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Cameron: "Cuts will change our way of life"


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Just watching the Chinese PM speaking on the telly then, in Chinese, anyway, the voiceover man is speaking broken English with a Chinese accent and you could hardly understand him. Fucks me off when they do that.

 

Like, say, Sarkozy is speaking French on the telly, the voiceover fella will be speaking with a heavy French accent. Fuck off you cunts, just translate in normal English for me.

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Like, say, Sarkozy is speaking French on the telly, the voiceover fella will be speaking with a heavy French accent. Fuck off you cunts, just translate in normal English for me.

 

They should get Trey Parker and Matt Stone to do all the voiceovers and have done.

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A failed global recovery

Liquidity injections and bailouts serve only one purpose - to buy time. Yet time is not the answer.

 

 

The global economy is in the midst of its second growth scare in less than two years. Get used to it. In a post-crisis world, these are the footprints of a failed recovery.

 

The reason is simple. The typical business cycle has a natural cushioning mechanism that wards off unexpected blows. The deeper the downturn, the more powerful the snapback, and the greater the cumulative forces of self-sustaining revival. Vigorous V-shaped rebounds have a built-in resilience that allows them to shrug off shocks relatively easily.

 

But a post-crisis recovery is a very different animal. As Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff have shown in their book This Time is Different, over the long sweep of history, post-crisis recoveries in output and employment tend to be decidedly subpar.

 

Such weak recoveries, by definition, lack the cushion of V-shaped rebounds. Consequently, external shocks quickly expose their vulnerability. If the shocks are sharp enough - and if they hit a weakened global economy that is approaching its "stall speed" of around three per cent annual growth - the relapse could turn into the dreaded double-dip recession.

 

That is the risk today. There can be no mistaking the decidedly subpar character of the current global recovery. Superficially, the numbers look strong: world GDP rebounded by 5.1 per cent in 2010, and is expected to rise another 4.3 per cent in 2011, according to the International Monetary Fund. But because these gains follow the massive contraction that occurred during the Great Recession of 2008-2009, they are a far cry from the trajectory of a classic V-shaped recovery.

 

Indeed, if the IMF's latest forecast proves correct, global GDP at the end of 2012 will still be about 2.2 percentage points below the level that would have been reached had the world remained on its longer-term 3.7 per cent annual-growth path. Even if the global economy holds at a 4.3 per cent cruise speed - a big "if," in my view - it will remain below its trend-line potential for over eight years in a row, through 2015.

 

This protracted "global output gap" underscores the absence of a cushion in today's world economy, as well as its heightened sensitivity to shocks. And there have certainly been numerous such blows in recent months - from Europe's sovereign-debt crisis and Japan's natural disasters to sharply higher oil prices and another setback in the US housing recovery.

 

While none of these shocks appears to have been severe enough to have derailed the current global recovery, the combined effect is worrisome, especially in a still-weakened post-crisis world.

 

Most pundits dismiss the possibility of a double-dip recession. Labeling the current slowdown a temporary "soft patch," they pin their optimism on the inevitable rebound that follows any shock. For example, a boost is expected from Japan's reconstruction and supply-chain resumption. Another assist may come from America's recent move to tap its strategic petroleum reserves in an effort to push oil prices lower.

 

But in the aftermath of the worst crisis and recession of modern times - when shocks can push an already weakened global economy to its tipping point a lot faster than would be the case under a stronger growth scenario - the escape velocity of self-sustaining recovery is much harder to achieve. The soft patch may be closer to a quagmire.

 

This conclusion should not be lost on high-flying emerging-market economies, especially in Asia - currently the world's fastest-growing region and the leader of what many now call a two-speed world. Yet with exports still close to a record 45 per cent of pan-regional GDP, Asia can hardly afford to take external shocks lightly - especially if they hit an already weakened baseline growth trajectory in the post-crisis developed world. The recent slowdown in Chinese industrial activity underscores this very risk.

 

Policymakers are ill prepared to cope with a steady stream of growth scares. They continue to favor strategies that are better suited to combating crisis than to promoting post-crisis healing.

 

That is certainly true of the United States. While the US Federal Reserve Board's first round of quantitative easing was effective in ending a wrenching crisis, the second round has done little to sustain meaningful recovery in the labor market and the real economy. America's zombie consumers need to repair their damaged balance sheets, and US workers need to align new skills with new jobs. Open-ended liquidity injections accomplish neither.

 

European authorities are caught up in a similar mindset. Mistaking a solvency problem for a liquidity shortfall, Europe has become hooked on the drip feed of bailouts. However, this works only if countries like Greece grow their way out of a debt trap or abrogate their deeply entrenched social contracts. The odds on either are exceedingly poor.

 

The likelihood of recurring growth scares for the next several years implies little hope for new and creative approaches to post-crisis monetary and fiscal policies. Driven by short-term electoral horizons, policymakers repeatedly seek a quick fix - another bailout or one more liquidity injection. Yet, in the aftermath of a balance-sheet recession in the US, and in the midst of a debt trap in Europe, that approach is doomed to failure.

 

Liquidity injections and bailouts serve only one purpose - to buy time. Yet time is not the answer for economies desperately in need of the structural repairs of fiscal consolidation, private-sector deleveraging, labor-market reforms, or improved competitiveness. Nor does time cushion anemic post-crisis recoveries from the inevitable next shock.

 

It's hard to know when the next shock will hit, or what form it will take; otherwise, it wouldn't be a shock. But, as night follows day, such a disruption is inevitable. With policymakers reluctant to focus on the imperatives of structural healing, the result will be yet another growth scare - or worse. A failed recovery underscores the risks of an increasingly treacherous endgame in today's post-crisis world.

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No, I agree with all of that. Just saying that using the Apple/Foxcon example isn't the best example of this. We only have to look at India - a country used by that fucking imbecile John Redwood as an example of a country that disproves there was a global crisis. Not sure about you, but I'm well up for selling all of our children into virtual slavery. It'll boost the economy and the 1% can get richer. That's well worth it.

 

I've started a new policy; everytime that name gets mentioned this is getting posted. It truly is a thing of great wonderment. I love how at 14 seconds he looks to his left in complete desperation as if to say "For fuck sake help me out"

 

 

[YOUTUBE]RIwBvjoLyZc[/YOUTUBE]

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I've not seen this posted on here-

 

Shropshire council sends dismissal letters to entire workforce | Society | guardian.co.uk

 

A Conservative-led council has sent letters of dismissal to its entire workforce, telling them they will be re-hired the next day only if they agree to a pay cut.

 

Shropshire county council gave its 6,500 staff notice of their dismissal on 30 September, but offered them immediate re-employment if they accepted a 5.4% pay cut as well as changes to their sick-pay arrangements.

 

The council said it needs to make the changes to find £7m towards a total savings target of £76m over three years. The alternative would be "large-scale" redundancies.

 

Jackie Kelly, the council's head of organisational development, said it had been necessary to embark upon a legal process of "dismissal and re-engagement" following failure to reach agreement with trade unions. All staff had been offered re-employment.

 

"Whilst we appreciate [that] the formal nature of this process may lead to some anxiety, we intend to continue offering reassurance, guidance and support to all our staff over the coming days, weeks and months," Kelly said.

 

Unison, which represents about 40% of the council's workers, said the letters had frightened and intimidated people. Leaders of the union's Shropshire branch would be meeting to discuss balloting on industrial action.

 

"We've been told to sign up and shut up," said Alan James, branch secretary. "There's not a lot of places we can go with this."

 

The council's plan emerged as new figures showed that spending by councils on local services has fallen for the first time in two decades as a result of cuts in government grants.

 

Councils in England will this year spend an average 5.7% less on services than in the previous 12 months, including almost 15% less on housing, 21% less on roads and 32% less on planning.

 

The spending figures provide the first authoritative overview of the effect of the sharp cut in council grants for 2011-12. The main grant has been reduced by almost 10%.

 

According to public finance body Cipfa, which has surveyed all councils' spending plans as notified to Whitehall, expenditure on services will amount to £99.5bn or £1,921 per person – a return to levels of 2008-09.

 

Cipfa says the reduction is the first since the introduction of the poll tax in 1990. The biggest spending falls are in the north-west (an average 7.8%) and north-east (6.9%), with the lowest in the south-east outside of London at 3.2%.

 

Ian Carruthers, Cipfa's policy and technical director, said: "These statistics underline the difficult decisions councils have been faced with in setting their 2011-12 budgets. It is only through effective financial planning and an emphasis on efficiency that the impact on frontline services has not been greater."

 

One encouragement for ministers is that their measures to protect spending on services for elderly and disabled people appear to have worked: average spending on social care is shown to be rising this year by 1.6%.

 

But groups representing the hardest-hit services expressed dismay. Campbell Robb, chief executive of housing charity Shelter, said: "Our advice services are already seeing a huge increase in demand as unemployment and cuts to services begin to bite, whilst local authorities reduce the safety net for those in housing need."

 

Trudi Elliott, chief executive of the Royal Town Planning Institute, said: "Planning has a critical role to play in supporting communities' aspirations for growth, new homes and protecting the environment and their social fabric."

 

The local government minister, Grant Shapps, said councils' total spending this year, including expenditure other than that on frontline services, would amount to £118bn. This equated to more than £5,000 per household and there remained scope for savings without hitting services.

 

"By cutting waste, more joint working and improving procurement, councils can do more for less," Shapps said. "Good councils can hold council tax down and protect frontline services."

 

But Dave Prentis, general secretary of public services union Unison, said: "Given the biggest-in-a-generation spending cuts hitting councils, it's hardly surprising that spending has shrunk so drastically. Look behind the figures and you'll find cuts sending shockwaves through communities."

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I've started a new policy; everytime that name gets mentioned this is getting posted. It truly is a thing of great wonderment. I love how at 14 seconds he looks to his left in complete desperation as if to say "For fuck sake help me out"

 

 

[YOUTUBE]RIwBvjoLyZc[/YOUTUBE]

 

The Welsh Minister who refused to respond to any correspondance received in Welsh.

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The Great Recession, Part II

The world could be headed for another economic disaster if we continue to listen to free-market ideologues.

By Joseph E. Stiglitz

 

Just a few years ago, a powerful ideology—the belief in free and unfettered markets—brought the world to the brink of ruin. Even in its heyday, from the early 1980s until 2007, American-style deregulated capitalism brought greater material well-being only to the very richest of the richest country of the world. Indeed, over the course of this ideology's 30-year ascendance, most Americans saw their incomes decline or stagnate.

 

Moreover, output growth in the United States was not economically sustainable. With so much of U.S. national income going to so few, growth could continue only through consumption financed by a mounting pile of debt.

 

I was among those who hoped that, somehow, the financial crisis would teach Americans (and others) a lesson about the need for greater equality, stronger regulation, and a better balance between the market and government. Alas, that has not been the case. On the contrary, a resurgence of right-wing economics, driven by ideology and special interests, once again threatens the global economy—or at least the economies of Europe and North America, where these ideas continue to flourish.

 

In the United States, this right-wing resurgence, whose adherents evidently seek to repeal the basic laws of math and economics, is threatening to force a default on the national debt. If Congress mandates expenditures that exceed revenues, there will be a deficit, and that deficit has to be financed. Rather than balancing the benefits of each government expenditure program with the costs of raising taxes to finance those benefits, the right seeks to use a sledgehammer—not allowing the national debt to increase forces expenditures to be limited to taxes.

 

This leaves open the question of which expenditures get priority. If expenditures to pay interest on the national debt are not prioritized, a default is inevitable. Moreover, to cut back expenditures now, in the midst of a crisis brought on by free-market ideology, would inevitably prolong the downturn.

 

A decade ago, in the midst of an economic boom, the United States faced a surplus so large that it threatened to eliminate the national debt. Unaffordable tax cuts and wars, a major recession, and soaring health care costs—fueled in part by the commitment of George W. Bush's administration to giving drug companies free rein in setting prices, even with government money at stake—quickly transformed a huge surplus into record peacetime deficits.

 

The remedies to the U.S. deficit follow immediately from this diagnosis: Put America back to work by stimulating the economy; end the mindless wars; rein in military and drug costs; and raise taxes, at least on the very rich. But the right will have none of this, and instead is pushing for even more tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, together with expenditure cuts in investments and social protection that put the future of the U.S. economy in peril and that shred what remains of the social contract. Meanwhile, the U.S. financial sector has been lobbying hard to free itself of regulations, so that it can return to its previous, disastrously carefree, ways.

 

But matters are little better in Europe. As Greece and other countries face crises, the medicine du jour is simply timeworn austerity packages and privatization, which will merely leave the countries that embrace them poorer and more vulnerable. This medicine failed in East Asia, Latin America, and elsewhere, and it will fail in Europe, too. Indeed, it has already failed in Ireland, Latvia, and Greece.

 

There is an alternative: an economic-growth strategy supported by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Growth would restore confidence that Greece could repay its debts, causing interest rates to fall and leaving more fiscal room for further growth-enhancing investments. Growth itself increases tax revenues and reduces the need for social expenditures, such as unemployment benefits. And the confidence that this engenders leads to still further growth.

 

Regrettably, the financial markets and right-wing economists have gotten the problem exactly backward: They believe that austerity produces confidence, and that confidence will produce growth. But austerity undermines growth, worsening the government's fiscal position, or at least yielding less improvement than austerity's advocates promise. On both counts, confidence is undermined, and a downward spiral is set in motion.

 

Do we really need another costly experiment with ideas that have repeatedly failed? We shouldn't, but increasingly it appears that we will have to endure another one nonetheless. A failure of either Europe or the United States to return to robust growth would be bad for the global economy. The failure of both would be disastrous—even if the major emerging-market countries have attained self-sustaining growth. Unfortunately, unless wiser heads prevail, that is the way the world is heading.

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Cuts are currently changing our way of life....

 

 

Jobless claims show biggest jump in 2 years in June | Reuters

 

 

Jobless claims show biggest jump in 2 years in June

 

 

 

LONDON | Wed Jul 13, 2011 10:16am BST

 

(Reuters) - The number of Britons claiming unemployment benefit saw its biggest jump in two years last month, taking the total to the highest since March 2010 and raising concerns about the pace of economic recovery.

 

However, as in past months the broader ILO measure of employment painted a more encouraging picture, supporting the government's contention that private sector job creation will offset the effect of public spending cuts.

 

The number of people without a job on this internationally comparable measure fell by 26,000 in the three months to May to 2.452 million, the Office for National Statistics said. The jobless rate held at 7.7 percent as expected, and has not been lower in the past 2 years.

 

Sterling fell briefly on the claimant count data, but recovered as economists digested the broader picture.

 

"It's still difficult to assess where the labour market is overall," said Investec economist Victoria Cadman. "There is some reassurance from the employment side of the story."

 

Numbers of people claiming jobless benefit rose by 24,500 last month, well above economists' forecasts of an increase of 15,000 and the fourth consecutive monthly rise. Combined with an upward revision to May's benefits figures, this took the total above 1.5 million for the first time in over a year.

 

British unemployment rose less than in many other developed countries during the financial crisis, but economists are worried about the outlook due to public sector job cuts and a sluggish recovery.

 

The statistics office said that part of the disparity was due to changes to the benefits available to lone parents, which meant more women were moving on to the jobless claimant count measure.

 

However, opposition politicians may still seize on the rise in the count as evidence that the government is moving too fast in trying to largely eliminate Britain's budget deficit over the next 4 years.

 

Average weekly earnings growth remained low, at around half the rate of inflation. The headline measure including bonuses showed an annual rise of 2.3 percent in the three months to May. Analysts had forecast a rise of 2.1 percent

 

(Reporting by David Milliken and Christina Fincher; Editing by John Stonestreet)

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Guest Numero Veinticinco

A little while ago they were saying how unemployment fell 88k. Didn't mention that 80k of those were students being reclassified. Similarly, I expect those figures include the 250k students who have recently graduated? No? Okay.

 

Maybe that's why Cameron is too busy to turn up to the vote later? He's interviewing for people to help massage figures?

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A little while ago they were saying how unemployment fell 88k. Didn't mention that 80k of those were students being reclassified. Similarly, I expect those figures include the 250k students who have recently graduated? No? Okay.

 

Maybe that's why Cameron is too busy to turn up to the vote later? He's interviewing for people to help massage figures?

 

The way they manipulate the figures is a joke.

 

When somebody who signs is put on a training course or a mandatory course, they are taken off the unemployed figures. Even though they are not in work.

 

The figures will always be more than they say they are.

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Guest Numero Veinticinco
The way they manipulate the figures is a joke.

 

When somebody who signs is put on a training course or a mandatory course, they are taken off the unemployed figures. Even though they are not in work.

 

The figures will always be more than they say they are.

 

Yep, they're all at it. It's hard to change, too. If they start projecting 'real' figures, it looks like whatever they've done in government has resulted in dreadful outcomes.

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Yep, they're all at it. It's hard to change, too. If they start projecting 'real' figures, it looks like whatever they've done in government has resulted in dreadful outcomes.

 

It has though.

 

I know it's spin, but it's fucking bullshit.

 

I tell you what though, I'd give Cameron a cut that would change his way of life, a swift machete to the throat.

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A better figure to look at is the total number of people in employment. That figure has increase by 50,000 this quarter, in spite of all the public sector jobs being axed too.

 

"A better figure"? How about looking at how the figures are created and the amount of bullshit that goes into making them up? Creative accounting at its finest and all of the governments are guilty of this practice to suit their agenda of staying in power for the sake of power and not to serve the nation.

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A better figure to look at is the total number of people in employment. That figure has increase by 50,000 this quarter, in spite of all the public sector jobs being axed too.

 

The public sector jobs have not been axed! They are still under review.

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"A better figure"?

 

 

Well, yeah. I would think a measure of the number of people in jobs would be harder to quibble with than the number of people unemployed.

 

The public sector jobs have not been axed! They are still under review.

 

 

We must have lost 40 or 50 people from our place already in the past year due to voluntary redundancy. Jobs are definitely going.

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Well, yeah. I would think a measure of the number of people in jobs would be harder to quibble with than the number of people unemployed.

 

 

 

 

We must have lost 40 or 50 people from our place already in the past year due to voluntary redundancy. Jobs are definitely going.

 

Not from the public sector though! Not yet at least, the cuts only came into effect in April and I know that the Home Office are still in the process of cutting, but, they are starting with cutting temps etc, so once that is out of the way then they will move onto cutting 'actual' costs.

 

And lets be honest, almost all privatisation of previous public sector roles results in redundencies, necessary or not.

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Not from the public sector though! Not yet at least, the cuts only came into effect in April and I know that the Home Office are still in the process of cutting, but, they are starting with cutting temps etc, so once that is out of the way then they will move onto cutting 'actual' costs.

 

And lets be honest, almost all privatisation of previous public sector roles results in redundencies, necessary or not.

 

To be fair to SD cuts are being made now. Me and him work for the same public sector company, and like he said we have lost at least 50 people already. With maybe another 30 due to take the redundancy by the end of August.

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Lobbyist fills time at Asda Wal-Mart

 

Also keep an eye out for Oliver Jones, a 25-year-old lobbyist for Asda Walmart, who has his heart set on becoming the next big thing in British politics.

 

The wannabe Tory MP might want to learn how to impress his current employers first if his profile on Campaigns and Elections website is anything to go by.

 

"We only have general elections every four or five years," he says, "and there aren't other elections at which you can earn money, so it's really a case of filling my time between elections."

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NINE months on from the comprehensive spending review, entrepreneurs consider public sector cuts to be the biggest threat their businesses face, new figures suggest.

 

According to accountancy and business advisory firm RSM Tenon’s Business Barometer, a quarterly survey of senior management in small and medium sized enterprises, found that in the North 19% cited public sector cuts as the greatest threat

 

News  /  Entrepreneurs start to feel public sector 'pain' – report THEBUSINESSDESK.COM

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Moody's says US may lose top credit rating

 

Rating agency jolts White House debt talks with warning to place nation's AAA status on review for a possible downgrade.

 

The US is in the danger of losing its status as one of the most reliable borrowers of capital in the world.

 

Moody's, the credit rating agency, on Wednesday threatened to downgrade the country's AAA credit rating, saying there is a small but rising risk that the US government may default on its debt.

 

The announcement by Moody's came just before Barack Obama, the US president, convened debt talks that turned into what a Republican aide said was the tensest session in four straight days of meetings.

 

The warning sent the US dollar tumbling against most major currencies and gold climbing to a record high. Stock futures and debt prices also fell.

 

The president and lawmakers met for nearly two hours on Wednesday to try to agree on a deal to reduce the deficit.

 

The deal that Obama wants - a $4 trillion, 10-year deficit-reduction proposal - would eventually increase taxes, reform social entitlement programmes such as Medicare and Medicaid and cut government spending.

 

Republicans have balked at the idea of raising taxes on the highest earners and wealthy corporations as part of any plan to slice deep into government spending, saying that doing so would smother job growth.

 

'Enough's enough'

 

Republicans demand steep spending cuts in return for supporting an increase in the $14.3 trillion borrowing limit to avoid a potentially devastating national default.

 

Obama told Republicans at the conclusion of the meeting that he would not yield further even if it puts his presidency at risk, a Republican aide has said.

 

"Enough's enough," Obama said, according to a Democratic official familiar with the talks.

 

The official said the president, who will hold further talks on Thursday, urged Republicans to stop political posturing.

 

Eric Cantor, the No. 2 Republican leader in the House of Representatives, said the talks on Wednesday became so acrimonious that Obama walked out.

 

"He said he had sat here long enough. No other president, Ronald Reagan wouldn't sit here like this," Cantor told reporters.

 

Democratic officials called Cantor's account overblown.

 

At Wednesday's meeting, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, dismissed spending cuts offered by the White House as "gimmicks and accounting tricks".

 

The US Treasury says it will run out of money to pay its bills on August 2.

 

The US president has said the possibility of his country defaulting on its debt is "not acceptable" and vowed to reach a budget agreement by August 2.

 

In a speech on Monday about the US fiscal crisis, Obama vowed to meet Republican opponents every day until a deal is finalised.

 

"I continue to push congressional leaders for the largest possible deal," Obama said, ruling out a short-term fix and proposing daily negotiations to avert a potentially disastrous default.

 

The last time the US was placed on review for downgrade was in 1996, by Moody's.

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Why David, old chap, do you have a second little scandal brewing? Anyone watching PM question time yesterday would have seen Margaret Hodge ask Davey why he wouldn't disclose cabinet office papers to the National Audit Office in relation to the rationale for proceeding with the build of two aircraft carriers for the navy. Dave's response was not even to answer her question, but to jeer at her in a bullying manner. The cameras then caught Hodge mouthing "con man" at him.

 

Well, it looks like this one has legs.

 

Cameron under pressure to disclose aircraft carrier papers

 

National Audit Office questions whether government's decision to build two large navy ships is value for money

 

Richard Norton-Taylor

guardian.co.uk,Thursday 14 July 2011 17.11 BST

 

 

 

David Cameron is coming under strong pressure to reverse his decision to stop parliament's financial watchdog seeing cabinet papers about the controversial decision to build two large aircraft carriers for the navy.

 

The papers, demanded by officials from the National Audit Office (NAO), would shed light on the prime minister's claims about the cost of the carriers after heated Whitehall disputes on last year's defence review.

 

A row between NAO officials and Sir Gus O'Donnell, the cabinet secretary, and Sir Peter Ricketts, the government's national security adviser, surfaced at a meeting of the Commons cross-party public accounts committee on Monday. Senior audit officials made clear they did not want to see the documents to question policy – an inherently political matter – but to question whether the government's decision represented value for money, as is their job.

 

Cameron told MPs following the defence review in October that even cancelling one of the carriers would have cost more than building it. The NAO challenges the prime minister's claim, saying that building one carrier would save £200m and cancelling both would save £1.2bn.

 

The NAO has said it is not able to reach a full value-for-money judgment because it has been denied access to all the information. "We were not given access to particular cabinet committee papers held by the Cabinet Office," it says in a report on the carrier project. "We considered we needed access to these papers to understand the way in which the cost, affordability, military capability and industrial implications of the alternative carrier strike options were drawn together to support the strategic defence and security review decision."

 

Responding to what she described as an unprecedented decision to stop parliamentary auditors from seeing official papers, Margaret Hodge, chair of the Commons, told the Guardian: "I am not letting it go. it is an important constitutional issue going beyond defence at a time the government says it is committed to transparency. It is simply unacceptable that information deemed relevant should be withheld."

 

Jim Murphy, shadow defence secretary, is demanding the release of the papers. Joe Carberry, his political adviser, wrote to the cabinet secretary: "This is a matter which rests firmly in the public interest ... It would appear decisions taken by the government have created a sense of uncertainty about the cost and deliverability of the carrier programme, which has significant industrial, military and long-term national security implications." The NAO had been given access to policy papers prepared for the MoD's defence strategy group, he wrote, but was being denied access to policy papers prepared by Liam Fox, the defence secretary, for the National Security Council.

 

The cost of the two carriers was originally estimated at £3.65bn. It has grown to £6.2bn, even with aircraft flying only from one.

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Why David, old chap, do you have a second little scandal brewing? Anyone watching PM question time yesterday would have seen Margaret Hodge ask Davey why he wouldn't disclose cabinet office papers to the National Audit Office in relation to the rationale for proceeding with the build of two aircraft carriers for the navy. Dave's response was not even to answer her question, but to jeer at her in a bullying manner. The cameras then caught Hodge mouthing "con man" at him.

 

Well, it looks like this one has legs.

 

Right enough!

 

Lets just get Purple Aki to bum it out of Cameron until the public is content he has nothing more to tell. That's it David, let it all out.

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