Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
I think excessive public spending is a subjective statement, after all we still spend less per head on our health system than France or Germany and when you consider the dramatic spending under Labour then that's is a awful reflection on previous Tory administrations.
Although I have faith the current Tories will not cut the NHS, I am worried about social care and other less visible, but important, services.
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The NHS is funded differently and we have considerably lower taxation than France or Germany. Not as 'considerably' lower as it used to be but we aren't France or Germany, we're the UK. In any event spend per head isn't the best measure, it's a convenient metric to claim the NHS in underfunded, it could be that France and Germany are inefficient or have a larger private insurance base. Money doesn't equal results, just look at the USA and the amount they spend per head.
Some things will inevitably have to go, fundamentally everything is paid for by the private sector despite Labour's best attempts to prop the economy up over the past decade and massage employment figures with public sector expenditure. We traditionally swing between two points and at the moment are too far to one way, and the money to finance going too far that way has come from borrowing. While our GDP grew and unemployment remained low it was largely debt and public sector fuelled growth which had to unravel eventually, and has, big time.
EDIT: Fundamentally even while the economy was allegedly going through a fantastic period of sustained growth and everything was going swimmingly the public sector grew so fast and was having so much money thrown at it we were in deficit and public sector productivity was dropping at the same time - that is excessive public sector spending.
---------- Post added at 16:19 ---------- Previous post was at 16:14 ----------
Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
PS I am Lib Dem in case people want to know my bias.
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Good man, don't you wish your MP rocked like
mine?
