Budget Day

So enough about me, its time to start hitting the news. 

And its BUDGET day in the UK.  Where we get to see how the UK/English government spend thier money and where does it come from.

So here are some figures (from the HM Treasury 2011).

The UK Government has budgeted to receive 589 BILLION (according to the Budget Responsibility), Where does that come from?

Well mostly us ,the person who pays income tax and national insurance, council tax and VAT (388 Billion or 66%)
Businesses through corp tax, excise and business rates pay 119 Billion (20%)
Leaves 14% from "other" or 85 Billion from taxation not mentioned, or sales of airwaves, drilling rights and so on.

We are spending 710 Billion.  A deficit of  121 Billion POUNDS!

We spend 50 Billion (10 million more than we do on defence) on repaying the INTEREST alone!

That is crazy!  If your household income was run like this there would be people knocking on your door offering their services to break your knee caps!

We need to stop overspending.  But how?  Without massive cuts to our public sector?

UK Spends 86 Billion on Education - 12.1 Million children/adults are in Education
so simple maths states
86,000,000,000 spent on 12,100,000 is equal to £7,107.44 per student. 

An excellent private school in Scotland costs between 6,000 - 10,000 per year.  Universities are looking to charge £6,000 per year in England.   Yet we are spending roughly the same yet would you rather your child goes to a private school with 15 in a class or your local comprehensive with 30.

The problem is Red Tape, bureaucracy, jobs for people who really only have jobs because someone thinks they should be there and collective bargaining. 

We need to look at our public sector.  State the obvious, we are not complaining about nurses, teachers, police officers, we are talking back room managers.  The "we need a meeting to talk about the results of this meeting", "Lets spend millions on a new logo", "Lets spend thousands telling the public things they already know!"

Government should be run in the same way as business.  Find the good staff, reward them and you will be rewarded too.  But this is a major change in thinking at a local and national level.

But it is a change that needs to happen.  We can not keep having 50 Billion on interest payments over our heads for ever. 

Final thought about budgets and balances - The Scotland Bill allows the Scottish Government to take loans to spend on "capital" jobs.   This should NEVER happen.  We need to run government in the same way as you run your home budget, if you want something then SAVE up for it.  Its cheaper, its profitable and ITS MY MONEY don't pay banks/who every buys debt interest!