Where would you prioritise public spending.

tim_wand

I was upset to read in my Local paper this week "Newark Advertiser" that plans for a public welcome home parade for 2 Mercian Regiment are having to be scrapped in my local town Newark on Trent and others in the Nottinghamshire County council authority because of cost.

2 Mercian have completed more days in theatre and as a result suffered more loses than any other regiment in Afghanistan. Losing another 6 personnel in this tour alone.

The Mercian regiment is an amalgamation of the old Staffordshire regiment, Worcester and Sherwood Foresters and Cheshire regiments, Regiments from Staffordshire and Cheshire will still be returning home to such parades in their respective home areas.

This deeply upsets me and I have contacted our local MP to see it there is any means by which Public donations can be made or monies raised, He has told me even this is problematic as the local authorities and Police would ultimatley have to administer such funds at a cost of time and resources.

So having seen Cleats post with regards to libraries of which I am also a massive advocate, I would ask where do you draw the line and just what should Public money be supporting ?

SmellTheGlove

Improving rural public transport would be one of my main targets.
But imagine the queue for the door if a bunch of politicians were told that would be their number one job priority for the next four years.
Seriously, urbanisation is the megatrend of our day but how can more remote places and populations ever meet their full potential if people living in them are hostage to fluctuating fuel prices, less and less local provision of vital services etc? I'd start with a centrally-subsidised rural version of Streetcar. Then reopen some rural railways. The sacred NHS would be an instant beneficiary: how many missed appointments are there every day because patients have transport issues for example?
Join the dots - literally.

finchy

SmellTheGlove wrote:

Improving rural public transport would be one of my main targets.
But imagine the queue for the door if a bunch of politicians were told that would be their number one job priority for the next four years.
Seriously, urbanisation is the megatrend of our day but how can more remote places and populations ever meet their full potential if people living in them are hostage to fluctuating fuel prices, less and less local provision of vital services etc? I'd start with a centrally-subsidised rural version of Streetcar. Then reopen some rural railways. The sacred NHS would be an instant beneficiary: how many missed appointments are there every day because patients have transport issues for example?
Join the dots - literally.

I'll back that. To get from my family's home village to the nearest town (8 miles) costs £6 return.

finchy

More preventive medicine (e.g. regular scanning) - my Nan's life has, it seems been saved by doctors picking her cancer up early. If they'd spotted it even a few months later, she wouldn't stand a chance. Healthy living education for youngsters.

pinno

Probably preaching to the converted here. Put the pillars of preventative medicine back into society such as free school meals and milk. More physical education, education in food, nutrition and hygene for both kids and parents. Make it part of the curriculum.
At least 60% of the kids at our secondary school exit the premises at lunch to feed at Morrissons and burger vans eating chips, crap and fizzy pop. What good is that doing them?

Frank the tank

To quote that tosspot Blair "education,education,education".

In an ideal world, yeah I know we don't, if everyone was well educated and thoughtful they would be able to make more appropriate choices in life. Thus a better society for us all which would naturally lead to a lot more cash theoretically being available to do all the other things.

Being as we don't, the national health service.

No need for all these cuts though but thats not what this thread is about.

rick_chasey

I'd proritise cycling innit.

tim_wand

Having worked predominatley in education and youth services, I echo a lot of the suggestions being made here.

I think early interventions and preventitive measures around areas of education and health can be vastly more effective than the trend we have now of throwing finance and resources at reacting to an issue rather than being premptive in addressing it causes.

Surely we have enough social intelligence nowadays to know that a lack of investment or support for initiatives in the early developmental stages of social experiences I.e education and youth, just lead to a legacy of issues further down the line when it is much harder to retrieve the situation.

Jez mon

Attempt to provide jobs for people in my age group, there's plenty of infrastructure in this country which needs replacing/updating/creating. Of course, this needs to be done carefully and we can't go around building vanity projects.

For example:

Just because China has built millions of miles of high speed train track, doesn't mean we should follow. Ultimately, the train system is chronically overcrowded, and HS2 is sort of a good idea, but not at the expense of the rest of the network...

Or take that NHS IT project, how much money has been spent now, how much has actually come to fruition?

I would also be tempted to attempt to have less public/private sector combinations, generally, whenever I read up about private and public sector combining on projects, it seems to be the private sector getting the cream.



So, how would I prioritise public spending? Maybe lots of smaller, less glamorous projects.

Gizmodo

This is a cycling forum, I can't believe that no one has said "improving the road surface" or "reducing traffic on the road" :shock:

kentphil

If the councils didn't waste so much money on needless job positions, wasteful pieces of art, excessive expenses claims, redundancy payoffs for underperforming people etc then they would have more money to spend on areas that need investment.

I'm sure many examples of all of these could be easily found.

tim_wand

No kidding, my local council, the one who says it has no money for a home coming parade for 2 Mercian.

Advertised a post a couple of years ago with a salary of £98k per annum for someone to carry out efficiency savings.

(Gospel, I saved the ad at the time I ll look for it)

byke68

Gizmodo wrote:

This is a cycling forum, I can't believe that no one has said "improving the road surface" or "reducing traffic on the road" :shock:

Improving the road surface (s) and reducing traffic on the road.

Gizmodo

I thought this was great.

A retiring German public employee thought it’d be a good idea to email his 500 coworkers and let them all know he had been paid to do nothing for the last 14 years.
"Since 1998, I was only present but not really there. So I'm going so well prepared to retire," the former public employee wrote in his farewell letter.
He also made sure to mention that during all those years he did nothing, the city of Mendon (in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia) paid him about $975,000. The retiree says that because of constant reshuffling at his job, he managed to get away with never having to work.

http://www.lambslain.com/2012/04/retiring-public-employee-announces-that.html

rick_chasey

Gizmodo wrote:

This is a cycling forum, I can't believe that no one has said "improving the road surface" or "reducing traffic on the road" :shock:

Rick Chasey wrote:

I'd proritise cycling innit.

capt_slog

tim wand wrote:

I was upset to read in my Local paper this week "Newark Advertiser" that plans for a public welcome home parade for 2 Mercian Regiment are having to be scrapped in my local town Newark on Trent and others in the Nottinghamshire County council authority because of cost.

I don't really care whether they march or not, sorry.

but two points come to mind.

1. Why does walking down a street have a "cost"? I suppose they have to close the road, but is it really that expensive.?

2. Why are these same costs not an issue every second saturday throughout the season when the police have to be out in large numbers to keep one set of idiots away from a second set because 22 w@nkers want to play each other at football?

tim_wand

Captslog, Think you ve answered your own question, Security and Policing. I suggested to local MP that as Policing was paid for at football matches, could they not schedule something for half time or at the end of a football match at a football ground.

Apparently Football clubs pay a high precept for policing of games and obviously access at this time is restricted to those who have bought a ticket and therefore would limit inclusion to those who merely wanted to come and support our troops.

I respect your view and appreciate your contribution, but as the ex-captain of 1 BR Corps football team its not one I share.

capt_slog

tim wand wrote:

Apparently Football clubs pay a high precept for policing of games
.

This one is pet-hate of mine. I believe they only pay for "in the ground" policing, as far as I'm concerned, they should be paying the entire lot. They can hardly claim that they can't afford it.

I realise that my comment [I don't really care whether they march or not, sorry] could be mis-interpreted. Just to be clear; if they march down the street I'll be happy to see them, but if they don't I won't lose any sleep over it, is what I meant.

TheStone

I do wonder why we have a 'help the heroes' charity?
Either we're not paying enough tax, or we're entering into too many wars that we can't afford the aftermath of.

Personally I'd spend more on education and less on nearly everything else.

If I was in charge, housing benefit would be a fraction of what it currently is.

tim_wand

In a sense The Stone, I agree, I would pay less in housing benefit because I would make more social housing available and insure that housing benefit didnt go to so many private landlords.

Unfortunately the previous obsession with the right to buy means there is not enough social housing stock to accomodate those who need it within a public authority so private landlords profiteer.

I wouldnt like to be a young couple having to save a 20% or higher deposit nowadays and think many , especially those in rural areas will never sucessfully join the housing ladder.

Having worked in education though there is nothing worse than seeing children arrive at school having not had breakfast, poorly clothed and in a poor state of hygeine because of conditions at home.