The truth on Government spending plans

So here we have it. Note where largest numeric reduction falls

"Total departmental spending -0.72% (£371.9bn)
Total UK education spending -0.1% (£85bn)*

Winners (ie with a real spending increase)

International Development 12.58% (£7.4bn)
Culture, Media and Sport 8.80% (£2.1bn)
Work and Pensions 7.93% (£9.4bn)
Cabinet Office 2.65% (£2.3bn)
Health 1.47% (£102.6bn)
of which: NHS England 1.44% (£100.8bn)
Wales 1.43% (£14.7bn)
Northern Ireland Executive 1.26% (£9.1bn)
CLG Local Government 1.05% (£25.1bn)
Children, Schools and Families 0.83% (£55.2bn)

Losers

Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform -24.58% (£1.5bn)
Foreign and Commonwealth Office -21.66% (£1.6bn)
CLG Communities -19.41% (£10.2bn)
Chancellor’s Departments -18.27% (£4.3bn)
Defence -7.92% (£35.1bn)
Transport -7.64% (£12.9bn)
Energy and Climate Change -6.61% (£2.8bn)
Law Officers’ Departments -5.61% (£673m)
Northern Ireland Office -5.59% (£1.1bn)
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs -3.87% (£2,9bn)
Justice -2.86% (£9.2bn)
Innovation, Universities and Skills -2.40% (£18.6bn)
Scotland -1.06% (£27.5bn)
Home Office -0.32% (£9,6bn)

*According to the Treasury bumf, “This presents education spending against the UN Classification Of the Functions Of Governemnt (COFOG) for the whole of the public sector. It therefore includes spending by local government, not just by the above departmental groups.”

The Treasury has been insisting this morning that the reduction slated above should not be considered a cut in spending, largely because the large increase in this year’s spending represented money brought forward from next year’s budget. They also mutter about how the biggest chunk of the spending cuts are due to “efficiency savings”, partly from higher education.

This is disingenuous in the extreme. The net result is still that the amount the Government is planning to spend next year on education is going to be lower than last year. There it is, in black and white, on the Treasury’s own document. The more we hear Government ministers claiming these are not cuts, the more pathetic they sound"

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/edmundconway/100000302/education-spending-will-be-cut-here-it-is-in-black-and-white/

 

Nice to see that they waited until Parliament had gone on recess before issuing this...

 

The usual Liarbore pet projects are the proposed winners,then.

This is money the country cannot afford.

These proposals show that Cyclops has no grip on reality whatsoever.

The sooner that Cyclops is removed from power,the better.

Trouble is,will Cameroun have the cojones to tackle the financial mess this country is in full-on.Failure to do so could well relagate Britain to perpetual Third World status.

 

Wow... didn't see that coming...

Your analysis might be off though... as he states that the figure in brackets is the (projected?) spending in 2010/11... so its not a reduction of £35bn, more like ~£3bn.

The government isn't fit to run a piggy bank - election please!

 

They will be out of power in 2010 so hopefully billions can be returned to the defence budget..

But call me Dave reminds me too much of that other snake oil salesman Blair.

 

So were is the Governments T&S budget?

 

Forget it, Defence will be the poor relation from now on, RN and RAF cuts, no super carriers, no trident, they are now unaffordable pipe dreams.

 

I think we've been over this before. As far as I know the reason the defence spending figures look so bad is because the figure it is coming down from includes all the 2009/2010 spending for ops in Afghanistan, while the figure it is going down to does not, as the 2010/2011 spending on Afghanistan hasn't been worked out yet.

Best wait for Jim30 for a proper answer, but £35bln is the bases defence budget as it stands:

http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/AboutDefence/Organisation/KeyFactsAboutDefence/DefenceSpending.htm

so it couldn't be that AFTER a 7.92% cut.

 

Culture, Media and Sport 8.80% (£2.1bn)

So is this Our esteemed (pah) leaders Activia, Sky and Ping Pong bills?

 

Yes, the £35bn is the projected 2010/11 spend.

There is a lot of buggering around with the interpretation of things like "value for money savings" and also money that has already been brought forward from next year’s budget into the current one which, so we are told, therefore do not represent cuts at all.

Simple soul that I am I rather prefer to think of spending in cash terms rather than abstract accounting concepts

money in versus money out,
this years cash spend versus available budgeted sum,
this year versus next year
how much cash actually available to spend on real things

Clearly not cut out for the world of the Treasury or Politics

 

Its all Bolleaux.

ANYONE who gets in for the next parliament is going to cut defence. Simply because the biggest saving for the least amount of hassle is available there.

No- one is going to go after the benefits budget for instance. At least not initially.

 

So, my ramblings have sprouted grouth and confirmed by figures from the treasury.

If as has been said , the money for uor and the sandpit are to be absorbed by 2010/2011 defence budget plus this reduction in real terms.

Hands up who still think aircraft second option order, carriers, fres etc will appear in the near future?