Philip Hammond, potential Tory Chancellor if the Tories win the general election, on the Tories’ plans for savage public spending cuts:
‘It is absolutely not the case that people in the public services are dreading this, or saying ‘oh my God, what is gong to happen?’
Written representations by people in public service at Conservative run West Lancashire Borough Council, threatened by reckless and needless redundancies:
1) ‘I will not be able to find a new job is this proposal is accepted. I will be on the SCRAPHEAP.’
2) I am in dead man’s shoes for employment prospects if the proposals go ahead.
3) ‘To make these devastating cuts to this arm of the service, designed to protect the public purse, is sheer stupidity and I can only conslude a decision made in ignorance.’
4) ‘I am a dedicated worker and have worked passionately for the council for over 30 years. This news is a devastating blow when other savings options were put on the table and competely. This decision seems to be irrationally logic and makes no common understanding (sic).’
Which world is Philip Hammond living in? Oh yes, in George Osborne’s:
‘No one takes pleasure from people making money out of the misery of others but that is a function of capitalist markets.’
Oh, and this pearl of wisdom from Hammond as well:
“There is a sense of liberation that we are going to empower public sector professionals to undertake the reform”…
I mean, slashing the public sector is going to lead to empowerment… Jeeze. Words escape me (well, polite ones). It will lead to the opposite.
[...] The anger will rise as public services that people have become used to are slashed by a government (of any hue) whose key performance measure is the reduction of debt at as percentage of GDP, whatever the arguments of sensible economists about the irrelevance of this in objective terms, and as the willingness to implement savage cuts becomes a badge of political honour. [...]
[...] Tory Chancellor telling porkies live on TV Here’s the wannabee Tory chancellor Phil Hammond telling lies on live TV last night (go to 14mins 50 sec in to [...]