Sir Ralph

Like I said I don’t have a dossier on how to cut spending on each department. Why has the government not cut spending yet as it’s 1.5 years in? Can you help because your mates can’t

Again your avoided my question cause you can’t answer it. Your rigid defence of the government position therefore isn’t justified. In terms of welfare their case was strong enough but they have a strong provision of socialists who are Politically adverse to any cuts regardless of the case - much like some of the posters here. The thing you want a full breakdown of savings from government departments. I’ve given you areas where savings can be made but I don’t have the specific figures cause I’m not a government departments (exactly the same reason you used). Ive responded to all of your gangs questions but you want a dossier which isn’t possible. You have still all failed to respond to my basic question which is why the government hasn’t made savings yet and is therefore prioritises taxes? No response whatsoever other than you don’t know - unsatisfactory because it’s not justifiable. Also not impressed by you throwing figures around. Your table at the rugby was a puny one so they clearly value you

Ok welfare - why can’t that be cut now? The civil service has a number of parts (MOD annd MHCLG to name an couple) are known to be bloated and inefficient - are you telling me that after 1.5 years savings can’t be made here? the same with quangos which I have named. Do you want an efficiency report for each? lastly you haven’t answered my bloody question which is where is the PLAN? You can say you’re tapping out but you are avoiding my questions cause you don’t like them. I’ve told you where changes can be made so unless you’re clear on specifics. The government is 1.5 years in a no savings. It’s funny that whenever I ask you questions you go into a hole and I try and answer yours. Easy to ask less easy to respond to

Let’s take some quangos, parts of the the civil service and welfare. There are obvious targets within these that haven’t been tackled. If the governments priority was minimising. Taxes it would have targeted these elements asap to reduce the tax burden as well as having a longer term strategy. I agree that LA spending would be more complicated. Otherwise you are saying that no immediate savings can be made. As per my previous question wheee is the governments plans for these savings? The government has now been in power for 1.5 years

I agree there will probably be a mix of immediate savings and longer terms savings. So where is the governments plan to make these savings to ensure a balanced budget?

This is covered in my civil service comment which nobody has challenged

@tdmickey3 go on try it will be funny

No I’m not - respond to the question above

Just NI, CG tax and inheritance meaning that an increase of only £40 billion in taxes so far that’s all! I gave a list of savings some of which you challenged and others which you havent. I used HS2 as an example of wastage and there are lots of others, unless you dispute it. It is not possible for me to assess these quangos future wastage because I don’t have access to that information. You can’t prove they will be efficient either. You can only point to past performance to show they aren’t performing and therefore that there should be a serious review and reform of a number of them as they aren’t efficient. Do you agree that all quangos are efficient and savings can’t be made? If you agree savings can be made more generally why isn’t the government making them and deciding to jump to taxing people to the tune of £40m to date with more to come?

I said the list was not exhaustive and listed a number of others. HS2 is an example of unchecked incompetency within a quango which shows that it is common. Within some of these quangos I have witnessed them at work. NHS quangos are notorious for being wasteful. Do you want me to prove future incompetency for some Of these quangos? There are clearly a number of these quangos that could be removed or be reformed. Assume you agree that civil service savings can be made too as well as welfare spending? You seem to think that no spending saving can be made at all in the context of a government that has shown it has bugger all intention of taking a balanced approach. As you are always very good at only asking questions please can you confirm why the government has only increased taxes so far and not reduced spending? Is your view that no savings can be made in respect of the matters I have mentioned and any other matters?

Have you read about the wastage on HS2 as an example ? I didnt say get rid of it altogether, there are clearly business benefits but pissing tax payers money up the wall to that extent with that amount of incompetency is not ok.

Brilliant. Chat GPT must have helped with that one.

Rid off or seriously reform to avoid the billions of waste - non exhaustive list includes the HSE, multiple NHS quangos, Highways agency, HS2, Natural England......there are lotsof them that are actually a hindrance to business growth. To be fair to @badgerx16 LAs are much more stretched than these lot. Again, are we saying that Government spending is reasonable and savings cannot be made?

if you are correct his job doesnt exist then cause he can't make any savings for LA's? With what I deal with on a day to day basis I see actions bordering on incompetence due to jobs being created out of bureaucracy and people who dont create anything, other than paperwork. What about the other savings I mentioned? Do you think there is nowhere where public spending can be saved at all?

It depends on authority to authority and how their individual systems and processes work. I'm talking about LA specific savings. As I said in my message, some LA's are well run but others are flabbier. Are you saying that there aren't some LA's who are badly run and where savings and efficiencies can't be made? What about the other savings I mentioned? Do you think there is nowhere where public spending can be saved at all?

Cause I disagree with the usual band of brothers. Its a childs response. I would value Russell Martin's opinion on the long ball game more than his opinion on anything beyond this afternoon's programming on CBeebies. I challenged him once and he sent me a picture of an ars.

hilarious @tdmickey3

Cut the civil service, reduce the number of quangos and governmental bodies and reduce local authority wastage. A friend was senior in local authority and now has a business that helps authorities make savings (not redundancies) - he continues to highlight to me the wastage that could be saved in some local authorities, albeit I am aware that some are run much better than others. Some people I've spoken to have said that net zero spending could / should be reduced but I dont know enough about it. I also believe that there is a lot of wastage in the NHS from speaking to family members in it so I would target that too but again they know more about it than me.

Of course I'm not advocating tax cuts in the current climate - its was typo in one message but hands up as it made that message confusing. My previous messages on this have always referred to reduce spending, particularly day to day public spending so I have been consistent. These are just small businesses commenting at the moment. Its funny how you have made an excuse in every single instance and wont accept their concerns and none of them are valid in your mind. Spending cuts as a priority, tax to fill any gaps only.

They realised that Vicky Pollard wouldnt be able to afford her fags and Sky TV license, cant be having that

Fair enough it because I’m an angry man. Looking forward to seeing the responses.

Are you taking the piss? The 1960s and 1970s?! The cavemen survived with no tax so I think we could do that too

I meant to say spending cuts not tax cuts. The channel 4 guy is commenting in the context of a balanced budget to reduce the deficit and borrowing costs. The issue (which I keep mentioning again and again) is that they only want to increase taxes and not reduce spending which is harmful to the economy. The best approach for growth is to firstly find where you can make cuts to spending and then, if absolutely necessary, increase tax. This will be a one way budget and approach which will ultimately be bad for business. You have taken that quote from the bbc thread - read the rest of it to see what businesses say. Resounding support for these tax rises…not https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cwynl0q5eynt Don’t worry there will be mountains of this stuff soon but you want the government to tax more. Wow, people would be more aspirational grow their businesses and comply more people if there was less tax?!!! Greedy bastards! What do you make of possible tax rises?published at 11:56 11:56 We have been hearing from members of the public on possible tax rises at the upcoming Budget on 26 November. Harry is an NHS doctor working 46 hours a week. He is due to become a consultant in the next 12 months, but says he will no longer qualify for nursery funding for his son once he achieves the promotion, as the starting salary for the role is over the £100,000 free-childcare cap. "Once I'm over that [£100,000] bracket, I'm majorly disincentivised to go to work... So when I take up a consultant post, I’m probably going to work part time," he tells Nicky Campbell on BBC Radio 5 Live. We also heard from Steven, a plumber and small business owner in Epping. He says there is no incentive to grow his business at the moment as it could push him over the VAT threshold. Businesses have to register for VAT if their VAT-taxable turnover is more than £90,000. "I withhold services towards the end of the tax year because of the VAT threshold," Steven says. He adds that "a lot" of sole traders and small businesses "don't want the hassle of being VAT registered". If the government raised the threshold to £120,000-£150,000, he says he would "happily take on another trainee" and grow his business. More tax rises will halt my growth plan, says small businesses ownerpublished at 10:56 10:56 We've been hearing from readers about how they think the Budget could affect them. Matt Cooper, who runs a small business that provides educational courses on mountain safety, says that every time he switches on the news it seems there's another tax on the public which is making it tough for companies like his. "More tax rises will halt my plan of growth," he says. "I'm not a Conservative voter, but it felt like the economy was in better hands before, as it just feels like there's new taxes all the time."

What are you saying then? The chap on radio 4 is talking about reducing the deficit and saying that taxes can help to achieve this but is hoping reeves will explain where cuts will be made My personal perspective on a balanced budget is one that you Start with tax cuts that are necessary and then tax rises should be supplemental only, in the context of the last budget. Im not sure why this statement from radio 4 is ground breaking or proves what I have said as being incorrect. The point is Labour don’t want to make any savings they want to tax some people into oblivion

Exactly - a balanced budget, including tax cuts. Whenever I mention tax cuts on here some the population here freaks out. Having only tax rises is a terrible idea which is all we have had so far and all the media are talking about, yet you are intent continually backing the Government on this stance. Start with tax cuts that are necessary and then tax rises should be supplemental only, in the context of the last budget.