Labour confirms it is spending more on housing

Within a BBC news report that the number of "affordable homes" built could be cut in coming years because of budgetary pressure, the government has confirmed that it is going to spend still MORE borrowed cash to depress the property market.

Housing Minister John Healey said:

"Of course the public finances are tight but this government continues to demonstrate our long-term commitment to affordable housing, whether through the extra £1.5bn investment of the Housing Pledge or the pre-Budget report's boosting of support for first-time buyers," he said.

"The Tories not only opposed us, they also proposed a £1bn cut in last year's housing budget that would have seen 9,000 fewer homes built and the loss of many jobs in the construction industry.

"Taking this as a clear indication of Tory priorities, the NHF would do well to consider the threat a Cameron government would pose to affordable housing," he said.

In other words, "of course we don't have any spare money, but who cares, we'll borrow more from your kids to spend more on subsidising housing for people to buy. This while the economy remains stagnant".

£1.5 billion that they don't have that they'll take from your future taxes and children with interest, all to bribe the target group of low income people who get these homes, and the construction industry with its employees. Other taxpayers who have homes or mortgages or have done far too well to be considered as deserving of owning an "affordable home" can just damn well put up with it.

Conservatives: Cuts in administration spending on the arts

The Guardian reports Conservative Shadow Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt saying:

The Conservatives would introduce a target for the main distributors of arts grants, including the Film Council and Arts Council England (ACE), to reduce administrative costs to a maximum of 5% of the money received from government – meaning stringent cuts.

he could not guarantee that exchequer funding would continue at present levels. "We face cuts whoever wins the next election," he admitted. "But we are committed to a mixed-economy funding model for the arts and I do believe in state funding.

So talk of cuts in administration, but the state will still be pouring money into the arts that it wants to support. A little good, but not enough.

Labour: Long term unemployed to be guaranteed "jobs"

The Times reports:

The intention is to build on the £1.5 billion youth jobs guarantee — which will be promoted nationwide in the coming weeks — for people aged 18 to 24 who claim jobseeker’s allowance for more than six months....Yvette Cooper, the Work and Pensions Secretary, has announced plans to offer “tailored support” for unemployed people aged over 50 and to ensure that claimants who take jobs would receive £40 a week more than if they stayed on benefit.


So more money that the government doesn't have, to take from future taxpayers, to cost future jobs, rather than getting the state out of the way of business.

Conservatives: Spending cuts from day one

The Daily Telegraph is reporting George Osborne saying:

"Programmes that represent poor value for money, excessive spending on things like advertising and consultants, spending on tax credits for people earning over £50,000, and spending on Child Trust Funds for better off families will all have to be cut during the financial year."

Advertising and consultants will be chicken feed.
Tax credits for those earning over £50,000 is NOT cutting spending, but effectively increasing taxes through simplification of the tax system.
Spending on Child Trust Funds will also be chicken feed.

He did note the status quo is unacceptable: "Total spending is planned to go up by £31 billion in nominal terms, or by more than 2 per cent in real terms. During a period when the Treasury expects the economy to be growing by at least 2 per cent, and with the largest budget deficit of any developed economy, that is simply not credible."

All well and good in intent, but little of substance.

Cut UK government spending!

The purpose of this blog is to highlight every day when either the Labour Government or the Conservative Party promise to spend MORE of your money, which of course isn’t theirs in the first place. Every promise or policy to spend more money, will be highlighted here. If it is a core area of state activity (law and order, defence) then it may be all well and good, but ONLY if there is a countervailing reduction elsewhere, and only if there is a clear demonstrated need. It may be positive to spend more tackling violent crime, but less on victimless crime.

The Liberal Democrats have been excluded because, although it is a party that has shown some prudence in announcing plans to cut spending (and more recently to scrap policies that can't be afforded), it wont be leading the next UK government. Anything particularly notable from the Liberal Democrats on shrinking the state will be posted, given the off chance of a coalition if neither major party can win a majority. All smaller parties are being ignored given the extremely low likelihood any will have a role in the next UK government.

What this blog aims to do is shame the two main parties into ceasing the charade that somehow there is “spare cash” coming into the Treasury that can be committed to new spending. There isn’t. The UK is bleeding £370 million a day, and borrowing from future (in many cases unborn) taxpayers as a result. This has been the norm for almost all of the years of the current government, and it is wilful blindness, as well as out and out fraud to claim otherwise.

When Gordon Brown or David Cameron talk about investment, they really mean borrow now to tax you, your children and grandchildren more in the future. They don’t invest with money THEY earnt, they invest with YOUR money, taken from you by force, and unlike proper investments, they don’t give you anything back.

Gordon Brown claims to have saved the economy, but all he has done is plundered the bank accounts and earnings of future taxpayers to pay for the mistakes of the past carried out in large part by this administration, and in part by others. He has bailed out businesses that failed, rewarding failures with the money taken from future success. He has the audacity to talk of leading a party of aspiration, whilst speaking the rhetoric and implementing policies that penalise, denigrate and decry those who succeed financially. Aspire, but don't succeed.

The Conservative Party talks about the need for fiscal prudence, except for the NHS and selected other areas. In other words, it is quite willing to continue overspending as long as it is for things that will win votes it likes. It's time for some honesty.

H.L. Mencken described elections as advance auctions of stolen goods. The 2010 UK General Election will be this on a grander scale than ever before.

I will label every single policy announcement to spend more by party and by portfolio. I will not keep a running total, because politicians tend to report the same thing more than once, so something included in the budget may be announced again for propaganda effect.

So let’s just see how Brown and Cameron can promise to thieve from us all in the future, and let it help you decide whether to vote for either of them.

In the meantime pardon me for the next few weeks as I add a blogroll and a few bits and pieces to this to get it up and running.