observer Posted March 4, 2018 Report Share Posted March 4, 2018 Seems Cameron and Osborne have welcomed the reaching of their deficit busting target, albeit two years late. Meanwhile, McDonald complains that austerity is bankrupting Local Councils. So is their room for more savings ? The one area that politicians haven't explored, is themselves; we have more politicians per capita than most, so perhaps some radical pruning could save public money ? Starting at the top: their are now over 800 (unelected) members of the House of Lords, all entitled to claim £300 per day for turning up and signing on; so if we wish to save money and modernised our constitution at the same time, this could be reduced to 100 elected "Senators", elected from Party Lists at a G/Election, thus giving us proportional representation in Parliament. Next, we have around 650 MPs, plus their entourage of office staff and researchers. Cameron wanted to cut this to 600, but it seems the relevant bill isn't going anywhere, as Turkeys don't vote for Xmas. However, it they did, the number could be halved, by amalgamating pairs of constituencies into one, making a saving of at least £80million. Then further down the money tree; we've got Police Commissioners, numerous unelected Boards, such as NHS Trusts, with largely faceless incumbents, all costing us money. Finally, we get down to Local Councils, where, with the introduction of new PR systems to address complaints, and the introduction of Executive Boards to make all the decisions, 90% of councillors could be made redundant. Add to this, the wage inflation that has occurred with LA CEOs and senior management over recent decades, and it would seem lots of scope exists for making savings. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asperity Posted March 4, 2018 Report Share Posted March 4, 2018 Agreed, there's a load of guff spouted over so called austerity which is blamed every time a public body is looking for an excuse as to why they aren't doing their job. Police forces that claim to be strapped for cash still manage to find enough to have their police cars done up for gay pride events. They can't afford to investigate domestic crimes but can afford to have officers trawling through social media looking for offense. Police and Crime Commissioners that we didn't need not so long ago now find they need deputies and a large staff. Apparently we need more Mayors for some obscure reason. As you say there is plenty of scope for savings in the public sector. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
observer Posted March 4, 2018 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2018 The problem is Asp; this means that politicians would have to turn the knife on themselves, highly unlikely unless we get a new breed of politicians prepared to put Nation before Party and their own self interest. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asperity Posted March 15, 2018 Report Share Posted March 15, 2018 How austerity is affecting the police: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bazj Posted March 19, 2018 Report Share Posted March 19, 2018 A few more vehicles that were modified by our cash strapped public services 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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