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The new National Security Strategy, launched today by the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, reminds us of some of the continued threats the UK faces in the shape of cyber attacks.
This may well be right — but the main winner in the battle for security spending appears to be the Defence Secretary, Liam Fox, who has fought a vigorous battle to protect MoD funding from the worst Treasury cuts.
Mr Fox appears to have succeeded in keeping reductions in defence spending to eight per cent, a better deal than the 10 per cent cuts that the Treasury has pushed for. Reminding us of Britain's vulnerabilities may have helped.
Indeed, the remarkable feature of the past few days has been the number of projects and departments that turn out to be exempt from cuts: schools in England, some forms of social care, important parts of the defence budget, Crossrail, as well as the already ringfenced NHS and overseas aid. The prospects for departments that have not secured a reprieve look correspondingly bleak.
Yet the Government's decision to spare Crossrail was unequivocally right. The east-west London rail link is years overdue; it would have cost far less had it been built a decade ago. Money spent on this crucial element of the transport network translates into greater investment and economic growth: the cost of Crossrail will be repaid, many times over, in tax revenues well into the future.
There will undoubtedly be many unappetising elements to the spending review, including, it seems, curtailing child benefit at 16. Yet it is also worth remembering that these cuts, while draconian, are not returning us to the level of public spending under Mrs Thatcher, but to the level in 2004, hardly a Dickensian era. According to the Centre for Policy Studies, public spending increased between 1999 and 2009 by 53 per cent in real terms: trying to reverse that trend was never going to be easy. But it is at least worthwhile making an attempt to do so.
Housing crisis ahead
The Mayor, Boris Johnson, points out today that our housing crisis is going to get worse for demographic reasons.
Largely because of the expansion in immigration under Labour and the bigger size of some ethnic minority families, the UK population will rise by 10 million in the next 20 years. There are already huge waiting lists for social housing. The impact of increased numbers on a stagnant housing stock means there could be a drastic spike in house prices.
Mr Johnson is right to be concerned, particularly given that immigrants understandably gravitate to London. The social impact on schools and housing is far greater than elsewhere. Part of the remedy lies in immigration controls but we need also to be more imaginative in expanding the housing available. Relatively dense but attractive housing developments, such as that in the Olympic park, will allow more people to occupy less space.
Making use of existing measures to encourage the occupancy of empty properties is another. This problem has to be confronted.
Fairer fares, please
London commuters never have it easy, but ministers' astonishing decision temporarily to lift the cap on rail operators' peak fares means they may have to pay 10 per cent more for tickets, two years running. The Government, in protecting the operators at the expense of passengers, has got it wrong.
Reader views (1)
We can?
We have 4 million unemployed and companies closing by the day. These cuts are still going to be passed on by higher local Council Tax so Joe Public is still going to be hit.
And I don't notice any officials, at whichever level taking a cut in salary, or being made redundant.
Surely, if you have no staff or department to manage, then how can your job still exist?
By definition, you must be redundant.
- Chris Richards, Chelmsford UK, 18/10/2010 16:18
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