Is Alistair Darling hiding further public sector cuts?
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has identified a potential black-hole in Alistair Darling's financial plans from 2011 onwards. While he has identified there is a need for up to £36 billion of savings from the public sector budget from 2011 onwards, £15 billion of these potential cuts have yet to be identified and will no doubt take in a number of "frontline" services which are supposed to be protected by the UK government.
It is believed that at some point we will see significant cost-cutting in the areas of health, education, defence, housing, transport and higher education, all areas of the UK economy and the UK public sector which have been promised some type of "protection" by the UK government. There is a growing feeling that Alistair Darling's pre-budget report was neither complete nor totally open with regards to cost savings in the future and the need to increase taxes as soon as possible.
It seems that the UK government will be fighting the next general election using a "class" situation with the traditional working-class Labour party against the "wealthy" Conservative party. There are some who believe this particular strategy will backfire and it is certainly a high risk move by Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling.
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