[David9694]

No more lollipop ladies, close paddling pools and turning off streetlights: How budget cutting BCP Council proposes to save millions

This will be coming to your area in one shape or another.  A few items below, with more in the pipeline as they still have a £12m gap. 

No America trade deal. Still, I was reading, a possibility of an India deal next year, which will fix everything. 

Community Safety Accreditation Scheme (Save £270,000) – They aim to remove community safety officers from Poole Town Centre, Christchurch Town Centre and Boscombe.

Monitoring CCTV (Save £49,000) – Reduce live monitoring of the cameras by 15-30 per cent and to seek support from partner agencies to fund the service. This could mean cameras will no longer be watched by staff at off-peak times.
.
Switching off street lighting (Save £68,000) – Turn off streetlights after midnight to 6am on quieter residential roads within the Poole area.

School Crossing Patrol (Save £12,000) – Remove school crossing patrols from locations that have existing crossing facilities and remove school crossing patrols from locations that, following a survey, do not meet the threshold for a patrol.

https://www.dorset.live/news/dorset-news/bcp-council-savings-budget-cuts-8924988

Topic

[chrisonabike]

Being a member of the
Being a member of the wokerati I can’t work out on which grounds to criticise myself now! On the one hand I eat the odd avocado (bad on CO2 / food miles) but maybe that’s good on health grounds and thus ultimately to help Save The NHS? OTOH I eat quite a bit of cake (bad!) Plus I’m not vegan nor do I care for tofu – but then isn’t that soya being planted in cleared rainforest?

Further – my main transport is bike with no motor assist (++smugness) but I have several Alu frames and apparently cyclists and cycling infra cause congestion, and I’m not paying all that tax associated with running a motor vehicle (“driving drives the economy” copyright all parties).

If my current good health enables me to live to an age of chronic health conditions (as you say above a certain age humans have effectively exceeded their “natural” service lives and evolution hasn’t caught up yet) was I helping?

[TheBillder]

Rich_cb wrote:

Rich_cb wrote:

I think we need to find a way of taxing wealthy boomers and Gen Xers to provide the services which those generations are now requiring or will imminently require.

Property taxes are the most obvious way IMO. Reform council tax to make it truly progressive and you’ll tap a lot of unearned property wealth and also encourage better functioning of the housing market.

This is an idea I agree with, but it’s difficult, both practically and politically. If tax on cake went up, I could cut back. But if I’m to be taxed on the current value of my house, I can’t hive off a bedroom or part of the garden.

Politically, if you remember the poll tax, a big part of the motivation was that elderly Tory voters were complaining about their rates bills but didn’t want to move house. I’m far from sure that the current Tories feel any different, and Labour clearly feels that it needs to attract floating voters.

[Rich_cb]

Welfare spending increases
Welfare spending increases with age regardless of diet. Even those with a very healthy diet will still, on average, require more health and social care as they age.

I agree that poor diet certainly doesn’t help and those with a poor diet will almost certainly, on average, require more health and social care than their peers.

[levestane]

I’m not sure it is getting

I’m not sure it is getting older that will impact welfare spending but I suspect that ultra-processed foods will have a very major impact. Tax payers will pick up the tab for poor science in the food industry and the few who have enriched themselves in the process.

[Rich_cb]

“Appears to be” , “If it gets
“Appears to be” , “If it gets over the line” ≠ “confidently assuring us”

Perhaps you could tell us the date and title of that page so I can check that you’re not deliberately misleading us although that appears to be the case even with the limited evidence you’ve made available.

[Rich_cb]

I think we need to find a way
I think we need to find a way of taxing wealthy boomers and Gen Xers to provide the services which those generations are now requiring or will imminently require.

Property taxes are the most obvious way IMO. Reform council tax to make it truly progressive and you’ll tap a lot of unearned property wealth and also encourage better functioning of the housing market.

[Rendel Harris]

Rich_cb wrote:

Rich_cb wrote:

You recall wrong Rendel. Strange for a man with an apparently photographic memory. I previously said that it was reportedly close to being done, the press continue to report progress on several key areas within the deal so I remain hopeful that we’ll see it finalised.

As you know, dear Rich, I have never claimed to have a full photographic memory, however much you and your little bullygroup like to claim I did. What I said was that I have a photographic memory for where to find text, that’s all, and I do: for example it enables me to remember exactly where you were confidently assuring us that the India deal was imminent, even when the press were widely (and correctly) reporting it was nowhere near:

[chrisonabike]

Eat the [strike]rich[/strike]
Eat the rich old and rich?

Time ago I read someone pointing out that the proportion we spend on health is increasing, and there doesn’t seem to be a limit to people’s appetite to spend more there (because we don’t want ourselves / our loved ones to suffer and die).

General welfare spending though? Might be cheaper to *increase* that as I suspect we’re still doing too much of that via the (extremely expensive) health care side.

[Rich_cb]

You recall wrong Rendel.
You recall wrong Rendel.

Strange for a man with an apparently photographic memory.

I previously said that it was reportedly close to being done, the press continue to report progress on several key areas within the deal so I remain hopeful that we’ll see it finalised.

[David9694]

“You’ve got next to nothing

“You’ve got next to nothing and your life just got a whole lot worse”.  The “crises” I’ve had in my younger life were pretty mild, but were real enough to me to retain the idea that this sort of thing can befall any of us, not least as we get older.

Are there really masses of people who are so insulated from this by money and connections that this brand of Conservatism (“you’re on your own”) is OK for them? 

[Rendel Harris]

How’s the old India trade

How’s the old India trade deal coming on Rich? As I recall back in July and August you were confidently telling us that it was imminent and then we would really start seeing the good old Brexit benefits…

[Rich_cb]

Demographics mean that the
Demographics mean that the proportion of the population in work is going to keep decreasing whilst the pensions bill will keep rising.

The older generations who have accumulated huge amounts of wealth are now set to receive ever increasing amounts of welfare spending.

We either cut spending elsewhere or we continue to raise taxes. Taxes as a proportion of GDP are already approaching record highs.

[Simon E]

Same in Shropshire, they’ve

Same in Shropshire, they’ve been switching them off for about 5 hours a night for the best part of a decade. But all the cuts made by Conservative run mismanaged Shropshire council won’t help. It’s all due to Tory fake ‘Austerity’ that’s been hacking away at our public services since 2010. Isn’t it what they and all the selfish c**ts who voted Tory over and over wanted? Why else would anyone vote Conservative?

Trade deals are bullshit, a way for other countries to screw ours because we’re not in a strong bargaining position. Meanwhile our public services have been sold off to foreign investors at discount prices and the councils are stuck with couldn’t-care-less contractors like Keir and Serco that do a shit job and bleed the coffers dry, for their shareholders’ benefit.

[Rendel Harris]

You’ve got a generation

You’ve got a generation raised on the welfare state
Enjoyed all the benefits and did just great
But as soon as they were settled as the richest of the rich
They kicked away the ladder, told the rest of us that life’s a bitch…

– Frank Turner, “Thatcher Fucked the Kids”
 

[hawkinspeter]

chrisonabike wrote:

chrisonabike wrote:

Are you insinuating that such a dignitary from the Nasty Party is unlikely to be an immigrant (or child of same), of non-heterosexual orientation or trans … or even (clutches pearls) a vegan?!

It’s not unknown for children of immigrants to gain success with the Tories, but they also seem the most likely to blame refugees for everything. It’s very much climb the ladder and pull it up after yourself so no-one else can benefit.

[Author]

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