Yesterday the Con-Dem government announced cuts of £81 billion in public spending. Much of these are in front line services hitting the poorest the most. The rise in train fares will be especially difficult for pensioners and others on fixed incomes. It will have least 500,000 people losing jobs in the public sector with a knock effect in the private sector. 1
Local services will be cut in Epping Forest and indeed we wait to see what they will be. We do know they want to cut our well used local courts and the police are bracing themselves for more cuts. 2 Locally people using social housing will find it increasingly difficult to pay rents. 3
This follows a betrayal by the Lib-Dems on Tuition Fees with students having an even greater burden to pay.
On the Environment we have the Lib-Dems supporting nuclear energy by permitting it and then paying for the waste to be stored. A back-door subsidy. 4 On the same day, the Energy Secretary pulled the plug on a major renewable project: Cycle England, which has been a great boon in encouraging cycling and safe cycling, is to be abolished (it only cost £200,000).5
Our Leader Caroline Lucas MP summed it up “Where's the fairness in a budget that lets vital public services go to the wall, hitting the poorest hardest?"6 “Rather than callously cutting to the bone the UK
“And if he also scraps plans for the proposed eight new nuclear power stations, he’ll save the UK
1, http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/oct/19/spending-review-document-job-cuts2, http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/efnews/8465791.EPPING_FOREST____50m_of_police_cuts_needed/, and , http://www.guardian-series.co.uk/news/efnews/8464726.EPPING_FOREST__Fire_service_must_make___7_6m_savings/
3, http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/oct/20/spending-review-2010-osborne-cuts?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
4, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/lib-dem-uturn-on-nuclear-energy-sees-huhne-announce-eight-new-power-stations-2110271.html, and, http://www.greenparty.org.uk/News/18-10-2010-huhne-nuclear-power.html
5, http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/oct/14/cycling-england-quango-cut
6, http://www.greenparty.org.uk/News/budget-to-destroy-a-million-jobs.html
7, http://www.greenparty.org.uk/News/2010-10-19-scrap-nukes-report.html
