Nick Clegg on walkaboutDespite the fact that councils are to face huge spending cuts over the next few years, the Government is advising local authorites not to be too hasty in making compulsory redundancies over fears that local authorities are moving prematurely to sack staff.
According to the Guardian the Local Government Association said this week that around 100,000 local government jobs would be lost as a result of the comprehensive spending review.
Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister, said: "How local authorities are anticipating these cuts is wildly different from one place to the next. Sheffield City Council is making massive efforts to deal with a very tight settlement and minimise enforced redundancies. Go to other places and you get a reaction that 'it's all the government's fault and I'm going to reach for the redundancy notice'.
"What we need to do is to play our part in central government, to try and show local authorities and others that they shouldn't immediately start issuing redundancy notices for savings that they can phase in over four years and where, through voluntary redundancies, natural wastage and so on, maybe the pressure isn't quite as great as they initially think it to be."
Maybe the pressure is not as great as it could be? It sounds as if Clegg is emulating Mr Micawber with the view that something will turn up,. Local councils facing huge cuts have little option but to shed staff and in huge numbers.
Perhaps Cleggawber was thinking of another quote form the same character:
Welcome poverty!..Welcome misery, welcome houselessness, welcome hunger, rags, tempest, and beggary! Mutual confidence will sustain us to the end!
Mutual confidence that Clegg has the Ministerial car and the trappings of office until his party faces meltdown in a few years time
9 comments:
Clegg is saying that the government needed to cut NOW but that the councils can delay!
Typical Toalies!
Indeed But I'd rather step in a toaly than a ToLi
Just who do they think they're kidding, that's what I'd like to know.
Not many and even fewer as reality bites James
The US Fed printing trillions of virtual dollars is not helping matters anywhere. The wages of a currency war are puny indeed.
Just inflation by the sound of it Susan!
Actually, Jams, they are hoping to induce some inflation in the US, because we are facing deflation which is a nasty piece of work.
What the Austerians are doing is also going to create deflation in Britain which leads to a downward spiral.
Ireland is the poster child for what is going to happen.
What people don't seem to understand is that government budget deficits are relatively meaningless in a nation with a sovereign currency, like the US and Britain.
The Euro nations are screwed because they don't control their currency, and the world was screwed when everyone's currency was tied to gold. Under those conditions deficits do matter, as in Greece. When a nation has a sovereign fiat currency, i.e. the ability to create money at will, inflation is the major concern, and inflation is not even in the mix at the moment.
Clegg is a buffoon.
Let's hope he's soon banished to the Desert Island of political obscurity.
Ah I didn't realise that you were facing deflation Bryan. That is not god news at all.
Cameron and his lapdog Clegg should look at what has happened in Ireland. It is a cutionary tale that should be heeded. Otherwise look at Hoover..
Spot on Roger. The man is a little arsehole
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