“This "U turn" won't be a surprise to many. It's the usual politicians trick. Announce bad news. Then say you won't make as many cuts as you first said so you can say you listened and have saved services.
Lots of vulnerable and hard up people are still going to see massive changes to their quality of life as charges go up and services go down.”

“Equaliser, as Voice of the People has said those sorts of people exist in the private sector too.

"Even labour realise they need to cut public spending although I doubt they have the guts to do it."

Errmmmmmmmmmm:

As I have told you time and again.

If we really need to make cuts, we cannot afford to freeze council tax, we cannot afford to spend double the cost of supporting the tram on withdrawing from it, as Richard Jackson himself admitted, and we cannot afford the mad proposal for a married couples allowance.

If they can afford that, they can afford to keep the services.

If they can't afford to keep the services, they cannot afford that.

Simple as!”

“Be wary Equalizer. As one who is currently being forced to prostitute themselves to the capitalist machinery of the world (the private sector), but with public sector experience under my belt, my conclusion is this:

Private sector.. Public sector.. both have an equal amount of malingerers and hard workers. The difference is that in the public sector, no-one really bothered to hide the fact that they were having an 'in house' lazy day, whereas in the private sector, the same types are very adept at 'in house' 'networking' and 'brainstorming sessions' i.e. gossiping away and not doing much.

It's fashionable to knock the public sector during a recession, always has been the case and always will be. But both private and public sector are reasonably equal when it comes to hard workers and lazy people. The only major difference is that EVERYONE in the public sector gets bashed, whereas EVERYONE in the private sector is held up as some kind of paragon of virtuous diligence.”

“I had a maiden Aunt who looked a lot like the woman at the top of this article.
She bought her clothing from Jumble Sales too.”

“Sensible . . .
Sadly the Professions you mention have an awful lot of malingerers and time servers in their ranks.
Not particularly the front-line boys and girlss but the upper echelons of management.
All the Services have them.
I've seen some even on the front line passing the time of day in a haze of fag breaks and tea breaks when they should have been on the job.
For every dedicated nurse or policeman there are a host work-avoiders.”

“"Mr Sensible

I doubt they can afford to make those front line workers redundant. I know two friends of mine in the public sector who are not in senior management but will both walk away with a payoff of nearly £100k if made redundant."

Utter balls. You, or they, are lying.”

“Mr Sensible

I doubt they can afford to make those front line workers redundant. I know two friends of mine in the public sector who are not in senior management but will both walk away with a payoff of nearly £100k if made redundant. Nice work if you can get it.

Even labour realise they need to cut public spending although I doubt they have the guts to do it.”

“Striker

You don't bail the bankers out. Private industry raises all the wealth in the country. The public sector does not generate any wealth. The public sector exists only because there is a private sector.

And whilst you are behind the private sector in some (but not all) areas of pay you are way ahead in terms of job security and pensions.

Plus the fact that the private sector have has pay cuts and freezes. The company where I work does not give a pension, has not given a payrise in the 3 years I've been here, cut staff salaries by 10% and people made redundant last year had to work their notice. Whilst I'd love to get out there are very few jobs about out there. Don't mix up the majority of the private sector with the bankers. And I hope your unions don't take you down stupid strike action to big up their own positions when you will be the loosers.”

“Well John, just where do I begin?

"Because if she did everything you wanted she would be in the Labour party. She's not, she's conservative, she won the election and she made promises that she is trying to keep."

Don't we know it!

"Her party were not elected to put through a budget that meets with your approval."

It's not just me; it's plain common sense.

"Rather than a sign of weakness, changing your plans to take account of new information or finance is a good thing."

So why is it that when the Labour government changes its mind over something it's a sign of weakness?

And as for:
"You have been banging on for weeks saying 'this isn't a financial decision - its dogma' - well she has just proved you completely wrong hasn't she. If it was dogma she would have carried on regardless with her original plans."

John this information is not new.

The £10 million underspend was reported at the turn of the year.

The £2 million additional receipts was reported yesterday.

It was reported in November that the government grant was set to increase not decrease.

Yet up til now she has stuck to her guns.

You Tories need only one thing, and that is to get back to the drawing board, and take the budget proposals with you.

And as for Equalizer:
"Striker . . .
Yes but you have to work hard in the Private Sector. (Bankers excepted that is).
I'm thinking more of wealth producing industries.
And salaries in the Private sector generally come no where near the salaries paid out for doing tin-pot non-jobs in the Public Sector."

You're going to have to do better than that.

Try telling that to the frontline workers; binmen, social workers, police officers, nurses...

It is the frontline that is facing the ax in this budget in order to give a tax cut to those in band H houses.

What a mess!”

“Other than coming across as as a meanie, and a Blue Meanie at that. What actually have Kaye and the Tories achieved?

Nowt!

Except introducing a new logo, threatening £33m worth of cuts, and denegrating the memory of Nottinghamshire's Spanish Civil War veterans.

To say this rag-tag bunch of amateurs "won" the local election is only a half-truth.

The other half is that nationally, New Labour lost it on the local front, and voters stayed at home.

Come the next local election the exceptional people of this fine County will show their true colours, and boot these typical selfish Tories, and Kay "if you wanted your football you shouldn't have kicked it into my my garden, now go and play in your own street" Cutts out.”