How will spending cuts affect your way of life?

** WARNING **

This Government may seriously affect the health of the nation.

If we weren't about to enter a Great Depression before the election, we sure as hell are now.

Cue the summer of rage.

We will all have to wait and see.... I use my car a little bit less. We went

to the Mumbles in Wales on Saturday as it was sunny & hot. I put £30 in my

small car for there & back was horrified, (1) the tank wasn't full it usually

is (2) for our trip back had to put an extra £10 for our journey home and the

red light, for empty came on outside our front door!!! So I have noticed

petrol has GONE UP! Told the children in 2 years time this same car & journey

will cost us £60 instead of £40....

I find it extremely disturbing that the Tories are taking such glee in inflicting this "pain".

Eric Pickles said that he was delighted with his new role and that he saw his department as being like a giant Lego set, only now it will be "slightly smaller".

I'm getting fed up with this "country" they keep trying to protect. What is it that makes a country? It's people. Try protecting them for once.

How will spending cuts affect your way of life?

Not massively at the national level, unless i develop some kind of long term health proble.I don't really get asnything from the state so changes to tax credits benfits etc aren't going to affect me.

I'm more worried about inflation, the recent price rises, particularly petrol have caused me to tighten my belt considerably, and I fear things will get worse in that regard before they get better.

One area i think will suprise a lot of Daily Mail readers is that when public sevices are cut its going to lead to large scale redundancy in those private sector businesses that service the public sector - IT, stationers, caterers etc.

There seems to be this perception that you can cut the public sector with absolutely no side effects on the private sector. Those who truly believe that are in for a big shock.

I think what he is saying is that any benefit/income increases by raising the allowances threshold to £10k will be taking away by cutting benefits/other means.

I hope everyone that voted Labour over the last 13 years feels the cuts the most. Why, because this is as much their fault as it is the Labour party's.

The rich will get richer and the poor will get poorer. Simple as that, its the foundation that this country is built on.

We can't know how we'll be affected because, as usual, it's all talk. Until we know what is being cut we cannot comment. You can be sure it'll be the poor & vulnerable who'll be paying though!

Why are we ring fencing international aid?! Surely we have to protect our own country first?

I'm in my 50's and have worked in minimum wage jobs all my life; no kids, never been on benefits. I started work aged 16 and planned to retire at 60. I have scrimped and saved to put money in a small private pension, and also bought a tiny house to rent out to supplement my pension pot. Not only do I now find the Government have raised the retirement age to 65, and possibly 68 or even higher by the time I hit 60, but they now want about half of the money from my little house, which I had factored into my retirement plans. Like so many people,I now wonder why I bothered; I should have just frittered my wages away and counted on benefits.

sorting this mess out will affect every single one of us. tough times ahead for certain and many casualties along the way. this will also test the tory-lib coalition. i'm worried, very worried as my job and my wife's is linked directly to government spending

I have no idea how cuts will affect my life and nor does anyone else, for the simple reason that Cameron has not told us what they are or how much. That announcement has now been deferred to the budget on June 22 - supposedly, although I doubt we'll get the full picture then.

So much for transparency.

Anyway, we were told that all the taxpayers' money given to the banks will be repaid by them. So why do we have to dig in our pockets?

If there are ongoing deficits, halve benefits, close the quangos (rather than keep renaming them at enormous cost), send home all illegal immigrants, stop contributions to the EU and suspend foreign aid..

Unfortunately they are necessary, as we have to live within our means as a nation, just as we do as individuals. Giving up some benefits and services will be painful, but as long as the cuts are to the nice to have items rather than essentials I am in favour. We can not continue to build up debts as they ultimately have to be repaid, and we also have to pay interest on these loans.
The cuts however do explain why the Conservatives were so desperate to form a coalition with the Lib Dems, and why in my view there will not be another election for at least 4 years. Despite the cuts been necessary the Party that introduces them will be very unpopular, and they have to hope that in four or five years time the cuts have been seen to work, otherwise the next election, and probably the one after is lost.

So Labour warn that cuts will be damaging - are they mad?

I would venture to suggest that CONTINUED borrowing of 25% of GDP is far, far more dangerous, for the long term prosperity of the UK.

Better that WE ALL shoulder the cuts, now than find ourselves, in 2 years time, having to call in the IMF and then cut futher, PLUS have to service a far bigger debt.

Cuts also need to be balanced with tax rises. We'd happily pay a few more pounds for the good of the country.

If it was my decision I wouldn't ring fence anything, I'd cut 5-7% across the board on SPENDING and ALL benefits. Next I'd change the civil service pensions to make them self funding, start later, (i.e. pay more in or take lower benefits like the rest of us).

I'd also make voluntery work COMPULSORY, one day a month for all BENEFIT claiments - there's far too much litter about that needs picking up.

This may all be unpopular but HAS TO BE DONE.

The Government has ONE CHANCE to show us what it is made of and all the tax payers want to see it happen now.

None whatsoever!

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

I might feel a happier person in myself if I saw benefits actually going to those in desperate need of our care and those who are fully fit to work, but have chosen to live on benefits, see them reduced to a level that encourages them to seek work ... and get work.
The current system makes my blood boil.
Once those who milk the benefits system are identified, I hope some of the savings will go into HIGHER benefits for those in real need.

Interesting that Milliband accuses the government of Hypocrisy? Which government banged on about Prudence day-in, day-out? Who was it who brought in the pay now, pay later PPP method of funding things - leaving us paying 10 times the amount things actually cost!

Frankly if I can cut my own spending by 10% to survive the recession (and increase my income via hard work and a bit of intelligence) I expect the government to do the same immediately.

Me thinks he does protest too much.

How do you make yourself a hero?

Not by defeating weak opponents that no-one fears.

I think that the condems have blown up the size of the problem so that when they 'tackle the problem' and in a couple of years time announce that by a 'miracle' 'they' have 'turned the economy around' we find that the economic medicine wasn't so un-pleasent after all, we will thank them by giving them our votes.

Most of our recent borrowing was so the Government can invest in the banks and keep the economy going. This is something that was done by most governments around the world, and would certainly have been done by the condems if they had been in power at the time. This money will be returned to government, or most of it anyway, in the next few years.

One thing is certain is that apart from cutting government 'waste' ( which so far neither thatcher/major/blair/brown could do) there will be little change to us except for the loss of a few meals out, keeping the car for an extra year before re-newal, and one less foriegn holiday every 5 years.

I have lived through economic crisis after economic crisis since the 1950's. All have had an 'end of the world' claim to them. And yet we survive and stumble on till the next bad news.

I do not expect the financial cuts to effect me personnaly, or my friends/family. I do not think they will make anyone homeless or hungry that wouldn't have suffered anyway through their own actions.

My reaction is "will the last person to leave please switch off the light". As usual the Tories bring doom and gloom in their wake, apart from the richest few thousand, the vast majority of us will suffer. So much for the clowns who used to rant "Brown Out now" on this forum. You have now idea how bad this will get.

As someone who is approaching pensionable age I guess I'll have to keep working as long as I'm lucky enough to have a job. We'll probably be burning the furniture to keep warm before this is over. Still as long as the old Etonians are Ok...

I've been unemployed since the beginning of the year and am unable to claim anything as my savings are too great, so no it won't affect me at all because I'm spending the almost the bare minimum I possibly can already. It's pretty good to get back to basics, sell any accumulated excess 'stuff' etc. and I'll carry on this way.

Already, Milliband and Balls have started to critise the coalition for trying to make these necessary cuts. These people have had their chance and they messed it up. They should now just shut up as no-one is listening to them anymore. I think it is obvious that their rhetoric is only for their labour party leadership ambitions and they should leave it at that.

It is still not clear how these cuts are going to effect different groups of people. But what is clear, with the debt "even worse" than first thought, the Labour front-benchers are in no position to mock or crow. Condemning the new coalition government for attempting to put a very long, painful and extensive plan in action, is hypocritcal. Had the Labour government not squandered the nations taxes, regardless of the credit crunch, there would at least have been cash in the coffers for front-line services. Their failed pet projects and their giving cash away so as not offend anyone approach has been ruinous.

I'm sick of hearing the public sector unions moaning about the cuts that are coming, in the private sector we have had pain for a few years with our pensions ruined and job losses the public sector is not ring fenced they have accept some of the pain.

As for it affecting my way of life its just something we have to put up with to get us out of the mess we are in.

This is impossible to answer. There are no details yet so how can anyone calculate their loss.

It was the banks that got us into so much trouble in the first place. Rather than make hard-working people and pensioners suffer why doesn't the government seek to get back the billions lent to the banks? The banks' profits should be taxed.

There is a simple way round this: just make more money!

I hope that savings will be made in areas where state handouts are nothing more than luxuries.

Take for example Family Tax Credits for families with a household income of over £40,000 who get handouts because they have children should be stopped since this would be adequate to live on for a family. The only reason for the income not to be adequate is if they live beyond their means and have a high mortgage because of state subsidies.

Why should the taxpayer subsidise luxurious lifestyles when it is not a case of being needy but rather being greedy?

I lost my job through redundancy March 2009, and, spent nine months unemployed, applying for nearly 500 jobs. I am a white middle class workder, in IT.

Clearly from what has been said, it would appear that the middle classes are going to suffer the brunt of these cuts.

Working tax credits, child benefit means testing, child trust fund, etc.

WE as a family are just starting to get back on our feet, when it would appear that the rug is going to be pulled out from beneath us again.


With unemployment continuing to rise, is it realistic to make more unemployed, through a variety of cuts.

Is it not unbelievable that a government can destroy the economy of a country and walk away scott free.
If you or I did any thing like it we would be in jail.
Why should we pay for this, we are not responsible for any financial misdeals, we just pay punitive tax and get nothing in return.
Now to be totally radical, in the UK there are millions of art treasures starting with The Crown Jewels, SELL THEM, if you and I were in the same mess the bailiffs would be knocking, tell me what the difference is??

In view of the comments by David Cameron regarding how bad it is going to get for the people of Great Britain 'ad infinitum', I fail to comprehend his undoubted commitment to International Aid. I appreciate the seriousness of the International Aid programme, but the idea that we send billions to help other countries, while we are in such dire straits does not sit well with me, and smacks of "All fur coat and no underwear". If by 2015 we are paying £70 billion in interest on our debt (most likely an understatement) we ourselves will be a 'third world' state, so surely the aid is needed here first. I know this, if people here are desperate for food, and their standard of living is severely diminished, should there be an instance of UK sending a vast sum of money to aid others, I expect there would be a huge backlash from the British citizens.

When Cameron says 'everyone must suffer' what he is really saying is that people in the public sector must lose their jobs and public services will suffer'. Not the banks or bankers that have caused the problem; they will go on their merry way loaning money at 7.99% and mortgages at 4,99% on money borrowed at 0.5%. If you want everyone to pay, just put up the basic income tax rate.

What is more the conclusion that you save money by cutting public sector jobs is wrong, all you do is pay a large percentage of the money back in benefits.

MJA

Well - if you start taking any more from me then given the ages of my children, I will have to consider moving abroad to work .. probably without my family .. for around 5 years. This will affect my way of life a great deal and will be a difficult decision. Clearly this country doesn't appreciate those who work, have saved and not taken out stupid loans ...

its time to cut "away" from the private sector

So Dave you say the debt will effect everyone, well Dave please explain to me an ex soldier with MS, ARTHRITIS and a CRUMBLING SPINE who is unfortunate enough to really on benefits how it will effect YOU and yours?
How will it effect the MP? how will it effect your friends in big business? No the only people it will effect will be the POOR the DISABLED and the SICK.

I have two main thoughts here. One is to ask how David Cameron's policies will "change the way of life" of the banks who played a major role in creating this mess, and how they will be made to pay their due share of the cleanup.

The other is that he says the forthcoming cuts will change everyone's way of life. I would be interested to know how, exactly, it is going to change HIS way of life, and the lives of other independently wealthy toffs, who seem in the main to be completely detatched from the reality of life in this country for the remaining 95% of the population.

The axe will no doubt fall on low to middle income earners in the public sector.

Why
1)Because these are the easiest targets
2) Because despite all comments regarding high earners in the public sector. Those earning over £150,000 number less than 2,000 out of 10 million and indeed only represent 0.2% of the population overall earning this amount of money.

Real wealth rests in the top 2 percent of the population ,the inheritors of land based wealth such as the Duke of Westminster and the Windsor Family and the children and more distant descendants of successful merchants and business owners.

This isn't a class point it is simply a fact.


These peoples wealth will in general be missed as they have the capacity to successfully evade tax by apparent reinvestment and offshoring assets.

So the mantra of we are all in it together will grow rapidly thin when we see staff nurses and classroom teachers taking a genuine cut in a pretty low salary which will reduce spending ability and drive us back into economic recession, while the mega rich stay mega rich!

The other aspect that the Coalition needs to consider that in those countries that "Successfully" cut the public sector,the immediate result was electoral disaster for the incumbent Governments.

Well, what a surprise. The Banking sector caused the problems, but the ConDems can fix it by getting those on much lower salaries to take reduced services, a pay cut, or the loss of their jobs. And the wealthiest top 10% can carry on regardless.

Thanks Dave. Remind me, which strata of society do you and your friends and family come from ?

The 'clever peoples' manipulation of stats and facts over the past 30 years have ignored, or worse, concealed reality......be it the economic inactivity of the indiginous population, rampant drug/alcohol abuse and the consequential social problems or the craziest books this country has ever had to deal with. Failure to act has allowed these problems to develop into mountains when they always could have been mole hills....and this would have been a better place to live.

Building an economy based on the existence of a massive 'underclass' just doesn't do it for me. Replacing ambition with endorphine raising street drugs ain't good for the future of this country. How do we break a cycle that is now intergenerational?

Why, when we are strapped for cash are we giving millions to Gaza. A country that regularly send missiles into Israel indiscriminately killing people. Its our money not the Governments - we should decide who it goes to - the British people!!

Given that I work in the public sector I'd think that spending cuts will mean that I lose my job quickly followed by my house.

Hey but at least his banker friends and tax-avoiding business leaders will be ok.

What the nation has to realise is that Gordon Brown was mortgaging the country's future for the past 13 years primarily based on tax revenues from the financial services sector. The Labour Party should not be allowed to get off the hook, the public need to know how bad the financial situation was allowed to get under Gordon Brown.

The government should abolishing severe disabled allowance, and disability living allowance as I can see many peoples in uk claimed this both and can walk and can go to work, they shouldn't getting this benefits really.

Addressing Public sector pensions is long overdue.

Why should civil servants and council workers get a better pension than I can afford for myself.

I dont necessarily expect theirs to be worse, but it should be no better.

Be nice if they have the same risk of their job being exported, or given to someone who is cheaper, as we in the real world all have.

We pay taxes to provide services I resent my taxes getting higher year on year when services are being reduced or removed altogether. I do not pay taxes to provide politicians with second homes and duckhouses, to give to countries which have their own space programs, to fight illegal wars on the other side of the world, to import every waif and stray from abroad and give them free homes and benefits, to pay bankers bonuses who have bankrupted the country with loans to those that will never pay them back.
The real workers of the UK should collectively withhold any taxes from the government until they promise to spend our money wisely. Financial revolution.

Nice speech by CameraOn. I liked the bit about us all being in this together. Nice to know I'm in the same position as the 20 millionaires who are running the country.

It's hard to say how I'll be affected until the budget. Ask me again then.

If I'm not made redundant as a public worker then it looks like I have a pay cut to look forward to so my choice is whether to buy food or gas/electricity.

So things are 'even worse' and the cuts wil affect 'our whole way of life'.
Not so bad that 'we' can't afford to spend £100billion+ on a replacement for Trident though.
Cameron's Big Society is a front for the small government agenda of the right. His party's already complaining about changes to CGT and other tax evasion measures, in their view the wrong targets, don't raise money from those who can afford it, take money from those who can least afford it.
Expect cuts in Working Family Tax Credit, Child Care Benefits, the minimum wage to wither on the vine. NHS service provision to be outsourced, leading to 'top-up' payments.
They are already looking to sell off the Hi-Speed rail link(a profit maker) to the private sector, another government revenue stream lost.
The last Tory government cost me, my family and everyone I knew their jobs within a year of taking office(Thatcher's economic miracle), is this a rerun of 1980, I hope not.

I'd like to know why international aid should be ringfenced. I live by the philosophy that charity starts at home and if I can't afford to give to charity then I don't.

We give millions of pounds to countries like India who have a space program and Nuclear weapons, so where do you draw the line?

It's a bit rich Labour criticising Coalition policies, when Cameron/Clegg have only been in power 3 weeks (thus only having access to the country's "books" for long enough to see the true scale of Labour's mismanagement). Cameron has told it like it is. Good on him. We are broke and in dire straits. He has had the honesty and guts to incur the wrath of the people with his candid words. Now he should just get on with the tough job of taking a chainsaw to the bloated Public Sector.
The majority of people will be glad to see huge cuts in what are perceived to be overpaid, over-secure, under-performing, overly-bureaucratic, self-righteous and useless local & central government workers.

Who does the goverment owe all this money too ????

is it the bank ???

did we as taxpayers just bail the banks out ???

surely the bank should pay the deficit not the tax payer again !!!!!!!

So: £70Bn needed from somewhere. There's about 30 million of us who pay income tax, and everybody pays VAT on vatt-able stuff. So that's about £1,500 each. Bit of a pain, but not that bad, really. Judging by the people we say on holiday in Scotland last week (grey empty nesters clogging up the Trossachs in their big posh cars mainly) I think we could just about scrape that together.
I have heard so many numbers quoted on this but rally can't make any sense of them. I'm sure I heard that this debt business is costing us £25,000 for every man, woman, child and cat in the country, but for a reasonable payback period of, say 25 years that's still only a grand a year, isn't it?

You can bet that these cuts will not affect the politicians making them or the bankers who caused them. They and their familys will all be on private healthcare, public schooling and live in posh areas unaffected by crime. And it will all be paid for by us, the taxpayers.

i am probably going to be made redundant in the next few months and the only job offer i have had is for a position with £2k less pay - bit of belt tightening all round i think !

Ask this question again when tens or hundreds of thousands of people have lost their jobs, their dignities, their homes and their posessions.

Yes we will have to pay more Tax (Income/VAT or Whatever...), and get less for it (Cuts in Services etc) in the short term, but thats how you have to pay back Debt/over spending, Nearly 50k before mortgage.

Talking as someone who Spent far too much on Loans, Credit Cards etc the only way I could get out of the debt trap was not by just getting more loans (new Labours way), I had to Cut right don't on my spending (ie A CUT in government terms) I changed my Job to get a better rate of Pay (ie a TAX increase in government terms).

Now my debt is paid back (in full), I can get a few things that I held back on as I have now saved for them.

Gorden Brown and Chancellor and then as PM was a total disaster for this country, He spent with out worrying how to pay back (just the same as I did) assuming things would always get better, remember his claim to have ended boom and bust. Now that the new government can see the books they know how bad it is, and we will have to pay for the previous incompetent Labour government.

Just remember who Created the Debt that we now have to pay back.

Salary of clerk in Coucil Office typing out parking tickets £16,000 plus a nice cast iron pension and a nice sick pay scheme.

Salary of simialr clerk in private sector office £12500 plus no pension or sick pay.

And it does not stop there does it?

Anytime someone wants to level the playing field a bit they have my full support.

4. At 11:47am on 07 Jun 2010, Delirium wrote:
"One area i think will suprise a lot of Daily Mail readers is that when public sevices are cut its going to lead to large scale redundancy in those private sector businesses that service the public sector - IT, stationers, caterers etc.

There seems to be this perception that you can cut the public sector with absolutely no side effects on the private sector. Those who truly believe that are in for a big shock."

This is why the numbers employed dependent on the public sector's wallet are actually far higher that stated. 1 in 4 of the Scottish workforce does not include private sector suppliers of good and services. So where does that take the ratio of public/private employment then?

The situation cannot be allowed to continue. It must be tackled...then perhaps we could stop running to stand still and actually start improving circumstances and opportunities for the people of this country.

This country is home to 242,000 millionaires and 43 billionaires according to the 2009 rich list.

For each million they have invetsed they could probably expect to get around 3.5% return [£35000/millionaire and £350000/billionaire] per annum.

stick with me....If they were to donate their annual interest for this year, and assuming the average millionaire has £2.5 million invested [242000*£87500=£21,175,000,000], adding the interest from the first billion of our billionaires investments [43*£350000=£15,050,000], the country would benefit by a one off windfall of £21,190,050,000.

I would happily donate the interest from my savings and investments.

Wouldn't that help, particularly if they were all given MBE's or OBE's for their generosity.

So the facts have come out.

Labour have spent so much that we're spending more on interest on the debt than vital public services.

As much as I hate the idea of cuts, they have to be done and NOW. Is it going to hurt? yes of course. It will hurt everyone, and at least this government has the guts to admit it.

And yes it will mean jobs, no doubt about it and possibly a double dip recession. However we cannot afford to keep going as we are. Unlike Greece, we're not in the Euro. We won't get bailed out by the Eurozone. We cannot afford for our country's credit rating to be downgraded.

It's time to pay up.

This doesnt answer the question put forth here but here is an example of the total lack of financial control in public spending: a friend of mine is a contractor in a local council. He puts in bus lanes and he's making over 100K a year. Are you telling me thats reasonable for someone who works in the public sector? however saying that i am also aware of how incompetent local council can be so maybe thats actually cheaper than a team of full time muppets performing the same task.

We were warned that it would be painful to bring Britain back from bankrupcy. 13 years of Labour is to be blamed for the pain, not the Conservatives.

Come on Mr Cameron...

Despite the Governments protestations that it's all 'Labours fault' I think the general public have grasped the fact that this was a 'world' banking catastrophe, the goverment of teh day puring Billions in to supporting the finance and business sectors of the economy.

You can bet your life that the majority of the people at the top of those sectors are 'tory' voters; and that 'Joe public' will be carring the can for this miss management for the forceable future.

My working class father always told me when I was growing up that the world is your oyster, what you wanted from it was up to you. I wanted to get out of the poverty of my N.Ireland and get a decent job. Too many have decided to live of the backs of others hiding under the banner of equality. Because of Labour I know a friends partner who works for the civil service, is signed of long term for stress but is still able to manage her Portfolio of ten properties.

The end of the state gracy train will reduce my tax base, which will help me pay of my inflated mortgage (due to the Labour induced housing inflation bubble) quicker and allow me to have peace of mind. I will probably get a better salary from the reduction in taxes my company is charged which will allow me to have a better quality of life.

I will also feel much better from having the scroungers being forced out from behind their state provided life styles into the work place.

How will the current government's approach to dealing with the financial mess affect my way of life?

In some ways, profoundly, but in the more important ones, not at all!

I expect to be defrauded in that taxes will increase while services (the sole reason for paying tax) will disappear or be deminished. I expect that things like pensions will turn up smaller and later than expected in breach of contract under which contributions to schemes and in NI have been paid.

I am quite sure that no effort will be made to reduce the amount of interest paid on national borrowing. Can't have the banks and investors losing out in the aftermath of the problems they have caused, now can we?

But real life will continue with the pleasure of my family's company, good books, good wine and the things I really value. Money isn't one of those things anhd continued poor stewardship will not change the fact that I am content in my way of life. I've just come back from Greece, and everyone is resigned to the fact that they'll be cheated by their government but determined to preserve the good stuff.

1. At 11:44am on 07 Jun 2010, scotbot wrote:
** WARNING **

This Government may seriously affect the health of the nation.

If we weren't about to enter a Great Depression before the election, we sure as hell are now.

Cue the summer of rage.
----

So the last government bears absolutely no responsibility for leaving the country on life support?

Do you honestly believe their attempt to spend our way out of debt was working?

Then why, towards the end of their reign were senior life-long civil servants raising official protests about the Labour governments spending plans?

Well, we're all poorer than we thought and face rising asset prices relative to wages. Keeping people in jobs should be a priority, but the deal has to be wage freezes or cuts.

We are still a rich country and the action to improve our situation is obvious - we have to make & do things that other people want. This means an economy that is not based on banking, property bubbles and public sector spending, and not leeched by government taxation.

Trouble is, I see the country is deeply divided, with those in the public sector still living in a cocoon of privilege, entitlement, overpay and overpension. Yet because there are so many, we apparently can't say boo to that. There haven't really been any public cuts of significance, and we're 21 months on from Lehmans. Just winding back the splurge Brown did before the bust would be a start. If we still need to stimulate the economy, how's about doing it in the wealth-producing areas of the economy, not in the public sector?

I have to admit to finding the situation mildly amusing.
Before the election Labour were saying that the other parties figures don't add up.
Now we are seeing just how far of the mark those figures really were.

As for how it will affect me, I guess I won't know until it does.

David Cameron may well blame splurges in public services spending for the current economic problems. It just shows how out of touch he is. Where I work (in public services) we have had cuts year after year and services are constantly being cut and staff are having to work miracles with no resources, this affects everyone. For years now, staff havent been replaced when leaving, people have to do the work of whole teams not just one or more staff, forego holidays, work when sick etc, it's impossible to get anything done now - BUT IT WILL GET WORSE, so all of you who thought it was bad before - when you dont get your bins emptied, your schools and hospitals close down, there are no social services for your elderly (very little available now), no child protection, no police and rocketing crime. Just remember you get what you voted for. And yes, I have also worked in the private sector before and I do know which was easier - it certainly wasnt this!!

We have been in depression since 2003..has the news just got out or escaped its captors?

I have been waiting since December 08 to been seen by a consultant as a very seriously ill patient.NHS has been wasting money for years with incompetance.This sort of mistake would cost both the tax payer up to £8,000 a week.The government and civil service cannot deliver anything to support this countrys wealth creation.

Take money away from the unemployed is illegal and very expensive.Civil unrest is around the corner in the UK....

What many, including union leader and Labour Party members, seem to conveniently forget, is the the Government don't have their own money to spend - IT'S OURS. The interest we will be paying on the money the last Government spent on our behalf is going to be enormous. The consequenses of not reducing that debt sooner will be a reduced credit rating for the UK. This will mean rising interest rates, more people defaulting on their mortgages and a worsening recession. I hope the Labour Party are proud, they have effectively tied the hand of the current Government in terms of spending for the next 5 years. It will turn around just in time for them to mess it up again!

I graduated last year into the recession and after countless rejections, a lot of free interning and working two jobs I succeeded in gaining a low paid 9-6 in Brighton. With this work experience under my belt, I looked to move to London this summer. In preparation I applied to several graduate schemes and got through to the last 5 with one particularly good company. They rang me last week to tell me that I was perfect for the job but that they could no longer hire me due to public sector cuts (many of their clients are public sector clients).
It is now a year since I graduated and I have spend the whole of it working to gain enough experience to land a graduate job that would pay me enough to start repaying my student debt.
I chose not to stay on benefits and instead worked hard, often for nothing, to get where I wanted to be. And when I got there the new governement rewarded me with indefinite unemployment.
I appear to have fallen into the gap between Cameron's promises to reward hard working Britons and reality - what do I do now?

Cuts

Now we know that cuts will come
We’ll earn less and pay more
They’re going to be deeper
Than we’ve had before

David gives out warnings
Of what to expect
But very little detail yet
Of things we might reject

We’ll wait until the budget
To see what will be left
Will we feel uplifted
Or simply left bereft?

They’ll cut the public sector
Of that there is no doubt
They’ll cut back on education
No matter what we shout

Some people will support them,
Through politics or greed
They don’t consider that
There are people still in need

But next week we’ll have
The same argument again
Its an ongoing predicament
That is unlikely to end

What will people do
In order to get by
We’ll keep on keeping on
And keep our spirits high.

Why is it always cuts that come first, can't we for just once try keeping people in work and raising taxes?

Once again the poor will suffer more than the wealthy, unemployment will rise and interest rates will rise, reposessions will soar along with the homeless. Same old tories! DC and his mates wont suffer they are already well off.

How long have these jerks been in office, and already they're looking towards the low paid, ill, and old to repay debts run up by his old pals in the banking sector.
Labour should have let the banks go under, at least than it would have been rough time across the board and not just for the weaker members of our society.
Take a trip up 'North' too the dead industrial cities that's the true legacy of the last 'Conservative' government. Now it seems they haven't been back power a few months and already they're looking into how further to decimate those deprived areas.

This is a selfish act of the government. Yes I agree that Labour made a mess of the money situation, but why do we, the general public, have to suffer from it?
I am already having problems as far as qualifications go, as I cannot return to college to do my Level 3 hairdressing course because of all funding for over 19 being withdrawn, and now this? My husband and I recieve benifits and can just about afford essentials and things for our 2yr old son. My husband has been job hunting for months and still cannot find a job! So all this rubbish that people will get jobs, that's easy for the government to say! What if people can't get a job? What about all the imigrants who come into the country and snap up every job going? The government will just leave unemployed people who can't find work without money? And people who are working will receive even LESS money because we have to pay more taxes to pay off this stupid debt the government has run up!!

Britain has gone to the dogs as far as parliment goes and I am worried about the future of my son

I strongly agree with RedandYellowandGreennotBlue, Try protecting the people that make this country. We are not your little barbie dolls and action men that you can play with whenever you like!! We're HUMAN BEINGS.

Usual hangover from a period of Labour in power - only trouble is this time the Champagne Socialists have left us with a bigger hangover than ever and the CONdems have the unenviable task of sorting out the mess.

To those objecting to the inevitable painful cuts where do you think the money is going to come from? The country is flat broke and on it's knees.

Most of the pain will have to be in the public sector, time for end of final salary pensions paid for by those of us in the private sector who mostly have zero pensions

Economic reform has to be about more than cuts and regardless of Labour, Tory or Lib Dem policies, we as a society are largely paying for the mess made by those who profited through greed and overconsumption.
It therefore seems appropriate that the most reasonable response to reform would be to address these behaviours through a taxation policy which links directly with consumption (i.e. VAT) and offer incentives to those who remain stuck on benefits through working with employers in raising minimum wage.
Our economy cannot grow with less people in employment, nor can it grow if the wealth of the nation rests with a minority who continue to bend the rules. Taxation reform must be considered to ensure a fair, equal system is in place and incentivise though who are willing to undertake hard, honest work.

It was Labour who left us in this mess nothing else including sub prime. but unfortunately in 5 years time they might get in again.

Why are so many blaming the conservatives. NOT THERE FAULT

How can we comment, we don't know what the cuts are yet.

The country is in a HUGE mess! The legacy of an incompetant, irresponsible and lying Labour 'government'. This mess is worse than the last one they left US with and will take some time to sort out. Of coarse the left will become very forgetful and blame it on everyone else but the lies of 20th century socialism that are still endemic in are country (especially the public sector and public sector unions)

---But Hugh Lanning, deputy general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, told the BBC: "It seems like a bit of a smoke screen to me, it's trying to paint the public sector as a problem but the debt wasn't caused by the public sector - it was caused by the banks and the financial crisis and we would like to see them share some of the pain, not just us."

He added that 100,000 civil service jobs had been cut in the past five years. "

----

Really? According to the Office of National Statistics (www.statistics.gov.uk), the Public Sector head count since 2004 is (figures in thousands):

2004 Q1 5773
2004 Q2 5785
2004 Q3 5815
2004 Q4 5831
2005 Q1 5857
2005 Q2 5883
2005 Q3 5881
2005 Q4 5879
2006 Q1 5862
2006 Q2 5849
2006 Q3 5830
2006 Q4 5810
2007 Q1 5804
2007 Q2 5797
2007 Q3 5780
2007 Q4 5785
2008 Q1 5761
2008 Q2 5777
2008 Q3 5803
2008 Q4 6052
2009 Q1 6060
2009 Q2 6070
2009 Q3 6091
2009 Q4 6098

Exactly where is the 100,000 he's referring to as that's actually a total INCREASE of 325,000??

Also note that the head count at the end of Q1 1997 (just before Labour took office) was 5,197,000. Therefore a total of over 900,000 new Public Sector jobs have been created by Labour.

Presumably, none of these new workers are paid anything so this increase had absolutely no impact whatsoever on the amount of tax we have had to pay?

when i voted in the last election i feel like i have sold my soul to the devil,how could we have been so blind to think the conservatives would look after the "little people"like the disabled the people on low wages they are the people who will suffer at this goverments hands!!David cameron said that labour had left this country in a mess but god help this country now.The conservatives only care about the well off and the people with money how could i have been so stupid to vote for a goverment who now want to take from those who can least afford to lose any more.SHAME on you DAVID CAMMERON you lied to the people of this country.

David Cameron talks about "painful cuts" that "will affect our whole way of life", but he and his friends won't be suffering, as they are all very rich, or at least in secure jobs with secure pensions.

What about penalising the banks and bankers who caused this mess?

The missing money isn't real, anyway - it's just an abstraction; rows of digits on a screen. Why should we all suffer because of it?

The best way to promote economic growth is to give people security in their incomes, jobs and homes.

Those that have money will still have money and be comfortable, but they will still moan about that fact that they only have x millions instead of xx millions.

The rest of us who work hard for the basics in life will suffer.

What's new.

Enough of the rhetoric Cameron we want less talk more action!

We are all going to be affected adversely one way or another thanks to the dreadful mess Labour have left the countries finances in.

Many Labour supporters attempt to blame the banks for everything but when you examine how much debt we were in before the banking crisis and all the off the books PFI schemes it is truly frightening. Their scorched earth policy of racking up huge unnecessary debts in their final months of office when they knew the election was lost was nothing short of criminal.

Cameron says that the cuts will "affect our whole way of life".

Ours maybe, but not his. I doubt very much that he or his chums will be feeling the pinch any time soon.

As usual, it's the poorer off who will take the brunt of it.

'' Mr Cameron started his speech by saying problems were "even worse than we thought" and blamed the last Labour government for the "debt crisis".''

And there was me thinking it was Cameron's rich banker mates that started the debt crisis with their threats of ruination for the country if the taxpayer (us!) didn't cough up. And now we find that that is still not enough for them - they want our jobs and pensions too. I know where they can stick that.

26. At 12:06pm on 07 Jun 2010, damhanalla wrote:

It was the banks that got us into so much trouble in the first place. Rather than make hard-working people and pensioners suffer why doesn't the government seek to get back the billions lent to the banks? The banks' profits should be taxed.


If you're going to blame the banks (obviously a global recession is completely irrelevant?), then you should also blame those people who defaulted on loans or didn't pay their credit card bills etc.

And, whoever said that banks' profits weren't taxed? That's a new one!

The public have just bailed out the banks to the tune of billions of pounds...hundreds of billions in the USA. Much of this money has gone to line the pockets of people who are already millionaires (Tony Blair is now a consultant for an investment bank for example!!!!).
MP's unlawfully take our money and we have spent untold billions (not to mentioned lost many brave young men and women) on an unjust war, again to line the pockets of those defence contactors with very close links to government in this country and the US. The government is corrupt...rotten to its very core. Who/what takes the hit? Education, health...the things that we 'workers'(i.e normal, hardworking taxpayers) should have as fundamental human rights. Why should the banks (who we owe the huge budget deficit to anyway!!!??)who we bailed out, continue to destroy the lives of many hard working individuals through sheer greed, while the policemen for the corporations (also known as politicians) continue to strip away any remaining money 'we' have. I am appalled, frightened and disgusted by David Cameron's speech; but not surprised! I'm afraid that 'people get the democracy they deserve'. We put up with it don't we?

I don't know because I don't know what those cuts will be.

At least David Cameron has set out figures that I understand, as opposed to Gordon Brown who set out what he was spending, but giving no idea of how much was being borrowed or how much interest would have to be paid.

I see the banks are being blamed - but if you listen to what David Cameron said (and look at the figures which he said will be made public) it seems clear that we were way over our heads in debt before the bank crisis happened. Had interest rates and inflation not been kept low under the Labour government, house prices and other costs would not have soared out of control as they did, and people would not have borrowed unreasonable sums of money.

I know recessions are painful (my husband was made repeatedly redundant in the 1990s) but what were actually mini-recessions kept prices down - a bit like having a heavy cold, an absolute nuisance but necessary for your immune system. This time round, with no "busts" for 13 years it's going to be like having the 'flu.

I also fail to see why anyone should imagine the Conservatives and Lib Dems are making the figures up - the cuts which will be necessary will probably ensure they are not back in power for years - to me that argument really doesn't add up. Why would you not believe them?

51. At 12:21pm on 07 Jun 2010, Christopher Styles wrote:

So: £70Bn needed from somewhere. There's about 30 million of us who pay income tax, and everybody pays VAT on vatt-able stuff. So that's about £1,500 each.

---------

70 billion is just the INTEREST on the debt. The actual debt is way, way above that.

David Cameron stated before his office election that he would have to start immediately when entering Downing street to find out how bad the economy is. He has just stated that it is even worse than anyone could have imagined ! The coalition have just done that, and stated that the cutbacks would be severe. Labours Darling stated exactly the same damn thing that their cutbacks would be more severe than Maggie Thatchers 80's The coalition are shocked at their discovery of the gross mishandling of Labours handling of our economy through the years of their control. It is blatently obvious they could not spell control or adapt to it. Well done Gordon! you who wanted to be in control..of what?
Nobody wants to suffer from any of these effects of more taxes, lost jobs, reduction in working hours, etc. But please remember this ...Give great thanks to that crowd who just got kicked out of Downing street for the fantastic job that they have done over the last horiffic 13 years. That we will suffer relentlessly for several years coming. Do not forget the legend that we have inherited from them... NEVER to be forgotton. I would never have thought how gullible our nation is to almost vote that labour lot in again and to absorb their socialistic, insular,out of control attitude for another horiffic 5 years ........WOW ?????

The people responsible for this mess in the first place (labour party) should be arrested and brought to account. Then jailed and left to rot.

I do not think international aid should be ringfenced. The UK is so broke that it is effectively borrowing money to give to other nations as aid. Some of these countries are able to afford space programmes and are rich enough to buy off UK owned companies. The rest are so corrupt that aid never reaches their target.

Yes ok Mr Cameron we get it now, but what does it mean??? stop making generalised threats about cuts and start telling us where the axe is going to fall so we can get on and plan around it because right now all you are saying is nothing and that is creating fear and worry which is irresponsible of you. Its like the WMD claim of 45 minutes.. for what??? Get on with it, step up to the plate and just say it, stop rhetoricising for a moment and think about the atmosphere of fear you are creating otherwise I think you will be making your first mistake as PM for not doing what you say and for endless yards of spin.. GET ON WITH IT MAN!

Why are WE in debt for bailing out the banks? They are still making billions in profits. It's THEY who are in debt TO US and they should be using their profits to pay off their debts, just like the rest of us have to. Outrageous!

'This Government may seriously affect the health of the nation.

If we weren't about to enter a Great Depression before the election, we sure as hell are now.'

Err, I think you may find it was the Labaour Government who landed us in all this mess. They borrowed all this money you see and we have precisely nothing to show for it expect a interest bill of £40 billion a year. That's why Labour will never be elected again.

Ask me again when I know what they are!