When the Axe Falls........

I am finding the current hysteria in the media regarding the recent cuts in public spending a little hard to deal with at the moment.

This is partly because I work in the Public Sector, and am getting to see first hand how these cuts are having a direct effect not just on services, but people and their families and lives.

Now, don't get me wrong. I am not a moron. Anybody with half a brain can understand that if you live on borrowed money for long enough, eventually you have to start paying back. And whilst we mere mortals may use a credit card to run up bills for holidays, some rather nice shoes and a shiny new car, governments tend to rack the debts up on those less glamorous things such as education, regeneration and welfare. The previous government (apparently) spent rather a lot of cash on headline-grabbing schemes and handouts, in order it would seem to keep their demographic voting for them and allowing them to clutch on to power. They spent money they didn't have on things we probably didn't really need.

They gave away pots of £50million (yes MILLION) quid to a number of estates across Britain and allowed the people who lived there to decide how it should be spent to improve their communities.......one of these projects was set up on an estate near me and they spent a decade "regenerating" it. As far as I could see, nobody was paying too much attention on how the money was spent. Over 7million of that particular pot went on shiny new kitchens and bathrooms for the local tower-block inhabitants.

SEVEN MILLION POUNDS of OUR tax money went on brand new kitchens and bathrooms for a handful of council tenants. They didn't just get a standard upgrade either, they got really sexy ones.

I haven't got a problem with the poor getting the things they need in order to stay alive, but I do have a problem with them having a better standard of living than I do, when they don't go out to work.

The Welfare State has trapped millions of people in this country. My jobless friends have nice houses and pay much, much lower rent than I do (although normally Housing Benefit covers this for them and they don't have to actually pay for it themselves). Most of them have better appliances in their kitchens, cupboards full of food and nicer televisions in their front rooms.

So Welfare needs an overhaul. The Government needs an overhaul. The whole country needs an overhaul and we will just have to get on with it.

However, one of the side-effects of this is that cuts are being made right the way through the Public Sector and I am tired of reading about what a good thing this is. Not everyone who works for the Government, and who isn't a teacher or a nurse does a pointless job. Lots of us are going to become unemployed. Even my position is under some threat, and I HELP unemployed people get back to work.

Oh the irony!

The thing is, although the cuts are necessary, it does not mean that they are not brutal. I don't see the point in people whining about it, but neither should they be celebrating. Real people, who have worked hard their entire adult lives are about to be made redundant. This is not a good thing.