Here's a quote:
Baroness Easton, chairman of the Local Government Association, said: "We have to face the fact that this level of grant reduction will inevitably lead to cuts in services.
Services. We are constantly being told about cuts to services being the most horrible thing since Cherie Blair sang "When I'm sixty four". Public services, local services, frontline services.
You know what? I don't even know what that means. When I think of the services I use, the following comes to mind:
Garage services
Banking services
Postal service etc
I pay for all those things as and when I use them, so none of them will be affected by government cuts. What services are people like me going to loose?
Education? I have no kids. According to Dick P, the education system is no longer fit for purpose anyway.
NHS? Again, no kids and I would guess that they are biggest user of that service. I haven't set foot in a hospital since I was too young to buy booze. I have used a GP once in the past ten years when I horribly burned myself on a sunbed (You know what I got sick of hearing at the time? "Sue the sunbed shop". It was my own stupid fault, but hey, that's the society we live in). Besides, I have private medical. When the time comes to use health services, I will also be paying for that out of my own coin. My hefty national insurance contributions will cover anything that doesn't, and that's not affected by local government cuts.
Police service? That's a laugh. The last time I used them, to get my gun licence, I had to pay for that. I have very good home security and me and Mrs Bucko both know how to defend ourselves. Constantly been harassed with speeding tickets and smoking fines is not something I really want to be paying for. The one percent of the work they do that is actually good is covered by the council tax.
Local leisure services? Yes. I do play badminton at our local leisure centre. I used to pay for that myself. They knocked down the leisure centre, built a brand new one on the same site and then stopped charging for badminton. Go figure. I long for the day when charging comes back, maybe then it won't be so bloody difficult to book a court.
As it turns out, there is no service, provided by the council that I use or want to use. As I couldn't think of any more than the above, I did a quick search of our local council website to find out what they do offer.
Everything defined as a service caters for the following:
The unemployed.
Families or single parents on low incomes.
Fat people who want to be thin.
Smokers who want to be non smokers.
Druggies who want to be anything other than puss ridden zombies.
Women (All kinds)
Children (All kinds other than decent ones)
Criminals
Old people (Only those who have accumulated nothing)
Ethnic minorities (Only Muslims, but all kinds of those)
Vulnerable people (Not sure what that means anymore, if anything)
And generally speaking, the feckless and lazy who add no value to society, just leech it from others.
(There are one or two services out there that do serve to enhance the lives of the community. They amount to about 0.01% of what is on offer and is totally overshadowed by the rubbish. These things would easily be covered, even if the councils budget were slashed completely)
So, it seems that I use nothing the council has to offer. The irony is, I pay the most towards these things. I am employed full time with no entitlements to any benefits or tax breaks. I drive a car, smoke and drink alcohol. The total of all the tax on these things, plus council tax and VAT comes to 60% of my wage. The people listed above, the ones who are using the services, they pay nothing. Or at best, very little.
It's those people that scream and throw their dummies when there is talk of cuts. It is votes from these people that Labour MPs are thinking of when they denounce cuts.
If I know my audience well, I bet most of you can look at the above and say that you rarely, if ever, consume things that you don't pay for directly.
We are the providers. We provide all and consume nothing. Those that consume all, create nothing. That is the way of socialism..
Ooh! I just thought of one. Occasionally, when they can be bothered, the council collect my rubbish. That of course, is only on the understanding that I have filed it all away correctly before they turn up.
Bring on those cuts. 2.5%? What the bollocks is that? Lets have 90%. For starters.
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