I've said for a long time that the way to rebuild this country is to reinvest in local authorities. They are the core of local services and infrastructure and have been decimated by Tory austerity.
We need to rebuild from the ground up, not the top down.
The Tories cut budgets, the Tories created the debt system for councils, the Tories increased costs for councils.
As well as know, though, it was evil Labour who caused their councils to go bankrupt, and Tory ones that go bankrupt is because evil Labour stole all the money
That's why, if I were an Englishman I'd vote for the Liberal Democrats. I'd rather die than sing "The Red Flag." And Boris Johnson permanently destroyed the moral credibility of the Conservatives by channeling Enoch Powell.
Its always amazed me how the CONservatives kept forcing austerity on to people saying there was no money, that they were the party of fiscal responsibility and that they needed to balance the books - all while they were spending less on public service whilst borrowing more and increasing UK debts!
Political conservatives worldwide always claim to be the only ones who can be trusted to manage the economy. In the USA, fiscal conservative policies have left us deep in debt via unchecked spending with a high cost of living. Trump's tariffs and trade wars are going to exacerbate inflation.
When i was young, there were far more free public services, most homes were owned by the councils, pension age was lower, fewer people were working and paying tax and none of this debt. So the question is where has all the money gone?
I've worked in local government for over 20 years. The saying of "death by 1000 cuts" is both accurate and relevant to the demise of council budgets. If I look at the services we used to offer vulnerable people in 2010 compared to today, it is horrifying.
Agree, one of my kids has a disability, she lives in a private care home funded by the council. The care home charges thousands a month but pays its carers minimum wage. Most of the debt is from privatisation and paying out shareholders. The answer is to remove the shareholders from public services
Privatisation is a scam, it’s just a way of laundering tax payers money into private hands. They add no value, i would prefer my taxes were spent on frontline services, not for profit / to fund someone’s new yacht. I work in corporate wealth management and finance so i know what goes on.
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We need to rebuild from the ground up, not the top down.
As well as know, though, it was evil Labour who caused their councils to go bankrupt, and Tory ones that go bankrupt is because evil Labour stole all the money
Have they reached the top of the greasy pole of borrowing? Is a Musk-style long-knives hackathon the next step?
Something has to give and it won't be pretty.