Subtitle: Health 25% Welfare 12% Pensions 27% Defence 9%
I read this interesting piece on the Guardian site – it got me thinking
It’s always been my bug bear that defence spending is about the lost opportunites to do some contructive with human activity.
The percentages above are the split of money spent from Central Government Spending for 2013
The interesting thing is that as a percentage of GDP, welfare spend was higher under Thatcher and Major, and lowest under good ‘ol Tony “War Criminal” Blair.
Looking back at the ukpublicspending.co.uk – hurrah, we’re spending less on defence and more on health.
That’s the actual reality.
It’s the state funded pension black hole that’s the problem. A quarter of the UK Central government spending is consistantly on state funded pensions. Ah – that’s not the actual problem, it’s the fact that it paid for by the workers of today, not yesterday.
UK: In 2004, there were approximately 4 working age individuals (aged 20-64) for every 1 person aged 65 and over. By 2056 this ratio is predicted to fall to about 2:1
So the percentage of GDP available for government spending is SHRINKING
“John Doe” expects money to keep raining down from Central Govenment (whatever that is) forever, sorry mate – IT ISN’T going to happen. It won’t be there, remember it’s SHRINKING
Please as my best friend used to say – “spare me the trauma”, something magical isn’t going to drop out the Narnia cupboard, people are selfish and greedy / protective of their own family unit.
So when you bump into a “John Doe” whaling on about something must be done abou the state of housing/schools/hospitals, please ask them – which bit of the pie chart they want to re-allocate?
Does it not make more sense to offer the people choices of “govenment” based on the percent of cake spent on which item?
Or how about having it as a Manifesto requirement? A party MUST state the percentage of the cake will be spent on what? And the policical party becomes the marketing machine to deliver these percentages palatably.
Surely poor spend in a pie sector is either fraud or poor management. Neither of which are any policital party’s fault. (Read Civil Service or Contractor)