Vote!
Should public spending be cut this year?
- 55% are saying yes
- 45% are saying no
comments from readers
- jason from weymouth
22 February 2010 - no
I live in Weymouth and almost daily the local press tells us about cuts in health care or the closure of supported housing or refuges. The vulnerable are constanly being asked to pay for the mistakes made by the greedy and the stupid. I work in education and resources are being stretched; class sizes are increasing and the pressure to support our learners to achieve higher and higher grades is omnipresent. The contradictions of western politics are reaching new levels and the deceit is now malignant. Don't vote for any party that lays the responsibility anywhere near our doors for this debacle!
- longchalk
22 February 2010 - no
if they can find billions to give to corrupt bankers, billions to set fire to other peoples countries...then they can also find the money for public investment.
- Bill Ford
23 February 2010 - no
Cut subsidy to currupted Banks.
- Daniele
24 February 2010 - no
I wholeheartedly agree with Bill, longchalk and jason.
I am in education too and about to lose my job in a small private school.(parents can't pay the fees any more) . I am DIRECTLY made to pay for the greedy and the stupid as Jason correctly calls them and it makes me spit.
Worse, they have learnt no lesson, the bankers are helping themselves AGAIN and the poor, the needy and just plain ordinary middle class people are going to be made to pay for them through cuts.
It is intolerable and there has been revolutions in the past for less than that! Not here of course as the British tend to fall on their knees as soon as their rich upper classes and their governments kick them in their teeth. - Fred Reed
25 February 2010 - yes
All Quangos should be stopped before 1/3/10
All government employees earning more than the Prime Minster should have there pay/bonus/expenses frozen today.
No government employee should be able to draw his Pension before the age of 65 or receive deductions of 11% per year (compound) for each year before they are 65.
All government spin doctors & consultants cannot be employed after today.
We should stop building Wind turbines; in theory they should currently provide 8% of our electricity, have they ever produced 3%? in this cold weather they produce 0.3% - bedabs
25 February 2010 - no
the economy is still in recession, public spending is needed to maintain the economy at levels where damage to the infrastructure is avoided. more capital projects please - tube for a start.
- Stephen Petter
25 February 2010 - no
But next year... yes.
26 February 2010- yes
The Country (and the people) have lived on credit ffor too long - the only people really paying for these excesses are the savers; the interst rates are ridiculous!
Alan Briggs, Cambridge
- M J Beanland
26 February 2010 - no
Now the banks have all my money perhaps they should pay us back what has been taken freely.
- Davidturner
27 February 2010 - no
They already have been cut - specifically parts of State Retirement Pensions
- mrandyc
27 February 2010 - no
How can making thousands of public sector employees unemployed help the economy?
- barry123
28 February 2010 - no
public spending must increase to keep up with the
high rate of inflation presently running at 31.6 percent - Keir H
01 March 2010 - no
Cut bank bonuses first!
- cobdev
02 March 2010 - yes
we have no money so CUTS NOW ! we are trading whilst insolvent ,How long would a company last.
- gnuneo
03 March 2010 - no
the top 10% have doubled their wealth or more in the last 10 years (god alone knows what that means since 1979) - why should the poorest and neediest lose what little they have so that some others may be billionaires?
i would be interested to hear more of the "yes" comments. Why are you all chickenshits?
- Vic Singh
08 March 2010 - no
No.
This nonsense about debt is amazing.
Are people actually looking at it as a percentage of GDP?
Our economy is sound generally, but if we are not careful, we will lose our skill base. I for one am thinking about moving to India if the Tories get in.
I don't trust these inexperienced bunch, and despite Brown's faults he knows exactly what he is doing on the Economy.
- retiree
08 March 2010 - no
We should balance the books over several years like after the war.Keeping people in work is much more impoertant.
- Tom Roberts
10 March 2010 - yes
Yes. Sadly we have to repair the nation after years of Labour mismanagement and that includes reducing debt. If we dont start living within our means as a Nation we will be reduced to a banana republic. Wake up!!!
- RSM
17 March 2010 - yes
Yes, and so should everyones bonus!
- MKain
18 March 2010 - no
Our main priority for Britain at this time must be to support our fragile economic recovery, and to create jobs, and we must oppose severe cuts in puble spending as advocated by the Tories, and the EU. Once economic recovery kicks in the budget deficit will fall. Michael Kain.
- barry123
25 March 2010 - no
punish the banks with heavy taxation make them pay for the damage they have done.
- don
25 March 2010 - no
the "debt" is the responsibility of the rich - they made the insane gambles - the losses are theirs and theirs alone.
- JPM
26 March 2010 - yes
The no voters should wake up to reality. We have and are still squandering millions of pounds of tax payers money due to terrible mismanagement by the current labour government who havent got a clue!! If they get back in the country is ruined.
- Vic Singh
26 March 2010 - no
No
Stimulus first of the Private sector. It is the creation of wealth that will get us out of this. You don't sell your prize Stallion to the glue factory.
- townslives
29 March 2010 - no
gnuneo
hear, hear
- Bill Ford
30 March 2010 - no
Should continue with the basic process of creating money in a ‘fractional reserve’ banking system through Modern Money Mechanics. Which makes Government spending all so Interesting.
- thomaslydon
31 March 2010 - no
we must continue to support the most vulnerable in our society
- alan
11 April 2010 - yes
for every £1 of income this government spends £1.36. this is unsustainable
- GoldFishBrain
11 April 2010 - no
No - we need to nurture our recovery and protect jobs. People in jobs help with spending power and econominc growth. Tories by nature want to cut no matter if it's good or bad to do so.
- chukkiegg
12 April 2010 - no
Tax the rich, cut arms spending, stop the wars in Iraq & Afghanistan, nationalise the banks and punish the fat cats. There's plenty of money there. Why should the poor and the workers always pay for the extravagances of the rich & powerful? Shame on the 55% who've voted 'yes'! I won't hold my breath for the corrupt crooks in the mainstream parties to do any of this, though.
- wally
13 April 2010 - yes
Yes
Savings can be found in any industry through efficiency not necessarily job losses
- Clift
15 April 2010 - yes
Public spending can easily be cut be carving out all the waste. It can be cut hugely without impacting front line services. There are far too many bureaucrats and administration staff in the public sector, providing no value to the service supply chain. The question is a little too simplistic, as many people will read it and assume that cuts in public spending mean cuts in service. I think service levels could be maintained and even enhanced in spite of spending cuts. The cuts just need to be made in the right places. Whitehall would be a good start, then all the NHS administrative levels cut be at least halved.
- michelle
16 April 2010 - no
get the money of the rich folk leave us poor families alone that are struggling .my grandparents used to tell me years ago labour are all about the rich folk and they were not wrong they are not interested in helping the poorer families the only people in this country not struggling are the rich.
- Andy Grainger
17 April 2010 - no
There are already substantial areas of the public sector that are being cut. Where I work in Nottinghamshire many local authority workers have had signicant cuts in pay. My civil service dept (HMRC) has reduced from over 90,000 to 70,000 in five years. This year our budget ie staff was cut by 13%. This represents lots of tax uncollected, lots of jobs not created and lots of purchasing power lost - and we are told that the significant cuts have not yet started. Want to create a depression - keep the cuts coming.
- Harold R.Chorney
19 April 2010 - no
Cutting public expenditures as you emerge from a deep recession is always a very bad idea. It removes critical aggregate demand. Spend more efficiently but do not spend less.If you assume that high employment is an unemployment rate of 5 % or less then almost all of the current deficit is due to recession and the rise in unemployment to almost 8 % Clegg is wrong when he claims that the structural deficit is 70 billion pounds because he is accepting the treasury projection that unemployment when it reaches 7 % or 1.55 million unemployed is somehow high employment. it matters what rate of unemployment you choose as high employment because it affects the calculation of the structural deficit. Prime minister Brown should raise this in debate and ask Mr.Clegg if he understands this. he should also pledge Labour to lowering the rate of unemployment to 5 %. At that rate the deficit would largely disappear.
