gordon Brown’s notorious “pension stealth tax” which reduced the value of retirement funds by at least £100 billion.
Of course, IIRC Brown did raise the rate of Income Tax just prior to the 2010 GE (despite his promises). This is how they have been able to keep pushing the line that Cameron gives tax cuts to millionaires despite him only reducing the top rate to what it had been throughout nearly all of Labour’s years of venality, corruption and incompetence.
If the BBC was doing its job properly , and we could have an open democracy , they would be asking who in the civil service were formulating this benefits cuts policy , and any policy they are considering , whether left or right leaning . Who authorised such actions ?
I hate the idea of any civil servant implementing a policy unless it’s authorised by elected politicians , or the civil servants stand for election.
The process as I understand it is that ministers usually make a choice of possible policy options all of which are drawn up by civil servants. However within that there can arise considerable disagreement between ideological positions on the part of ministers and civil servants who are required to frame those positions for the purpose of statue. Ultimately what you find in bills has very little input from politicians.
Having dealt with lying deceitful civil servants I don’t want them instigating any policies or ” advising ” ministers unless every correspondence is open and we know what they said . An exception for security and diplomacy can be made .
If civil servants want power they should stand for election .
Governments are not like people and do not have to Balance the Books if they don’t want to. They can print all the cash they want and when they want (quantitative easing). This can mess up the economy by effectively devaluing the currency of course, which is not what any economy should do as it makes exports more expensive and encourages imports by making them cheaper. It (quantitative easing) basically makes the currency unstable, so governments avoid too much of it if they can.
A government has to bear all this and more in mind in making any decision regarding the economy and it cannot always be forecast accurately, but of course studies have to be done to try and work out the best course of action for the future. Benefits will always be at the top of the list when it comes to scrutiny as it is such a massive and out of control expenditure.
The fact that the hive minds at the BBC get wind of a party or a government department exploring these financial options and then using them to further the BBC’s own bizarre socialist agenda is of course wrong.
We all know the BBC is out of control and run by indoctrinated left wing Peter Pan types with strange concepts of loyalty, always favouring the minorities even if they are violent medieval imports.
The fact that the Cameroons have not squashed the BBC is a testament to the fact that they are either cowards, are in the same gang of twisted socialist simpletons as Labour or paid off by EU/Saudi slush funds to look the other way. Probably all three.
For further information on how to screw Britain and its economy write to Mr T. Blair or Mr G. Brown c/o their Swiss banks.
Love the delusional notion that Government spending is left wing! Maybe they should cut the police and military. I’m always surprised by the huge numbers of Tories in the BBC that make it so left wing.
One thing you are right about however is that government spending is not the same as household spending.
Sadly with the focus in this election being about the budget deficit instead of business regeneration we are all missing a trick. That being that borrowing on gilts will make the Government money and boost the economy with real jobs if it’s properly invested in spade ready projects.
The facts are that austerity has never grown an economy but keysian pump priming has.