| Govt deficit: what would you do? 15:08 - Jul 8 with 5198 views | giant_stow |
I keep reading that the Uk's finances are looking unsustainable. I realise that that may in itself be a controversial opinion, but for the sake of argument, what would you do to get things back on track? |  |
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| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 23:02 - Jul 8 with 966 views | reusersfreekicks |
| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 21:03 - Jul 8 by backwaywhen |
And you think the last year has been any better ! …Labour has and always will bankrupt the country it’s in their makeup unfortunately.
Give in to the unions and rob the real workers who keep this country ticking over . |
Think the 1970s want you back for a Daily Express opinion piece |  | | |
| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 07:26 - Jul 9 with 886 views | noggin |
It's too late, wealth inequality has gone too far. The top 1% now has more wealth than the bottom 90%, in The States. Capitalism has encouraged greed and hoarding. Oh well, let's start a war in some far away land and slaughter the poor people who live there. There's always money available for war. |  |
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| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 07:42 - Jul 9 with 850 views | DJR |
Apropos of nothing, this from John Crace in the Guardian made me laugh.
"Finally we got the big reveal. The French were going to lend us the Bayeux tapestry. And we were going to lend them the Sutton Hoo longboat in return. Good luck with your small boat crossings in that." |  | | |
| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 08:46 - Jul 9 with 795 views | chicoazul |
| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 19:23 - Jul 8 by Dubtractor |
What's your suggestion then, Chickers, other than vote for someone else?
Vote for who/what?
What's your suggestion. It's easy to sneer at others, less easy to offer something constructive.
That's not meant as a dig at you, well maybe a small one, but give us some ideas! |
I’ve thought about this quite a lot since you asked
I think on balance, the best thing we could now do as a nation is to join the EU as a full throated member with the Euro et al
It’s time to give up on the myth of English exceptionalism and our unique island culture
Our political class in this country have proved they are an incompetent disaster since the deregulation of finance and privatisation so it’s time for us to hand the reins to the EU technocrats and give them a chance to restore some prosperity and lustre to our shattered nation
Can it be worse? Maybe |  |
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| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 08:51 - Jul 9 with 785 views | noggin |
| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 08:46 - Jul 9 by chicoazul |
I’ve thought about this quite a lot since you asked
I think on balance, the best thing we could now do as a nation is to join the EU as a full throated member with the Euro et al
It’s time to give up on the myth of English exceptionalism and our unique island culture
Our political class in this country have proved they are an incompetent disaster since the deregulation of finance and privatisation so it’s time for us to hand the reins to the EU technocrats and give them a chance to restore some prosperity and lustre to our shattered nation
Can it be worse? Maybe |
Can you imagine the uproar from the flag wavers if this happened? The EU military would have to take to the streets to control the gammon faced patriots. | |
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| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 09:30 - Jul 9 with 766 views | SuperKieranMcKenna |
| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 08:46 - Jul 9 by chicoazul |
I’ve thought about this quite a lot since you asked
I think on balance, the best thing we could now do as a nation is to join the EU as a full throated member with the Euro et al
It’s time to give up on the myth of English exceptionalism and our unique island culture
Our political class in this country have proved they are an incompetent disaster since the deregulation of finance and privatisation so it’s time for us to hand the reins to the EU technocrats and give them a chance to restore some prosperity and lustre to our shattered nation
Can it be worse? Maybe |
What would the ECB do differently though, they’ve printed over €1trn and achieved even worse growth (and forward projections) than the UK. Monetary policy isn’t controlled by the UK Gov so you’d be handing independence over to the ECB. Then you have a whole set of differently balanced economies tied to the same polices e.g export heavy nations like Germany dependent on the euro not being too strong, and you’d have the UK with a huge trade imbalance wanting a stronger Euro as we are dependent on imports. Denmark and other countries have managed fine with their own currencies.
Give us PR and we might get a better class of politician, rather than having to vote for the least worst option. |  | | |
| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 09:42 - Jul 9 with 753 views | surreyblue |
| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 09:30 - Jul 9 by SuperKieranMcKenna |
What would the ECB do differently though, they’ve printed over €1trn and achieved even worse growth (and forward projections) than the UK. Monetary policy isn’t controlled by the UK Gov so you’d be handing independence over to the ECB. Then you have a whole set of differently balanced economies tied to the same polices e.g export heavy nations like Germany dependent on the euro not being too strong, and you’d have the UK with a huge trade imbalance wanting a stronger Euro as we are dependent on imports. Denmark and other countries have managed fine with their own currencies.
Give us PR and we might get a better class of politician, rather than having to vote for the least worst option. |
If we want a better class of politician the first thing we need to do collectively as a country is start acting like grown-ups rather than petulant children. How many good people are put off trying to enter into politics because of the pay, hours, and vitriol/abuse received in the press, online, and in person?
I think that mindset change needs to happen wider as well. If people were more collaborative and took more personal responsibility for their decisions (including in accessing government benefits) then I imagine things will start to improve. It is not lost on me that there is a decent overlap between those who go on about the younger generations taking personal responsibility for their actions while fighting tooth and nail for most/all pensioners to get more state funding because of the cohort of pensioners that didn't take the personal responsibility during their working lives to adequately prepare for their own retirement. | | | |
| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 09:58 - Jul 9 with 714 views | backwaywhen |
| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 21:10 - Jul 8 by StokieBlue |
How have they bankrupted the country in the last year? Please provide evidence and ensure it's not a legacy Tory issue.
It's people like you that are the problem, wheeling out ancient sound bites and narratives without any evidence.
So let's see how they have bankrupted the country and given to the unions in the last year.
SB |
One year in and it ain’t going to end well after (unfortunately) another 4 years …..history repeating itself ! | | | |
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| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 10:20 - Jul 9 with 684 views | CBBlue |
| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 16:25 - Jul 8 by itfcjoe |
Spoke to a mate in Norfolk police at the weekend, they are now targetted for extra staff and have minimum police numbers needed.....if they fall below this number they get their funding cut.
They don't currently need the extra staff, so replacing staff roles with police officers - so rather than paying someone £25k to do case work, they are now paying a copper a bit more to do it now, and in 2-3 years will be paying them £45k a year to do it.....at a time when AI is making part of the job redundant as it is.
Just one example there, and sure that alone doesn't change much but we are in a position where Govt is done by announcements rather than need [Most police numbers since austerity] when it doesn't actually achieve what people want [community policing, presence on the streets, etc] and just cost more for the same |
In a similar vein I used to work for a local council and our small department would go on some big jollies aka 'team building' in Feb/March each year as we had some budget left. Naively I questioned this as, although I enjoyed all the days out, it seemed a bit wrong spending public money like this. I was told that we needed to use up all our budget that financial year otherwise we'd get a smaller budget next year. Absolute madness!
Honestly, there is so much inefficiency in the public sector.. | |
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| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 10:26 - Jul 9 with 672 views | WeWereZombies |
| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 15:37 - Jul 8 by Daninthecampo |
The world debt figure is around 324 trillion usd, with only about 450 T in total assets, the world is screwed!
Each country can make small improvements but it's never going to be enough! |
I've not bothered reading too many posts in this thread (and a lot of them are just the same opinion stated in slightly different words as far I can see from skimming over them) so forgive me if this has already been said but your figures on the imbalance between debt and assets might just alert us to the limits of monetary systems as a suitable guide to how we deploy resource. By the way, does the 'T' aster 450 stand for thousand or trillion ?
Anyway, the World's biggest debtor is the United States - here's what AI gave me (as if I didn't know already...)
'The United States is the world's biggest debtor nation, holding the largest net negative international investment position. This means the US owes more money to other countries than other countries owe to it. While the US has a large national debt, it's also a major global creditor, making its net position the key factor.
Here's a more detailed explanation:
Net International Investment Position (NIIP):
This is the difference between a country's foreign assets (what it owns from other countries) and its foreign liabilities (what it owes to other countries).
US NIIP:
The US has a large NIIP deficit, meaning it owes more to other countries than they owe to the US, making it the world's largest debtor.
National Debt:
While the US has a very large national debt, it also holds significant foreign assets, which means its NIIP is a more comprehensive indicator of its debt position.
China's Role:
China is increasingly playing the role of a creditor nation, lending significant amounts of money to other countries, particularly developing nations.
Therefore, although the US has a high national debt, its position as the world's largest debtor is primarily due to its large negative NIIP. '
This all reminds me of the old adage along the lines of 'if you owe the bank a thousand pounds then you have a problem, if you owe the bank a million pounds then the bank has a problem.'
So, in conclusion, the worst thing the United Kingdom can do is to try and reduce our national debt. We should spend to sort out our problems and let China pay for it. After all that's what Ireland did to Germany fifteen years ago and now Ireland is, by some metrics, the third richest nation per capita in the World. |  |
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| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 10:30 - Jul 9 with 658 views | Churchman |
| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 07:42 - Jul 9 by DJR |
Apropos of nothing, this from John Crace in the Guardian made me laugh.
"Finally we got the big reveal. The French were going to lend us the Bayeux tapestry. And we were going to lend them the Sutton Hoo longboat in return. Good luck with your small boat crossings in that." |
Firstly, the Bayeux Tapestry is actually embroidery. Secondly it’s not complete. Lastly it was made in England. It should be returned to us. If Greece wants its marbles, I want the Bayeux embroidery. And a £1m a year for every year France has had it as rent. That is a few bob in the kitty sorted!
Next, I’d compulsorily tax all cyclists £100 a year to pay their share of road and cycle lane upkeep. There’s 6.7miliion cyclists in England and Wales. Not sure if Scotland has discovered the round wheel yet, but if so, they can pay their share too.
End Scottish Barnett Formula subsidies. £41bn annually back in the pot.
Royal Family residences bar Windsor and their little hovel in Scotland, Balmoral, to be flogged off for development or used as pay to enter museums. Make a fortune. All the other places can go too bar a bungalow or two for the main Royals.
Anglesey to be turned into a big open prison to house all the UKs prison population to be know as Alcatraz Anglesey. The prisoners can build their own accommodation and the existing prisons be flogged off for housing. What about Holyhead? Well, it’s pretty rubbish anyway so just open up Liverpool. Aside from annoying the Welsh, it’ll give the scousers more work and less time to steal hubcaps and delude themselves they’re actually funny.
Increase dog licence fees to £100 a year. There’s 13m in the U.K. No fees for cats though because I like them. Who said life was fair.
Richard Branson’s assets to be seized. All of them, because I don’t like him.
Reopen the coal mines and drill baby drill for oil. Build a couple of nuclear power stations in Dagenham. I don’t like Cockneys either.
A few vote winners there, I feel. And since I was accused of holding the same views as Trump the other day, I thought I’d go full Count Binface as an alternative.
https://www.countbinface.com/manifesto |  | | |
| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 10:32 - Jul 9 with 649 views | positivity |
| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 10:30 - Jul 9 by Churchman |
Firstly, the Bayeux Tapestry is actually embroidery. Secondly it’s not complete. Lastly it was made in England. It should be returned to us. If Greece wants its marbles, I want the Bayeux embroidery. And a £1m a year for every year France has had it as rent. That is a few bob in the kitty sorted!
Next, I’d compulsorily tax all cyclists £100 a year to pay their share of road and cycle lane upkeep. There’s 6.7miliion cyclists in England and Wales. Not sure if Scotland has discovered the round wheel yet, but if so, they can pay their share too.
End Scottish Barnett Formula subsidies. £41bn annually back in the pot.
Royal Family residences bar Windsor and their little hovel in Scotland, Balmoral, to be flogged off for development or used as pay to enter museums. Make a fortune. All the other places can go too bar a bungalow or two for the main Royals.
Anglesey to be turned into a big open prison to house all the UKs prison population to be know as Alcatraz Anglesey. The prisoners can build their own accommodation and the existing prisons be flogged off for housing. What about Holyhead? Well, it’s pretty rubbish anyway so just open up Liverpool. Aside from annoying the Welsh, it’ll give the scousers more work and less time to steal hubcaps and delude themselves they’re actually funny.
Increase dog licence fees to £100 a year. There’s 13m in the U.K. No fees for cats though because I like them. Who said life was fair.
Richard Branson’s assets to be seized. All of them, because I don’t like him.
Reopen the coal mines and drill baby drill for oil. Build a couple of nuclear power stations in Dagenham. I don’t like Cockneys either.
A few vote winners there, I feel. And since I was accused of holding the same views as Trump the other day, I thought I’d go full Count Binface as an alternative.
https://www.countbinface.com/manifesto |
still more sensible and realistic than reform's policies! | |
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| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 10:40 - Jul 9 with 633 views | SuperKieranMcKenna |
| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 10:26 - Jul 9 by WeWereZombies |
I've not bothered reading too many posts in this thread (and a lot of them are just the same opinion stated in slightly different words as far I can see from skimming over them) so forgive me if this has already been said but your figures on the imbalance between debt and assets might just alert us to the limits of monetary systems as a suitable guide to how we deploy resource. By the way, does the 'T' aster 450 stand for thousand or trillion ?
Anyway, the World's biggest debtor is the United States - here's what AI gave me (as if I didn't know already...)
'The United States is the world's biggest debtor nation, holding the largest net negative international investment position. This means the US owes more money to other countries than other countries owe to it. While the US has a large national debt, it's also a major global creditor, making its net position the key factor.
Here's a more detailed explanation:
Net International Investment Position (NIIP):
This is the difference between a country's foreign assets (what it owns from other countries) and its foreign liabilities (what it owes to other countries).
US NIIP:
The US has a large NIIP deficit, meaning it owes more to other countries than they owe to the US, making it the world's largest debtor.
National Debt:
While the US has a very large national debt, it also holds significant foreign assets, which means its NIIP is a more comprehensive indicator of its debt position.
China's Role:
China is increasingly playing the role of a creditor nation, lending significant amounts of money to other countries, particularly developing nations.
Therefore, although the US has a high national debt, its position as the world's largest debtor is primarily due to its large negative NIIP. '
This all reminds me of the old adage along the lines of 'if you owe the bank a thousand pounds then you have a problem, if you owe the bank a million pounds then the bank has a problem.'
So, in conclusion, the worst thing the United Kingdom can do is to try and reduce our national debt. We should spend to sort out our problems and let China pay for it. After all that's what Ireland did to Germany fifteen years ago and now Ireland is, by some metrics, the third richest nation per capita in the World. |
I’m not sure Ireland as effectively a tax haven and key driver of offshoring capital is a model to aspire to though in fairness. That’s effectively the reason they’ve managed such a high GDP per capita (it’s also grossly distorted due to capital which isn’t even really circulating their economy in a lot of cases). They also have a tiny debt to gdp ratio compared to the UK.
The problem for me for the UK is the cost of the debt, rather than the debt per se. The amount of tax take which could be deployed to public services (and simultaneously boosting the economy) is now just going on servicing costs. Last year we spend more on debt than our entire education system. That’s a gross misuse of public funds in my opinion. Other countries like Japan underwrite some of their own debt which potentially is a cheaper way of doing it. But right now we are simply wasting over $100bn a year relying on borrowing (and the costs are increasing). We also have a disproportionate amount of index linked debt which doesn’t help (you can’t reduce it rapidly via inflation). | | | |
| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 10:51 - Jul 9 with 615 views | Dubtractor |
| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 08:46 - Jul 9 by chicoazul |
I’ve thought about this quite a lot since you asked
I think on balance, the best thing we could now do as a nation is to join the EU as a full throated member with the Euro et al
It’s time to give up on the myth of English exceptionalism and our unique island culture
Our political class in this country have proved they are an incompetent disaster since the deregulation of finance and privatisation so it’s time for us to hand the reins to the EU technocrats and give them a chance to restore some prosperity and lustre to our shattered nation
Can it be worse? Maybe |
Thanks for replying. I wouldn't entirely disagree that the current system isnt working, but my concern is that that narrative too often leads to 'give reform a try', which would be a catastrophe on so many levels. |  |
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| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 10:54 - Jul 9 with 603 views | giant_stow |
Just to say thanks to everyone posting - some interesting stuff / good reading. | |
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| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 11:01 - Jul 9 with 584 views | chicoazul |
| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 10:51 - Jul 9 by Dubtractor |
Thanks for replying. I wouldn't entirely disagree that the current system isnt working, but my concern is that that narrative too often leads to 'give reform a try', which would be a catastrophe on so many levels. |
I don’t think it’s a system problem. The system we have works pretty well keeping at bay as it does the more animal spirits of the British. The problem is the class within who run things. People who are generally clueless about the world beyond sw1 and have no experience in business charity abroad etc etc but are determined to continue their lifestyles and those of their chums at all costs. The sole goal of most large bureaucracies is to defend itself. Hence we should denude responsibility for running our shell to those clever chaps in Brussels. Give them a crack, and say goodbye to the English way of life. It’s stopped working and cannot be rescued. | |
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| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 11:12 - Jul 9 with 560 views | WeWereZombies |
| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 10:40 - Jul 9 by SuperKieranMcKenna |
I’m not sure Ireland as effectively a tax haven and key driver of offshoring capital is a model to aspire to though in fairness. That’s effectively the reason they’ve managed such a high GDP per capita (it’s also grossly distorted due to capital which isn’t even really circulating their economy in a lot of cases). They also have a tiny debt to gdp ratio compared to the UK.
The problem for me for the UK is the cost of the debt, rather than the debt per se. The amount of tax take which could be deployed to public services (and simultaneously boosting the economy) is now just going on servicing costs. Last year we spend more on debt than our entire education system. That’s a gross misuse of public funds in my opinion. Other countries like Japan underwrite some of their own debt which potentially is a cheaper way of doing it. But right now we are simply wasting over $100bn a year relying on borrowing (and the costs are increasing). We also have a disproportionate amount of index linked debt which doesn’t help (you can’t reduce it rapidly via inflation). |
Thanks for the perspective on Ireland, I hadn't really thought that one through. But I think that the cost of servicing the debt is a side issue if we consider the current economic and financial systems as unsuitable.
In terms of resource use and the greater good of mankind (not to mention all the other species on this planet) a system that generates sustainability and resilience is probably not going to measure worth in monetary terms.
We box ourselves in by
a) having a poor grasp on where we are now
b) not using the available data to fully comprehend what the future may hold
c) not having systems in place that adapt when our models need updating for new data that shows us we didn't quite get it right previously in our predictions and
d) being too set in our ways to adapt rapidly at a time when evolution will probably favour those who adapt rapidly. | |
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| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 11:16 - Jul 9 with 559 views | Dubtractor |
| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 11:01 - Jul 9 by chicoazul |
I don’t think it’s a system problem. The system we have works pretty well keeping at bay as it does the more animal spirits of the British. The problem is the class within who run things. People who are generally clueless about the world beyond sw1 and have no experience in business charity abroad etc etc but are determined to continue their lifestyles and those of their chums at all costs. The sole goal of most large bureaucracies is to defend itself. Hence we should denude responsibility for running our shell to those clever chaps in Brussels. Give them a crack, and say goodbye to the English way of life. It’s stopped working and cannot be rescued. |
This is a slightly tangential point, but not unrelated.
In my job I have dealings with civil servants from a Westminster department, and I'm constantly stunned by how little knowledge they have of the subject matter that they are developing policy for. Obviously that doesn't apply to all civil servants, but if this is repeated across other areas of government policy making then I can easily see how things fail to work as intended.
Ive kept that deliberately vague, as don't like to give too much away about my job! | |
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| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 11:17 - Jul 9 with 556 views | BlueandTruesince82 |
We need a balance of both tax rises and we'll cosniderd cuts.
Tax rises- difficult sell politically in the UK. Would be more palatable if it got results and things worked. If we look to Scandinavia, which we so often talk about but rarely actually do we see high rates of taxation but their citizens get value for that. Things work, trains run on time, good health care etc. Also higher wages all of which has lead to broadly happy societies. I'm not saying they get everything right, they dont. But they do lots well.
Watching Simon Reeves Scandinavia recently one thing I wasn't aware of is that Norway sett up a sovereign wealth fund in the 60s. Imagine if we'd had that foresight here with North Sea oil profits. That is now a multi billion dollar fun, which continues to grow (holds shares in many major companies) and invests across many different areas.
I think we should work out a way to do something similar. May not help us now but will do much for future generations. If it were me I would legalise weed but have it sold only through government owned dispensaries, I'd tax it on top and the take 50% of what's generated to try and deal with current shortages and put 50% away into the fund to be invested and not touched until it resches a certain value with the aim of it eventually growing consistently yer on year. Norway pays for a huge amount of infrastructure and other things and still grows by more than is taken out each year.
Spending cuts. The welfare state does need to be looked at and we need to be better at helping people get back to work. Access to therapy and mental health support need better funding and if that was better available in schools fewer people would leave school and fall into a cycle of out of work with unresolved trauma. This cycle often results in substance abuse which is a huge drain on the NHS. So much of NHS treatment is spent on things that were avoidable if people were better equipped to deal with life.
Equally the NHS needs to be looked at properly, not funding cuts but efficency found to make the most of the money available.
To give a couple of examples of this.
1. Mrs B and T is a therapist, she recently started working for the NHS. To get to the stationery cupboard she had to get a key, to open a box, to get a key which open a draw where you get a key for the cupboard (I know its sounds like I am making that up, I am not) this is indicative of NHS process in many areas. Thats just to get a note pad. Imagine how hard it is to get something of substance done!
2 (this may have changed but I dont think so). Individual authorities are in charge of procurement, this means the NHS does not fully utilise its collective buying power costing a huge sum. Im sure this to try and ensure that contracts are spread but and not dominated by single companies which I do understand but there must be a better balance to be found.
Lastly I would appoint a member of the B and T party (were i in power) to the position of cross party liaison. Ask other parties to do the same with the aim of trying to find clear areas of consensus to reduce house of commons wrangling over small things and allow more focus time on serious problems. This does require good will across all sides which in the current climate maye prove difficult I admit but I would see then as go betweens bridging party leadership and rank and file MPs to look for quick wins and sensible suggestions where agreement can be reached and legislation passed quickly.
Having said all that. I think we're ballsed |  |
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| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 11:48 - Jul 9 with 520 views | DanTheMan |
| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 11:17 - Jul 9 by BlueandTruesince82 |
We need a balance of both tax rises and we'll cosniderd cuts.
Tax rises- difficult sell politically in the UK. Would be more palatable if it got results and things worked. If we look to Scandinavia, which we so often talk about but rarely actually do we see high rates of taxation but their citizens get value for that. Things work, trains run on time, good health care etc. Also higher wages all of which has lead to broadly happy societies. I'm not saying they get everything right, they dont. But they do lots well.
Watching Simon Reeves Scandinavia recently one thing I wasn't aware of is that Norway sett up a sovereign wealth fund in the 60s. Imagine if we'd had that foresight here with North Sea oil profits. That is now a multi billion dollar fun, which continues to grow (holds shares in many major companies) and invests across many different areas.
I think we should work out a way to do something similar. May not help us now but will do much for future generations. If it were me I would legalise weed but have it sold only through government owned dispensaries, I'd tax it on top and the take 50% of what's generated to try and deal with current shortages and put 50% away into the fund to be invested and not touched until it resches a certain value with the aim of it eventually growing consistently yer on year. Norway pays for a huge amount of infrastructure and other things and still grows by more than is taken out each year.
Spending cuts. The welfare state does need to be looked at and we need to be better at helping people get back to work. Access to therapy and mental health support need better funding and if that was better available in schools fewer people would leave school and fall into a cycle of out of work with unresolved trauma. This cycle often results in substance abuse which is a huge drain on the NHS. So much of NHS treatment is spent on things that were avoidable if people were better equipped to deal with life.
Equally the NHS needs to be looked at properly, not funding cuts but efficency found to make the most of the money available.
To give a couple of examples of this.
1. Mrs B and T is a therapist, she recently started working for the NHS. To get to the stationery cupboard she had to get a key, to open a box, to get a key which open a draw where you get a key for the cupboard (I know its sounds like I am making that up, I am not) this is indicative of NHS process in many areas. Thats just to get a note pad. Imagine how hard it is to get something of substance done!
2 (this may have changed but I dont think so). Individual authorities are in charge of procurement, this means the NHS does not fully utilise its collective buying power costing a huge sum. Im sure this to try and ensure that contracts are spread but and not dominated by single companies which I do understand but there must be a better balance to be found.
Lastly I would appoint a member of the B and T party (were i in power) to the position of cross party liaison. Ask other parties to do the same with the aim of trying to find clear areas of consensus to reduce house of commons wrangling over small things and allow more focus time on serious problems. This does require good will across all sides which in the current climate maye prove difficult I admit but I would see then as go betweens bridging party leadership and rank and file MPs to look for quick wins and sensible suggestions where agreement can be reached and legislation passed quickly.
Having said all that. I think we're ballsed |
Number 2 is really fun from a software point of view. All the authorities (PCTs and the dozen other names they've had over the years) were allowed to go out and buy whatever the hell they wanted from a bunch of different vendors because everything had to go out for tender.
So off they went and bought a load of completely incompatible software.
Oh but now we want to have a single source of truth for a given person about their health record. Excellent idea, small issue, nothing talks to each other so now we'll build something.
No problem. Maybe we should build a team inside the NHS of quality engineers to build this rather big and important piece of software?
Nah.
Let's put it out to tender and get some other third party to do it, surely it'll work out this time?
The stupidity of this boggles my mind.
It's nothing to do with the deficit really but we've lost the ability to do civil engineering of all types in this country. We'd rather pay someone billions to do a rubbish job rather than pay decent wages to public sector people who have expertise for reasons I just cannot fathom.
Why on earth would we not want to pay the wages for the best people when doing these sorts of projects?
And this I guess comes to the heart of why efficiency is easy to say and incredibly difficult to do well. Someone probably thought putting all these things out to tender and having someone else do them would be way more efficient but the consequences have been disastrous. |  |
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| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 11:59 - Jul 9 with 489 views | BlueandTruesince82 |
| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 11:48 - Jul 9 by DanTheMan |
Number 2 is really fun from a software point of view. All the authorities (PCTs and the dozen other names they've had over the years) were allowed to go out and buy whatever the hell they wanted from a bunch of different vendors because everything had to go out for tender.
So off they went and bought a load of completely incompatible software.
Oh but now we want to have a single source of truth for a given person about their health record. Excellent idea, small issue, nothing talks to each other so now we'll build something.
No problem. Maybe we should build a team inside the NHS of quality engineers to build this rather big and important piece of software?
Nah.
Let's put it out to tender and get some other third party to do it, surely it'll work out this time?
The stupidity of this boggles my mind.
It's nothing to do with the deficit really but we've lost the ability to do civil engineering of all types in this country. We'd rather pay someone billions to do a rubbish job rather than pay decent wages to public sector people who have expertise for reasons I just cannot fathom.
Why on earth would we not want to pay the wages for the best people when doing these sorts of projects?
And this I guess comes to the heart of why efficiency is easy to say and incredibly difficult to do well. Someone probably thought putting all these things out to tender and having someone else do them would be way more efficient but the consequences have been disastrous. |
Agree. Software implementation across govt departments is often a disaster.
Infrastructure and civil engineering projects are poorly delivered and massively over budget, costs the tax payer a fortune and takes money away from other vital areas.
Its not an easy one to wrestle with but there must be a better way | |
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| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 12:17 - Jul 9 with 471 views | DanTheMan |
| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 11:59 - Jul 9 by BlueandTruesince82 |
Agree. Software implementation across govt departments is often a disaster.
Infrastructure and civil engineering projects are poorly delivered and massively over budget, costs the tax payer a fortune and takes money away from other vital areas.
Its not an easy one to wrestle with but there must be a better way |
My solution would be to stop putting every damn thing out to tender and hiring goodness knows how many consultants and just hire some people with real expertise to do this stuff. Sure, that means we pay for their wages and maybe that's more expensive than the consultants but in the long term we'd end up saving loads.
That's not to say there aren't times when hiring some private help is worth it but it feels like we've got the ratio way off. | |
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| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 12:36 - Jul 9 with 456 views | brazil1982 |
| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 21:10 - Jul 8 by StokieBlue |
How have they bankrupted the country in the last year? Please provide evidence and ensure it's not a legacy Tory issue.
It's people like you that are the problem, wheeling out ancient sound bites and narratives without any evidence.
So let's see how they have bankrupted the country and given to the unions in the last year.
SB |
Approx. £1.5B to the Miner Worker's pension fund (average 32% rise for members) was one of the first actions this government promised and delivered - and then slashed the winter fuel allowance which paid for it. |  | | |
| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 12:37 - Jul 9 with 453 views | Dubtractor |
| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 12:17 - Jul 9 by DanTheMan |
My solution would be to stop putting every damn thing out to tender and hiring goodness knows how many consultants and just hire some people with real expertise to do this stuff. Sure, that means we pay for their wages and maybe that's more expensive than the consultants but in the long term we'd end up saving loads.
That's not to say there aren't times when hiring some private help is worth it but it feels like we've got the ratio way off. |
Hiring in external expertise makes sense if you're a small department of government/local governmen, but none at all if you're the NHS.
It's the false economy of year upon year of 'efficiency savings'. | |
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| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 12:57 - Jul 9 with 432 views | ArnoldMoorhen |
| Govt deficit: what would you do? on 15:47 - Jul 8 by StokieBlue |
Just been announced that the triple lock will cost x3 the expected amount by 2030.
Could be bold and get rid of it.
*hides*
In reality, what is required is higher taxes with some honesty about the spending and why it's needed.
SB [Post edited 8 Jul 15:53]
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They could get rid of the Triple Lock, without getting rid of the Triple Lock, by moving the goalposts slightly.
Make it:
"The state pension increases by the mean average of inflation, wage increases or 2.5%."
Or:
"The state pension increases by the median of inflation, wage increases or 2.5%."
Or, be more radical and eliminate one or more of the three:
"The state pension increases by the mean average of inflation and wage increases."
(The 2.5% increase is arbitrary and unjustifiable if inflation and wage increases are below that, when there is gross pressure on Public Sector Spending.)
Or, most focused of all:
"The state pension increases by the average rate of wage increases."
(If wage increases are below the rate of inflation, why do working people have to get poorer, but pensioners are insulated against that?)
I write as somebody who will (if still alive) draw my pension in the 2030s, so have some skin in the game. | | | |
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