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Is austerity working- and will it ever end?

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Most generous eh.

 

So we'll soon see 20,000 police officers back on the force.

NHS spending will be increased to reverse a decade of decline.

Schools will get sufficient money to hire new staff (not just a one of capital spend that in no way is sufficient for the amount they need).

 

This budget isn't an end to austerity in the slightest.

 

Obviously not. It would be incredibly naive to think that austerity coming to an end meant that all the squeezes and cuts over the last 10 years would be compensated for like they never happened. That would entirely defeat the purpose, and cause loads of borrowing, and deficit to grow and debt to mushroom..

 

He didn’t say this budget was ‘the end’ of austerity, but that austerity is coming to an end. Different people will have different ideas as to what constitutes that, but a real term increase in public spending (mostly down to the NHS) after years and years of cuts to public spending, is at least something.

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It’s a real terms increase. I believe that takes inflation into account.

 

I have read both, both on the BBC; is it fake news, which is correct? I fear the below is correct.

 

Philip Hammond has said there will be no "real terms" increase in public spending apart from on the NHS.

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-46024014

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I have read both, both on the BBC; is it fake news, which is correct? I fear the below is correct.

 

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-46024014

 

The article you posted explains it.

 

‘He said next year's spending review would decide how much police, local government, schools, defence and other public services would get. But "once you take out the commitment we have made to health, (it) gives a flat real spending available for all other departments".

 

Even a flat real term spending is better than across the board departmental cuts that had been planned to happen.

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The article you posted explains it.

 

‘He said next year's spending review would decide how much police, local government, schools, defence and other public services would get. But "once you take out the commitment we have made to health, (it) gives a flat real spending available for all other departments".

 

Even a flat real term spending is better than across the board departmental cuts that had been planned to happen.

 

As clear as mud! No "real terms" increase.

 

It was on BBC2 'Politics live' that it stated 1.2% real terms increase.

Edited by El Cid

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Just seen this headline

 

"Top half of households to benefit from 84% of the cuts, says Resolution Foundation"

 

Not entirely surprising.

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As clear as mud! No "real terms" increase.

 

It was on BBC2 'Politics live' that it stated 1.2% real terms increase.

 

It’s called an average - it’s not too difficult to understand.

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It’s called an average - it’s not too difficult to understand.

 

He said next year's spending review would decide how much

 

I have an open mind at the moment, don't trust any of them.

 

---------- Post added 30-10-2018 at 13:48 ----------

 

“Total day to day spending on public services is planned to rise by about 8 per cent between now and 2023-24, but spending outside of protected areas is essentially flat – and indeed ticks up next year before falling a bit. It falls on a per capita basis,” said the IFS’s director Paul Johnson.

 

“Does that add up to the end of austerity? On a narrow definition perhaps it does, on wider definitions it doesn’t, at least not yet.”

 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/budget-2018-institute-for-fiscal-studies-austerity-government-departments-paul-johnson-a8608691.html

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Maintaining spending at current austerity levels is clearly not an end to austerity. At best they can say "Austerity spending cuts are not deepening".

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Maintaining spending at current austerity levels is clearly not an end to austerity. At best they can say "Austerity spending cuts are not deepening".

 

Spending levels aren’t being maintained at austerity levels. Under austerity spending was cut. Increases to spending to match inflation isn’t a cut, it’s flat. It’s not just that austerity cuts aren’t deepening, it’s that they are no longer cuts..

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Spending was cut. Spending is now to be maintained level with inflation. It REMAINS cut. That's still austerity.

You can't redefine the cut level as the new normal.

There are not GREATER cuts, nor are the cuts reversed at all. Austerity spending levels remain.

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Spending was cut. Spending is now to be maintained level with inflation. It REMAINS cut. That's still austerity.

You can't redefine the cut level as the new normal.

There are not GREATER cuts, nor are the cuts reversed at all. Austerity spending levels remain.

 

Then what is the new normal? Spending as a % of GDP was much higher in the 70s, and even higher after WWII. Has everything since then been austerity?

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If austerity has been going on for a decade then the spending levels prior to that were pre-austerity and thus the normal.

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