Birmingham bankrupt

BobKowalski said:
Local Govt is funded by taxes, so not entirely sure how else the problem will be solved. Perhaps if we hadn’t spent years underfunding local Govt - and pretty much everything else - we wouldn't be in this mess.

We voted in people who promised to underfund public services so you can’t say they didn’t deliver on their promises :)
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It's not like they weren't open about it either. They have made it very clear all along that they wanted to shrink this malign and nebulously defined entity 'the state'.

Had voters read the small print they would have noticed the bits of the state they were interested in shrinking were the bits that did useful things for people on a local and daily basis and the bits they were interested in preserving were the centralised elements that allowed them to exercise control and authority. Oh and the bit where they would use that control to introduce chaotic profiteering opportunities for their allies once they had created the void in the services being provided.
 
Ifwecouldjust....... said:
They do ..... but for some reason there's not as much noise.

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Lest we forget. This is how the Tories stopped Surrey going bust 6 years ago.

www.bbc.co.uk

Surrey council 'sweetheart deal': Leader David Hodge 'to stay'

David Hodge has faced calls to step down amid claims he was given 'special access' to ministers.
www.bbc.co.uk

And now?

www.getsurrey.co.uk

Council fears 'bankruptcy' over Government's social care reforms

The cost to the council could be as high as £3.2billion over a ten year period
www.getsurrey.co.uk www.getsurrey.co.uk
 
goalmole said:
Tax cuts benefit only the rich.
I've never understood why anyone who relies on government services (that's probably 95% of us) would vote for low tax, and consequently, low spending on essential services yet a lot of ordinary people have bought into this hype.
The chickens seem to be coming home to roost.
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The sacred cows are coming home to roost with a vengeance.
 
Vic said:
Give it a year....
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And who will this hit the hardest, who will worry the most, the employees at the top of the payscale with their payoff options, or the cooks, cleaners, waste disposal operatives, and general office staff ?
 
BobKowalski said:
If a local authority cannot meet its obligations then it will declare bankruptcy. The alternative is increased funding from the national Govt and/or local taxation. The problem is lack of money and the solution is more money. And the source of that money is tax revenue either directly or indirectly.

Long term the solution is to fund local governments properly and employ good managers and administrators and enough of them to the job. This will also cost money.

Everything else is just pointless whining.
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Ah, unlimited funding, I wish that I was smart enough to think of that. People don't have unlimited pockets though, and who do you think will be the worst hit, as a percentage of their disposable income, would be ?

It's easy to spend tax cash, particularly when you face no repercussions, or won't accept any responsibilities !
 
People need to get real.

You cannot run a modern, advanced democracy on the cheap.
The 'small state' fantasy is just that. COVID-19 demonstrated why we need an effective state.

The main problems are:

The country is broke, in part due to temporary issues like the war in Ukraine, but also because of the permanent damage caused to our economy by the stupidity that is Brexit.

We have a government made up of clueless incompetents, mired in corruption.

We have not yet realised that the answer to every problem is not to issue a lucrative contract to the private sector.

The very mechanisms of government, central and local, but especially local, have been decimated by years and years of cutting back and 'reforms'. Many of the most competent staff have retired, and the ones coming through lack the experience or the training to cope. Training? What's that? It costs money!

The Tories have fragmented some services, the education service being an excellent example. Imagine, the delivery of temporary classrooms to schools because of the concrete crisis has to be managed directly from Whitehall because there's no other effective way of doing it. The mind boggles! The people down there don't know where half the schools are!

There are too many tax-dodging cheats, encouraged by the Tories. No need to increase taxes if the existing taxes were collected in full.

In short, this country is fucked. It needs someone like Cromwell to sort it out. That is someone with his drive, determination and incorruptibility, but minus the religious obsession. We don't have anyone remotely like that, just a collection of mediocre nobodies and a wide selection of clueless charlatans.
 
MouldensChippy said:
And who will this hit the hardest, who will worry the most, the employees at the top of the payscale with their payoff options, or the cooks, cleaners, waste disposal operatives, and general office staff ?
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Park rangers. They were the first to go....

Seriously, you seem to be supporting the whole Tory austerity spiel that efficiency savings will make up for the entire withdrawal of government support grants, or that sacking a manager or two would do the trick.

It's nonsense.
 
Vic said:
Park rangers. They were the first to go....

Seriously, you seem to be supporting the whole Tory austerity spiel that efficiency savings will make up for the entire withdrawal of government support grants, or that sacking a manager or two would do the trick.

It's nonsense.
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Wow, you really fail to comprehend, is that on purpose, or because you are so entrenched ?

Where have I supported the Tories, show me, because as far as I'm concerned they are just equal and opposite to what you're proposing, talk of boom and bust never ending. Do you not see that both of our main parties are as guilty of divide and conquer as each other ?

Views that differ from yours are not tory defacto just because you wish them to be. I got called a tory in here for offering a view that was more socialist than the Labour party offers from some of the comedians that inhabit the political subforum !

It's a shame that subjects like the biggest council in Europe going bankrupt have to be moved into this subforum. The third post on this subject was.........
"Imagine that, the Tories allowing a Labour run council to go bust...."
 
Politicians love Trident because it makes us a 'Great Power' so they can go on dick-waving and pretending that we are bigger and harder than we actually are.

Meanwhile, the conventional forces, the ones that really matter, are decimated and badly equipped.

Never mind, if the Russians wipe us all out, we can take a large number of them with us. Such a consolation. I won't mind being vaporised as long as Ivan and Olga are vaporised a few minutes later.
 
I once had an argument with a Tory candidate about the state of a local park, back in the 60's and 70's this main park had a Parkkeeper and a small team of gardeners who maintained it in pristine condition and people were rightly proud of it

Come 1979 and the incoming Tory government it was all cut and continued to be cut year upon year, the park now relies on a team of mostly retired folk who try their hardest to keep it looking good but they can only do so much, the local authority cut the grass and maintain the trees and that's about it

It's a small thing but it was important, and this example has been multiplied across the country, there are Sure start and Children's Centres standing empty because the money to run them has been withdrawn by central government

Tax Cuts only really benefit the very wealthy, but they have devastated this country
 
BrianW said:
Politicians love Trident because it makes us a 'Great Power' so they can go on dick-waving and pretending that we are bigger and harder than we actually are.

Meanwhile, the conventional forces, the ones that really matter, are decimated and badly equipped.

Never mind, if the Russians wipe us all out, we can take a large number of them with us. Such a consolation. I won't mind being vaporised as long as Ivan and Olga are vaporised a few minutes later.
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MAD is a thing.
We need to maintain an independent nuclear deterrent.
You can argue what shape that should take or how much money we should be spending on it but we cannot disarm ourselves.
It leaves us open to the leverage of friends and foes alike.
 
goalmole said:
MAD is a thing.
We need to maintain an independent nuclear deterrent.
You can argue what shape that should take or how much money we should be spending on it but we cannot disarm ourselves.
It leaves us open to the leverage of friends and foes alike.
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How do Germany, Austria, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland etc. survive?

Are we somehow more Terrific and Unique than these countries? They are certainly richer than we are, or most are, We simply cannot afford this luxury. It's like having a Rolls Royce on the drive (to display but not use) while feeding the kids baked beans for their meals each day.

Now, if we had a United States of Europe, and that entity had nuclear weapons, that would be reasonable, as a USE could afford them. But we prefer to be an impoverished offshore island with roads full of potholes and schools with collapsing walls and roofs, just so we can pretend to be Special.
 
BrianW said:
Politicians love Trident because it makes us a 'Great Power' so they can go on dick-waving and pretending that we are bigger and harder than we actually are.

Meanwhile, the conventional forces, the ones that really matter, are decimated and badly equipped.

Never mind, if the Russians wipe us all out, we can take a large number of them with us. Such a consolation. I won't mind being vaporised as long as Ivan and Olga are vaporised a few minutes later.
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I tried to explain this the other day on another thread.

9 countries have nuclear weapons, meaning 186 don’t and have still managed not to be hit by them as of yet.
 
So, knowing they were heading towards financial difficulties, why the hell did they agree to host the fucking Commonwealth Games ?
 
Is it really any wonder that councils are in financial trouble. If you need £1 to cover essential statutory services but only receive 80p to do it you go into debt.

Cameron and Osborne's ridiculous austerity plan has ruined this country. The notion you run the country like you run a household was ridiculous, the maxed out credit card stuff was nonsense. The austerity plan was an ideologically driven move to cut what the % of GDP that the nation spent on public services to similar levels of the USA. It was neo-liberalism on speed, it has destroyed the fabric of the nation, public services are awful, the NHS is in crisis, the transport system is a mess, crime figures are rising, the country is fucked and inequality has risen expotentially.

Birmingham has issues, its one of our great cities, but it suffered under the mass de-industrialisation policies of the Thatcher regime and continual cuts in funding from central government were always going to end one way. because if you need £1 cover essential statutory services but only receive 80p you end up in debt and bankruptcy.

Meanwhile just now in PMQs Sunak talks as though everything is wonderful.
 
Vic said:
Park rangers. They were the first to go....

Seriously, you seem to be supporting the whole Tory austerity spiel that efficiency savings will make up for the entire withdrawal of government support grants, or that sacking a manager or two would do the trick.

It's nonsense.
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We have a small park behind our street, and set up a neighbourhood group to look after and improve it. We had dedicated park rangers who helped a lot.
Cue a tory election victory and within 12 months all rangers had been laid off.
The park we planted bulbs in, fixed the steps, had 'fun days' in and got a better kids playground for is now overgrown with weeds, full of litter and a local haunt for drug dealing. The every other day council bin emptying on there is now once a week, if we're lucky.
 
goalmole said:
MAD is a thing.
We need to maintain an independent nuclear deterrent.
You can argue what shape that should take or how much money we should be spending on it but we cannot disarm ourselves.
It leaves us open to the leverage of friends and foes alike.
Click to expand...
Really?
How leveraged does Germany find itself, or Japan?
 
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