… “Facing more cuts of as much as another 40%, the LGA’s submission to Osborne is a warning. Does he realise his own micro-managing policies, far from devolving, have imposed £10bn in new costs? A pre-election sweetener forcing councils to cut rents by 1% costs them £2.6bn. They are losing £3bn by the exemption Osborne has granted developers from a section 106 levy to pay councils for affordable housing. Universal credit loses councils more, and so does raising the minimum wage.
Osborne’s devolution may gift new powers, but as Nick Forbes, the Newcastle council leader, says: “Don’t pass the buck without passing the bucks.” Where’s the money? Osborne’s northern powerhouse project is a brilliant land-grab on Labour heartlands. He flattered seven northern leaders by sweeping them up on his grand China tour – though they had little face time to lobby him on council funding.”
…”The delusion here is that the Tories are invading the political centre ground, or the “common ground”, vacated by Labour. But remember how far to the right is Osborne’s turf. By 2020 the state will have shrunk to just 35% of GDP, smaller even than the United States, and far below the German 45% of GDP. His common ground will be a desolate desert, and what’s left of its public realm a miserable place. Few voters have been told this is his destination. Nor is it clear what his vision is for the country once he gets there.
That single-minded purpose is why there is no U-turn on tax credits: his £12bn benefit cuts are an act of faith. David Cameron and Osborne can only lie about the effects, defying the Institute for Fiscal Studies – the great arbiter – as “not right”. Preposterous claims by ministers that cutting tax credits means “cultural change” for people already in work show how far this is from being the “workers’ party”. Dangerously, they come to believe their own fictions, as Osborne repeats yet again that we have 1% of the world’s population and 4% of the world’s wealth, but spend 7% of the world’s welfare. Even the slowest brain works out that global welfare includes the likes of Somalia and Ethiopia.
Triumph sweeps caution away: they think they see Lib Dems vanquished, Labour departing the fray, boundary changes securing everlasting victory. They talk of standing in the foothills of a decade or more of power unrestrained: all they have to fear is themselves and their hubris. The NHS teeters on financial collapse, while the social care crisis risks scandals of neglect. David Davis and the Sun warn tax creditswill be their poll tax – while the referendum storm is gathering in their ranks. Europhobic invincibility makes them reckless: they may need no official opposition when they set so many land mines for themselves. …”
East Devon Watch 