19 thoughts on “And yet they’re still talking about cuts”
Jim
There weren’t any cuts. Nothing. Nada. Even that white elephant to end all white elephants HS2 steams on, the equivalent of throwing suitcases of banknotes through a wood chipper.
Steve
They’re now basically admitting the plan is infinity Third World immigration, forever, to juice GDP figures and make Britain look solvent on paper while actual living standards settle down to the level of an African public toilet.
Obviously they can’t really do this forever tho. Just until the Pound becomes worthless and large parts of what used to be our country go Sharia.
Van_Patten
Steve
Thought you’d been seized by the Russian authorities! Welcome back!
Hard to demur. The statement basically amounts to admission of surrender to the Extreme Left. Not that anything done since 2010 doesn’t amount to that. As I mentioned on the ‘fatties tax’ post there seems to be no bolt holes left either. With the Democrats securing the 2024 election through voter fraud, things look grim. Maybe Russia is the best destination available.
Steve
VP – most Russians only pay 13% income tax (top rate is 15%). Petrol costs about 70p a litre, and they have no plans to ban internal combustion engines. Russian politics is just as horribly corrupt and rigged as in the West, but Russian politicians don’t hate Russians and won’t arrest you for disagreeing with trannies.
Tfw Russians have a lot more freedom than we do.
Steve
PS – thank you x
Chris Miller
As Esther McVey pointed out:
“It has been obvious to some of us for a long time that HS2 is a white elephant with costs out of control, and which is more likely to benefit London than the north. The Government cannot possibly increase taxes and not scrap this wasteful project.
“If it has enough money for HS2 it has enough money not to put up taxes. If hasn’t got enough money to keep taxes down, it hasn’t got enough money for HS2.
“It is as simple as that.”
The reply:
HS2 will bring transformational benefits and is currently supporting 29,000 jobs.
29,000 jobs for only £150++ billion – what a bargain!
29,000 jobs doing something we don’t need done, is a cost not a benefit.
It’s truly astounding that this absurd vanity project (started, I believe, in obedience to some now-irrelevant EU edict) is still sailing on regardless. There must be some serious backhanders going on somewhere.
Boganboy
If they can spare this cash, they should spend it on Sizewell C.
Of course even more sensible would be to spend it on bullets to shoot the drongos whose stupid regs mean that the plant is more than ten times as expensive as Sizewell B.
JK277
@Jim:
There weren’t any cuts. Nothing. Nada.
But Hunt promised unspecified cuts – to be determined in 2024 and implemented after the next election. How could anyone possibly think this wasn’t credible? [sarc]
Bloke in North Dorset
I heard the dunk cost fallacy being trotted out for the first time, yesterday. I suppose the longer HS2 goes on the more that will become the dominant argument to continue.
Ottokring
Exactly the plan, I reckon BiND
And also the environmental damage has already been done. There are no more ancient woodlands to preserve.
djc
29,000 jobs for only £150++ billion
Big numbers so maybe I’ve got some commas and decimal points wrong but…
150,000,000,000 / 29,000 = 5,172,413
I make that over 100k pa for a whole working lifetime
Andrew Again
The whole “jobs are a cost not a benefit thing” escapes 99.9% of people in the UK. Until you ask them to pay for someone to do a job, and then they are penny pinching value for money types.
Moronic hypocrites are the worse kind.
Tractor Gent
On HS2, if they stopped now, I wonder how much the penalty clauses in the contracts would cost plus that of the reinstatement of the route to something safe and farmable again.
BniC
They announced spending curbs not cuts, only a couple of letters difference
Martin Near The M25
Good to see that the Lion tamer is back.
My MP is on the right of the party (not difficult now) and supported Brexit from the start but there’s no way I’m voting tory next time.
Diogenes
Has the cost of the Euro tunnel been recovered yet…. Sunk cost fallacy and all that
Roué le Jour
Andrew again,
Allow me to explain. The problem with “jobs are a cost” is that it it presented as generally true when it is only specifically true. Jobs are a cost to the employer. They are a benefit to the employee, the businesses he deals with and the government that taxes him. They are also a social benefit as can be seen in any town where the pit, plant or mill has closed. No jobs means no money for bars, restaurants and other businesses that make life pleasant. Not somewhere you would wish to retire to. So say “jobs are a cost to employers” by all means, but do not pretend it is generally true. Having said that, government jobs are definitely a cost and should be minimized.
Pcar
Cuts – what Cuts?
Borrowing will rise. Spending will rise by 1% pa in real terms, except Education & NHS which will increase faster. The cuts are to planned budgets in 2027, 2028
A Gordon Brown tax, spend and borrow budget – Again
Taxes are now Highest Ever
A Conservative Gov’t? CINO Socialists
Telegraph: Tory MPs race through all five stages of grief as Jeremy Hunt administers the last rites https://archive.ph/oMuHA
telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/11/17/tory-mps-race-five-stages-grief-jeremy-hunt-administers-last/
What stuck in the craw was the smug, triumphalist tone of the PM and the beaming approval of his Trainee Minister Rasheed Sanook
.
Add Immigration betrayal >200,000 pa plus illegals to raise GDP, but lower GDP per person
Johnson said Brexit = Singapore on Thames; we’re getting Bangladesh on Thames
As for the HS2 EU mandate we’ve the usual bollocks from
Alex Brummer – eternal supporter of Gov’t ‘Roads To Nowwhere”
Jeremy Hunt boards the fast train – Chancellor a fan of big infrastructure and role it can play in boosting energy security, productivity and growth
.
Hunt has stuck with HS2 to Manchester and believes you only have to look at the impact of the Tokyo to Osaka bullet train
. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/comment/article-11445125/
Tokyo to Osaka is 310 miles and sh1t roads; London to Manchester is 163 miles and good train, plane, automobile infrastructure already exist. IF HS2 was needed Virgin etc would have already built it like HS1. Of course, Brummer omits HS2 is an EU mandate
Latest Gov’t report at last openly admits HS2 in uneconomic
Globalists & WEF are winning and nobody seems to care
There weren’t any cuts. Nothing. Nada. Even that white elephant to end all white elephants HS2 steams on, the equivalent of throwing suitcases of banknotes through a wood chipper.
They’re now basically admitting the plan is infinity Third World immigration, forever, to juice GDP figures and make Britain look solvent on paper while actual living standards settle down to the level of an African public toilet.
Obviously they can’t really do this forever tho. Just until the Pound becomes worthless and large parts of what used to be our country go Sharia.
Steve
Thought you’d been seized by the Russian authorities! Welcome back!
Hard to demur. The statement basically amounts to admission of surrender to the Extreme Left. Not that anything done since 2010 doesn’t amount to that. As I mentioned on the ‘fatties tax’ post there seems to be no bolt holes left either. With the Democrats securing the 2024 election through voter fraud, things look grim. Maybe Russia is the best destination available.
VP – most Russians only pay 13% income tax (top rate is 15%). Petrol costs about 70p a litre, and they have no plans to ban internal combustion engines. Russian politics is just as horribly corrupt and rigged as in the West, but Russian politicians don’t hate Russians and won’t arrest you for disagreeing with trannies.
Tfw Russians have a lot more freedom than we do.
PS – thank you x
As Esther McVey pointed out:
The reply:
29,000 jobs for only £150++ billion – what a bargain!
https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1695773/HS2-scrapped-spending-cuts
https://policyexchange.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/HS2-The-kindest-cut-of-all.pdf
29,000 jobs doing something we don’t need done, is a cost not a benefit.
It’s truly astounding that this absurd vanity project (started, I believe, in obedience to some now-irrelevant EU edict) is still sailing on regardless. There must be some serious backhanders going on somewhere.
If they can spare this cash, they should spend it on Sizewell C.
Of course even more sensible would be to spend it on bullets to shoot the drongos whose stupid regs mean that the plant is more than ten times as expensive as Sizewell B.
@Jim:
But Hunt promised unspecified cuts – to be determined in 2024 and implemented after the next election. How could anyone possibly think this wasn’t credible? [sarc]
I heard the dunk cost fallacy being trotted out for the first time, yesterday. I suppose the longer HS2 goes on the more that will become the dominant argument to continue.
Exactly the plan, I reckon BiND
And also the environmental damage has already been done. There are no more ancient woodlands to preserve.
29,000 jobs for only £150++ billion
Big numbers so maybe I’ve got some commas and decimal points wrong but…
150,000,000,000 / 29,000 = 5,172,413
I make that over 100k pa for a whole working lifetime
The whole “jobs are a cost not a benefit thing” escapes 99.9% of people in the UK. Until you ask them to pay for someone to do a job, and then they are penny pinching value for money types.
Moronic hypocrites are the worse kind.
On HS2, if they stopped now, I wonder how much the penalty clauses in the contracts would cost plus that of the reinstatement of the route to something safe and farmable again.
They announced spending curbs not cuts, only a couple of letters difference
Good to see that the Lion tamer is back.
My MP is on the right of the party (not difficult now) and supported Brexit from the start but there’s no way I’m voting tory next time.
Has the cost of the Euro tunnel been recovered yet…. Sunk cost fallacy and all that
Andrew again,
Allow me to explain. The problem with “jobs are a cost” is that it it presented as generally true when it is only specifically true. Jobs are a cost to the employer. They are a benefit to the employee, the businesses he deals with and the government that taxes him. They are also a social benefit as can be seen in any town where the pit, plant or mill has closed. No jobs means no money for bars, restaurants and other businesses that make life pleasant. Not somewhere you would wish to retire to. So say “jobs are a cost to employers” by all means, but do not pretend it is generally true. Having said that, government jobs are definitely a cost and should be minimized.
Cuts – what Cuts?
Borrowing will rise. Spending will rise by 1% pa in real terms, except Education & NHS which will increase faster. The cuts are to planned budgets in 2027, 2028
A Gordon Brown tax, spend and borrow budget – Again
Taxes are now Highest Ever
A Conservative Gov’t? CINO Socialists
Telegraph:
Tory MPs race through all five stages of grief as Jeremy Hunt administers the last rites
https://archive.ph/oMuHA
telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/11/17/tory-mps-race-five-stages-grief-jeremy-hunt-administers-last/
What stuck in the craw was the smug, triumphalist tone of the PM and the beaming approval of his Trainee Minister Rasheed Sanook
.
Add Immigration betrayal >200,000 pa plus illegals to raise GDP, but lower GDP per person
Johnson said Brexit = Singapore on Thames; we’re getting Bangladesh on Thames
Patrick Christys: It’s been revealed that the Government no longer wants to reduce net migration’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQzTVW2nqFw
As for the HS2 EU mandate we’ve the usual bollocks from
Tokyo to Osaka is 310 miles and sh1t roads; London to Manchester is 163 miles and good train, plane, automobile infrastructure already exist. IF HS2 was needed Virgin etc would have already built it like HS1. Of course, Brummer omits HS2 is an EU mandate
Latest Gov’t report at last openly admits HS2 in uneconomic
Globalists & WEF are winning and nobody seems to care
You will own nothing and You Will Be Happy