The Tory response to Osborne's Spending Review
James Forsyth 7:41pm
George Osborne was well received by the 1922 committee of Tory backbenchers when he
addressed them on the spending review earlier. There was much thumping of desks, the traditional sign of approval at meetings of the ‘22.
Talking to Tory MPs this afternoon, they are pretty happy with the package. They are glad that the money being taken out of the welfare budget means that the departmental cuts are less than
expected. Overall, they think the package is politically sellable and has denied Labour that many targets.
One concern is about how local councils, including Conservative ones, might react to a 28 percent cut in their funding from central government. But I understand that Eric Pickles has a plan to
ensure that any impact on front-line council services is minimised by pushing for back office savings.
A date for your diary is the 29th of November. This is when the OBR, and its new head Robert Chote, will announce what effect it thinks the spending review will have on economic growth.
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David Lindsay
October 20th, 2010 8:22pm Report this commentThursday 9th April 1992 - General Election. Wednesday 16th September 1992 - result of the next one became a foregone conclusion, even if it did take four and a half years to arrive. Thursday 6th May 2010 - General Election. Wednesday 20th October 2010 - result of the next one became a foregone conclusion, even if it will take four and a half years to arrive.
The economy had picked up by the 1997 Election, but who cared, or even noticed? Ed Miliband now has the chance to give us what we would have had if John Smith has lived. But he will need a body of MPs, even if initially small, both to hold him to that and to protect him against the more obnoxious sections of his party, people whose happiest day was when Smith died. AV makes such a body perfectly possible. If we use it properly.
rumpo
October 20th, 2010 8:39pm Report this commentThe death-rattle of Thatcherism.
CityBoy
October 20th, 2010 8:52pm Report this commentDavid Lindsay - I'll take some of whatever you're smoking.
TrevorsDen
October 20th, 2010 9:09pm Report this commentVery myopic Mr Lindsay.
The reason for these cuts are all down to labours mismanagement.
Now that the uncertainty is over people may well simply get on with their lives.
You totally miss the point. As others point out (but you in your dreamland ignore) - spending is only in reality being very slowly rowed back. Labour have cried wolf over these cuts. Schools are still going to be rebuilt - £15 billion and more easily and efficiently than under Labour. The NHS continues to be funded and will be made more efficient. Roads and rail are still being built.
Sadly thanks to Labours deficits we are seeing debt interest payments going up - that is the indicator that it will be a long long haul. Such is Brown's disaster.
ollie
October 20th, 2010 9:35pm Report this commentWednesday 20th October 2010 - David Lindsay commited to a secure unit courtesy of the Mental Health Act.
Mirtha Tidville
October 20th, 2010 10:20pm Report this commentWhy wait until the 29th November for the OBR`s view on economic growth...pretty disasterous by any stretch of anyones imagination..
English Democrat
October 20th, 2010 10:35pm Report this commentThe Foreign Aid Budget has been ring fenced - to Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, the European Union and the Rest of the World. Why should they all suffer?
To finance the above, England will face massive cuts.
The British Government believe the English have a stiff upper lip and will take it without complaining.
Mirtha Tidville
October 20th, 2010 11:11pm Report this commentThere is truely something rotten in the state of this Government when Scotland are given enough ENGLISH money to provide free everything at the same time we are making massive cutbacks south of the border..
The sooner they are cut loose the better
Pot Head
October 20th, 2010 11:17pm Report this commentWell, the Torygraph isn't happy!
http://bit.ly/cXKsF8
"Cuts leave middle class £10,000 worse off"
Roger Davies
October 21st, 2010 7:51am Report this commentTinkering, just tinkering that will have little impact with Brown's Burden that will be with us for some time. Also I doubt that the 500,000 leaving the Public Waste Sector will be fit for employment in the Private Sector and therefore will join the legions of the Unemployable. I see nothing in this package to stimulate the Private Sector to make stuff to export and earn money to pay down Brown's Burden.
Rhoda Klapp
October 21st, 2010 8:38am Report this commentTake all the flak for the cuts. Create a legend of parsimony which will be an elctoral albatross at the least, and possibly define your brand for an era, as it did with Thatcher. Play into the hands of all the shroud-wavers and their allies at the BBC and the Guardian. Keep a lot of really stupid expenditure in. Sell the country's defence to the EU. And then don't actually reduce public expenditure or the over-shadowing size of government, as sensible policy requires. Increase VAT just as any recovery gets going.
In short, Tory tax and spend. Bloody genius.
Colin Cumner
October 21st, 2010 9:09am Report this commentForeign aid must be addressed too. Where exactly does this money go? Who are the chief beneficiaries? And why are China and India to receive British largesse? I thought they were the powerhouse economies of the early 21st century. If the British at home are to tighten their belts so, too, must the overseas countries that receive British aid.
anxiouswarrior
October 21st, 2010 9:35am Report this commentyou evil tory bastards
Ian Walker
October 21st, 2010 1:54pm Report this commentWas there a spending review? I was too busy tucking into my bébé au vin to notice.
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