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September 17, 2009

25% of UK's Budget for Welfare Payments


Gordon Brown cannot understand why Socialism has not produced wealth and more jobs

Social security payments will cost almost £200 billion in four years time, accounting for one pound in every four that the Government spends.

By James Kirkup, Telegraph Political Correspondent
Nickie Goomba note: In the UK, cash aid to families and children, unemployment benefits, aid to the physically and mentally disabled, welfare for individuals, pensions, etc. all fall under the umbrella of Social Security. This gigantic amount of money does not even include the massive and moribund National Health Service.
Combined with a debt interest bill of more than £63 billion, items Gordon Brown once called “the costs of failure” will absorb more than a third of all Government spending.

Leaked Treasury documents have revealed the Government’s own bleak forecasts for rising welfare payments and debt interest costs.

The figures, which were not revealed in this year’s Budget, show the scale of the damage that will done to the public finances by rising unemployment and the soaring national debt.

The papers show that the Treasury expects to pay out £193.4 billion on social security benefits in 2013/14. Paying interest on the Government’s outstanding debts will cost £63.4 billion.

Total Government spending in the same year will be £758.3 billion. Welfare and debt interest will be 33.8 per cent of that total.

Around 6 million people in Britain are estimated to claim some sort of employment-based benefits, and the figure is set to rise.

Official figures released on Wednesday showed that unemployment reached has 2.47 million, the highest since 1995. Most economists expect the total to peak at around 3 million early next year.

In his 2000 Budget, Mr Brown described money spent on debt and welfare as “the costs of failure” and lauded Labour’s record in reducing those payments.

He said: "Our promise was to reduce the costs of failure – the bills for unemployment and debt interest – in order to reallocate money to the key public services."
Nickie Goomba note: Don't you love this part? They've cut back what's spent on unemployment and interest on existing debts and used that money to... wait for it... fund MORE GOVERNMENT SERVICES. Why isn't there a revolution over there??
Now, Mr Brown’s own figures reveal how those costs are set to grow dramatically.

Already the largest single item in the budget, by 2013/14 spending on social security will dwarf every other item of Government expenditure.

(More...)

Then There's This 2007 story from The Daily Mail...


During Gordon Brown's student days, he produced a 200-page booklet, stating 'free money is available from social security'

Social security hand-outs should be regarded as "free money", the "so-called welfare State" should be used wherever possible and there's nothing wrong with squatting or being a "parasite".

These are views in a guide on how to scrounge off the State, "con" private firms and "use and abuse the system", published by the man set to become Prime Minister.

It is not a leaked copy of 's manifesto in his campaign to succeed Tony Blair, but a 200-page booklet produced as a socialist student leader in the Seventies, long before "stealth taxes" were invented.

However, cynics will say the seeds of the welfare State boom under Labour can be seen in the document edited by 22-year-old firebrand Brown when Rector of .

Entitled Alternative Edinburgh, it provides a revealing insight into his attitudes to the State and the law in its suggestions of ways to live for free.

"If you're British and can give an address, free money is available from social security, basic £5.80 per week," it says.

"Social and medical benefits are your right, not charity hand-outs, so never be reticent about claiming them. For whatever the reason the so-called welfare State was brought into being, it can and must be used to its full extent."

Nor is it just the State that can be used to get something for nothing.

"For the experienced parasite the Edinburgh Festival is a gift," the booklet declares, with advice on gatecrashing receptions - "enter via the side door" - and getting a free bath and food at smart hotels.

It suggests: "Sit in the lobby until reception is busy, then walk quickly upstairs or into the lift. Even the plushest hotels have at least one public bathroom to a floor."

And for free food, it recommends: "Con your way to asking for a glass of water or sit beside drinkers and they will feed you for nothing."

Rector Brown's book also advocates sneaking into cut-price works canteens and even "masquerading as a student" in college canteens. "Just say you've forgotten your student card."

An "infallible" method of cheating your way into bring-a-bottle parties is to "use a carrier bag of empty cans with two half-bricks at the bottom".

The man who tried to hide the abolition of the 10p tax rate in his recent Budget was an early student of media manipulation.

"Counter-information is the key to success," students are advised. Direct action like squatting works because it attracts the Press."

The guide helpfully lists local Marxist and anarchist groups.

Job ideas hardly conform to Mr Brown's son-of-the-manse background.

"Factories: not recommended. Early starts and monotonous work," says the booklet.

Girls are advised to work as "go-go girls", the Seventies equivalent of pole dancers.

Or a student could try the capitalist con of ordering the latest model of an in-demand car "reserving the right to cancel" and selling it on for £100 profit while awaiting delivery.

And if you're caught by police while working any scam, don't worry.

"You may think you are guilty but legal advice can show otherwise," says the future Chancellor's guide.

Young Brown had his own "five-year plan": a council takeover of shops, pubs and cafes, a crackdown on car owners and a 50 per cent rise in local taxes to help the working class.

Some may say little has changed.

30 comments:

Doom said...

I missed the last conversation, due to, well, missing the last conversation. However, in this plug, you pulled the very strings I was going to pull. In that, the spending is beyond out of control. Not just there, either. We are undone as is, adding money we don't have to the pile that is already burning and... Wh... what we got here... Isss a failure to communicate. The government mouth is speaking to our wallets, and we are already broke. How can we add a plan? Regardless of what any bureaucrat, left or "right" tells you, it is going to cost, and much.

One thing that is forgotten, here as there, is that regardless of what the government is already (over)spending for medical, what is not included is unfunded mandates on business (especially businesses which do a great deal of work with the government, who are then considered subcontractors, and thus must comply with federal ordinances (on top of standard ordinances). Who pays for that? Speaking of stealth taxes, eh?

I am trying to be polite, as I think you are. We may just need to disagree. My position on the health care of the needy? Simple, keep money in the hands of the people who earn it, and they will take care of the truly needy, while much more easily weeding out the fraudulent. It is called charity. The way we are going, we will all be needing charity, rather than the few, then who will pay?

Good thought provoking material though. Oh, and hello. I thought I ought to finally post. I've been watching you all do intellectual jumproping. I finally think I see the pattern and thought I would join the fun, fray(?), whatnot.

Rhod said...

There's something disgusting in the subjugation of a great nation by a ponce Mary Quant turd like Brown, and people like him.

I blame the Pythons. They did more to establish cynicism and to obliterate the values of the Brit middle classes than any collection of Reds.

LL said...

America needs to look at the British model to understand the road Dear Leader would drag us down. A socialist quagmire destroys the will to generate new business, destroys the will to "succeed" and you're left with a moribund state...

Free Enterprise works.

Socialism doesn't. And never has.

Timeshare Jake said...

The inspiration for the song Taxman.

Thorum said...

But I was just about about to quit my job and move to Britain. Is this so wrong? Pull out a pipe, martini and spend my days relaxing on the balcony of my flat watching the burkas shuffle by...;)

el chupacabra said...

Minnesota is Americas England.

Stenio Guilherme Vernasque da Silva said...

"Those who give up essential liberty for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety"

Benjamin Franklin

Mike said...

Why Brown and his Democratic counterparts in the U.S. of A. should be thrown out on their massive and moribund arses.

Anonymous said...

Doom, all solutions require a starting point, and a return to generously funded charities would undercut the bloated bureaucracies of government.

Now, back to reality... There's not a lot of disagreement with me in your comment. Thanks so much for visiting, and I hope you do so again. And... I hope you won the battle with the key-logger.

Anonymous said...

Rhod, any ethic and value system is valid as long as it's stylish with a bitchin' soundtrack. (Sigh!)

Anonymous said...

LL. correctamundo. Now, if we could just establish a government program to build Free Enterprise.

Anonymous said...

Bill, the correct spelling is W-A-X-M-A-N.

Anonymous said...

Thorum, insist that your council house has a sweeeping view of the mosque.

Anonymous said...

chup, I'd rather say that the UK is like Minnesota without the Twins or Franken. And Britain's sausage rolls are to die for.

Anonymous said...

Stenio, the irony is that Britain is as vulnerable now as they've ever been AND they've lost what liberty they've had.

Anonymous said...

Mike... Beautiful. Those words should be a folk song.

Writer X said...

How much does an aspirin cost in the UK? Gordon Brown looks like he could down a hole bottle.

McGonagall said...

New Labour is not a socialist party - they are a right wing, neo-liberal party. Under Blair and now Brown common goods and services have been privatized at a rate that would have shocked Margaret Thatcher. Now -having given away all the money to the bankers - the poor must pay the bill.

Shocking - absolutely shocking.

Anonymous said...

Writer, take a couple a call me in the morning. Yup, Brown is rightfully feeling the pressure lately.

Dog in the manger stuff.

Anonymous said...

Scunny, that may be the view from Scotland, and I understand the mish-mosh that is British politics defies definition (SDP, Lib-Lab pact, New fogies etc.) but to the U.S., New Labour is the perfect example of inept government rampant.

Rhod said...

We need to learn Scunny's political language, the anarcho-socialist lingo that defines Blair as a right-wing neo-liberal.

Seriously, Scunny, I'm interested.

Anonymous said...

Here is my ruling:

Res ipsa loquitor that Brown is a nadless wimp ... determined simply looking at that old picture. Appearing thusly and in public is grounds for a butt-whippin' in Texas.

Libertarian Advocate said...

Bravo! Superb work Nickie. Posted a brief piece on my blog with link back to yours here.

Anonymous said...

DC, appearing in public at all is grounds for a butt-whippin' in cow country.

Anonymous said...

Rhod, I'll leave the decoding to you. I'll just read and learn.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for stopping by, Lib. And thanks for the link.

Anonymous said...

Socialism is an obscenity of nature, revamped and maintained through a plethora of lies. These people change their views in accordance with their own situation, and nothing upon nothing is ever written in stone. Except Marxist dogma and politically correct lunacy to their self righteous cause, that is.
The sad point for we poor saps enduring life under our "Dear leader", is that in four Years time, this one eyed moron will be no more than a painful memory in the annuls of a shameful period in British history.
He himself will be Lord Brown of Raith or some such hell hole, living off the wealth that Champagne swilling Socialism has found him accustom too.

Whilst everyone else is still picking up the tab for his Socialist incompetence.

Shameful.

Kid said...

Here's a great picture of a Liberal

Anonymous said...

"These people change their views in accordance with their own situation, and nothing upon nothing is ever written in stone."

D&C, that is so frighteningly accurate. That's why I'm on the Right.

Anonymous said...

Kid... Go to your room!