Thursday 23 April 2009

A manifesto to cut the size of government

The state is far too large for the taxpayer to maintain. The civil service has expanded rapidly along with the entire public sector over the last 10 years. Some areas are entirely dependent on the state for their income. That is why Labour still manage to garner at least 25% in the opinion polls. Their client state is working for them. If you steal from Peter to give to Paul, Paul will always vote for you.

In order to reduce government spending, how about a reduction in the size of government. There are far too many departments. We could merge several departments and make them leaner and more efficient as a consequence.

In 2007, Gordon Brown created a Department of Justice. I have no idea why. Perhaps he needed a role for Jack Straw. It gets its own budget, building and staff. Get rid of the department and place its responsibilities back to the Home Office. That is a good way to save money. Secondly, we should abolish the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. It serves no purpose. The Chancellor is responsible for the conditions that stimulate a productive business environment. Again, a ministerial salary is eliminated, office rentals, staff pay etc. We should eliminate the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. It is a pointless office. David Mellor used to call himself the ''Minister for Fun.'' We should get rid of the DWP and replace it with a Department for Social Security, which has responsibility for the Health Service, thus abolishing the Department for Health. Again, more salaries eliminated and administrative costs. The newly created Department of Energy and Climate Change was pointless, and it should be put back into the Agriculture Department. Abolish the Scottish and Welsh offices. The devolved administrations render them useless. A Northern Ireland Secretary is still useful. We can get rid of the International Development Office, and merge its responsibilites into the Foreign Office, which should also happen to the Europe Office. So much burueacracy can be cut by simply applying these policy prescriptions. We don't need a Department for Communities and Local Government, because we have local government which is responsible for its own area.

We can also cut the size of parliament itself. We do not need 646 MP's. Cut it down to 300, get rid of the Scottish, Welsh and Irish constituencies, because they have their own devolved parliaments. That will eliminate £45 million from the expenses bill, and the wages saved can be used for better things. The Lords of the Realm do not get paid, but we should not pay them for turning up.

In order to send a message to the public sector, MP's should take a 10% pay cut.

ME THINKS THEY WON'T

ME KNOWS THEY WON'T

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