Hard Times Coming

[poliphilo]

We came back from holiday having overspent, but with a little cash in hand- and I decided I was going to make that remainder- something a little short of £30- last us a week.  And I've succeeded. I've been walking to the shops- so no money went on petrol- and buying only what I absolutely needed at the time.  I like doing this sort of thing once in a while- setting limits and sticking to them; where there's a challenge there's a game. But with the price rises and benefit cuts that are coming (no matter who gets in) it's a game I'll soon be playing out of compulsion not choice.

That last sentence feels a little theatrical, a little attitudinising.  Hard times coming? Surely not. Oh, but they are. Our government has run up a deficit of something like £164 billion- and it's growing.  As the Governor of the Bank of England was reported to have said the other day, the next government is going to make itself so unpopular that the party that forms it will be out of power for a generation.

We sort of know this, but we don't want to think about it, and we don't want to hear about it from our political leaders- who talk as if they could clear off the deficit by rationing supplies to the Civil Service.  This casts a pall of unreality over the election. Does it matter in the end whether it's Brown or Cameron or Clegg wielding the knife? Not really. The election, by these lights, is actually a jolly diversion from the reality of our political and economic situation- an entertainment with clowns.

Comments

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

The first thing is that we are going to have to start means testing benefits. Why should David Cameron, Gordon Brown, and thousands of City bankers be entitled to Child Benefit? Why should my retired next door neighbours, who think that £3000 is a reasonable price to spend on a weekend's charity golf tournament, and have a second home in Spain, be entitled to winter fuel payments? It galls me that my tax pounds are spent in this way.

As a carer, you should not have to feel any more financial pain.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That makes sense. But won't means testing involve the setting up of a whole new layer of bureacracy- with all the waste and inefficiency that entails?

The thing that hits me hardest is the rising price of food (and petrol). A decent loaf of bread- one with nutritional value- now costs well over £1.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

They have our income tax info so they know who earns what already. They can take child support money and student loan repayments direct from your pay before you take it home. For anyone earning, say over £45,000, giving them benfits is a nonsense. Besides, for people who are working and therefore are in the PAYE system, it is much better to give them more money by giving extra tax allowances rather than by taking away tax and giving it back as benefit. Imagine all the people employed to take money with one hand and give it back with the other.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That sounds straightforward enough. OK, I'm convinced.

[calizen.livejournal.com]

I hope you have better ways of means testing than we across the pond. Here it's a way to keep people making one dollar over the poverty limit from getting any help. I have yet to see it keep the politicians and other "fat cats" from getting a goodly share of the public till, one way or another.