The Tories and both their Coalition partners the Lib Dems and now the opposition Labour Party claim massive cuts in spending on social services, welfare to the vulnerable and education are needed to cut the national deficit. But as Green Party leader Caroline Lucas told the party conference in Liverpool this weekend, this is very much a matter of choice driven by perspective rather than financial necessity. It seems there is plenty of money left for some pretty unpleasant choices the Con Dems are happy to splurge out on...
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“plenty of money left” - no Dr Lucas did not give costs. Take Housing Benefit, it costs more than the entire Army and Navy budget combined. Now I wish the government would cap rents rather than cap HB itself, but BH costs can not be allowed to spiral out of control.
ReplyDeleteBankrupting the shipbuilders contracted by Labour to build the aircraft carriers (waste of money I agree, but the contract is signed), throwing thousands out of jobs in Govan, Rosyth, Appledore and Birkenhead, is just transferring the pain from one group to another. Look at the mass redundancies of state employees in Communist Cuba, are those ideologically motivated.
Anonymous
ReplyDeleteRegulating rents would be great, I agree with you - Greens are not talking about leaving HB to function in the same way as it does now.
As for the workers in the dockyards, such as remain, the technologies required for investment in alternative energy as advocated under the Green New Deal are actually very closely associated with the skills base in both the shipbuilding and the armaments industries - so moving Government investment out of aircraft carriers into renewable energy would not necessarily throw people out of work.
And yes, the contract has been signed and yes, the Green leader is highlighting the folly of having done so by New Labour as much as having a pop at the Con Dems. As she has said, with Ed's embracing of the cuts, Labour are just a Tory Party Mark 3, it seems.
You might find this article by Andrew Sims of NEF on transferable engineering skills:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/01/bae-jobs-create-green
best wishes.