You are chancellor of the exchequer , what do you cut

[Doug Dastardly]

Not all people on benefits are "scroungers".

No quite true. And if there wasn't so much wasted money as outlined above, genuine cases could be looked after better.

Polititians should start to realise that we need to stop chasing growth (as previously fuelled by public and private debt) and work out a structure that works without it. The previous growth was just a debt fuelled illusion.

[XTR2Turbo]

Nick

We had something similar. A divorced mother with two children. She worked in the office a couple of days a week. She was very able and had worked as a PA in the city for 10 years.

She wanted to do more days but if she went above (I think ) 16 hours she lost most of her benefits and was worse off. And we were paying her a v good hourly rate miles above minimum wage.

[Bob Green]

Back to the post title.

What would I cut? The Chancellors b*****ks off !!!

[V8grunt]

You forgot to say it would be a blunt knife Bob!

[AdamR]

Back to the post title.

What would I cut? The Chancellors b*****k off !!!

You would cut your own b*****k* off?

Agree with the 'abolish road tax and increase fuel price' one - makes total sense to me.

[peterg]

Whilst I can sympathise with Norman's idea of getting rid of 17,00 civil servants and in the long term it might save money (especially , imagine how much it would cost initially... they'd have to be made redundant and no doubt would be paid at least a year's salary at an average of say £30k... that's half a billion pounds

then of course the unions would get all uppity about it anyway and like as not would demand huge wage increases for the remaining civil servants to cope with the pressure of added work processing all the redundancies

[Stuart]

Has everyone forgotten Yes Minister! It would never happen to that extent 'cos it's the civil servants who run the country. Getting us out of the money black hole that is the EU is the first thing that would happen if I was in charge. We pay £32m per day to the EU and for what - to pay those civil servants to write red tape BS regulations that make our industry uncompetitive against the Yanks, Chinese, Indians etc. An organisation formed to keep Europe competivie has the opposite effect because it's out of control. As I've said before, you can only support all that crap if you have disposable income as a society. And no-one in Europe has anymore.

[Norman Verona]

So much to comment on, so little time.

Can I come back to this in the morning?

Thanks

[FILFAN]

bring back poll tax

stop supporting single parents with money. instead offer child care and food vouchers

if people on benefits can afford cigs and booze they are obviously paid too much so it should be reduced. benefit is there to feed you and help find work

do away with vehicle tax and add to fuel

if someone on benefits decides to have kids they should be forced into work or lose them

cap on people entering the uk

will leave it there for now

[housebeautician]

Cut down on the corruption in government would be a great start.

[XTR2Turbo]

The country needs to generate wealth again.

The government needs to have a strategy for helping to achieve this over the next 20 years.

A few areas that need radical thinking

1) properly support entrepreneurs and business

2) support R&D

3) support education and training - especially science and engineering

4) drive business infrastructure - broadband, travel etc

5) drive down energy costs

6) develop proper seed capital / financing models

7) cut red tape

8) block the growth in energy sapping no fee legal crap

[windy]

No need to cut much if we stop paying £100 Billion a year into Europe - would be a start .

[SteveD]

freeloaders

[s2rrr]

A friends kids asked him for a dads loan to be able to get a bigger house as they couldn't afford it. They both smoke and conservatively consume 100 weeds a day that is about £35 daily or about £245 per week. Can you imagine how my friend was confused enough to suggest they consider there own health and wealth and he would help them if needed.

On this particular topic I would normally agree with a controlled increase on fuel but as my road tax is only £30 or so it seems for me its no benefit but for most high mileage guzzlers could work. I would seriously encourage all able benefit claimants to maintain the ethic of getting up in the morning and doing a bit if only to keep the country tidier or helping old age pensioners with there shopping, house repairs or general well being. I would certainly volunteer to do something if I was claiming. Sadly I did claim once and after paying shed loads of tax for 30 years and never being out of work in my life was awarded the princely sum of £0.00 per week and I had to show up once a fortnight to join a queue of associated ner do wells to sign on. No thanks, did it once and never went back. Fortunate I have been, worked hardish yes, scrounger no, willing to help yes, stupid you may say so.

Some of Normans ideas actually appeal

Bob :angry:

[Norman Verona]

The question was aimed at thinking about how the Government could reduce IT'S spending before cutting low paid workers assistance.

I knew the question of what we pay the EU would come up. When it does no one mentions how much we get back or, maybe more to the point, how much we COULD claim back.

After the pit closures the EU granted 3 tranches of money to create jobs for the regions affected (South Yorkshire and NE Derbyshire). Most of that money still sits in a bank account because no one could be bothered claiming it. The further amounts were stopped until the total of the first three had been used.

If you consider the 21st war between the USA and China - the economic war, no guns (yet) then if you think we could survive and prosper on our own then by all means pull out of the EU. However I would rather have some protection of a trading block which is larger than the USA.