Peter Kent-Baguley

Spinning out of control

So why is the government debt at an all time peace time high? For no other reason than the £billions - yes, literally £billions of our money and potential future earnings handed over to prop up major banks bankrupted by, relatively speaking, a handful of greedy self-serving bankers. Incidentally, have any of those criminal bankers been charged and convicted of corruption? Of course not. Like those self-serving money-grabbing MPs, they claim to behave within the rules!

In the meantime, does the government impose a change of the rules for the bankers? No: they expect the bankers to change themselves! Instead the  the government tightens its control over ordinary people, and sets about making us all pay for the corruption of the bankers. First in line to pay the government's perverted price will be the public servants employed by local councils.

Plans are being devised to sack thousands of local authority workers across the country as councill leaders limply, leaming like leap to the government's punitive proposals to punish the people for the reckless behaviour of the bankers. 

Newly re-appointed cabinet member Kieran Clarke states: "There are likely to be Government cutbacks after next year and we are going to have to think of leaner, smarter and more efficient ways of doing things."

Really Cllr Clarke the employees and council tax payers of this city deserve a little more than this bland meaningless spin for the £10,000 a year you are paid for being in the cabinet.

"There will also be pressures this year that we didn't expect and we really have to look at providing more value for money and creating better, more efficient services." What, precisely, are this unexpected "pressures"? Come to that, what is a "pressure" precisely? I suggest you and your cabinet colleagues resolve to start speaking plain, clear English so that we all know what you are talking about.

Somewhat disjointedly, Cllr Clarke concludes: "But we have also started the regeneration programme and have to make sure we continue to fund that." How, then will you continue to fund that? By demolishing pressures?