The House of Commons yesterday gave a Second Reading to a Bill that would mitigate the impact of the so-called bedroom tax, During the debate a minister said the cost of the proposed change to the state would be £1 billion annually, and others - Conservatives - suggested that this would militate against the government's plan for 'economic recovery'.
The programme of 'cuts' that has been pursued for four years has failed to eradicate the deficit on state spending, and done nothing to reduce the accumulated [and accumulating] national debt. But it has succeeded in reducing the quality of life very broadly accross the country, as well as reducing the military budget to a degree that endangers to country.
In the last few days it has been revealed by the Inspectorate of Constabulary that whole categories of crime are no longer being investigated. In many thousands of cases crimes are not even recorded: supposedly because of cuts in police budgets. Prisons are becoming increasingly crowded, worse managed and less hygienic as staff cuts bite ever deeper. Railway travel is becoming more expensive, bus services are being cut, housing is becoming dearer and scarcer, threats to the National Health Service are a constant theme of the news.
The cost of the cuts, in terms of quality of life, is immense: though it is intrinsically incalculable. The naive Economists say that cutting public spending is the only possible response to the ongoing failure of the economy; with the implication that both personal earnings and living standards for the vast majority of the population must continue to decline while the rich become richer and more enabled to avoid taxes.
A national strategy is needed to face the real ecomnomic issue that underlies all others: the failure of politicians and Economists to recognise that only an increase in the productiveness of activities really matters. The crucial difference between productiveness and 'productivity' [in which Britain is also embrarrassingly bad] must be exposed: only then can robust economic growth be envisaged,
This is set out in my recent book:Sinking Britain; as advertised in this blog,
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