The coalition of millionaires

Of the 29 Ministers entitled to attend Cabinet meetings, 23 have assets and investments estimated to be worth more than £1million.

 

1. Lord Strathclyde £10m - Leader of the House of Lords, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
2. Philip Hammond £7.5m - Secretary of State for Transport
3. George Osborne £4.6m - Chancellor of the Exchequer
4. Jeremy Hunt £4.5m - Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport
5. David Cameron £4m - Prime Minister, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service
6. Chris Huhne £3.5m - Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
7. Dominic Grieve £3m - Attorney General
8. Francis Maude £3m -Minister for the Cabinet Office, Paymaster General
9. William Hague £2.5m - Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
10. Andrew Mitchell £2m - Secretary of State for International Development
11. David Laws £1m-2m estimate - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
12. Nick Clegg £1.9m - Deputy Prime Minister
13. David Willetts £1.9m - Minister of State (Universities and Science) Department for Business, Innovation and Skills
14. Theresa May £1.6m - Secretary of State for the Home Department and Minister for Women and Equality
15. Oliver Letwin £1.6m - Minister of State, Cabinet Office
16. Caroline Spelman £1.5m - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
17. Owen Paterson £1.5m - Secretary of State for Northern Ireland
18. Cheryl Gillan £1.5m - Secretary of State for Wales
20. Sir George Young £1m - Leader of the House of Commons, Lord Privy Seal
21. Iain Duncan Smith £1m - Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
22. Michael Gove £1m - Secretary of State for Education
23. Dr Liam Fox £1m - Secretary of State for Defence
 

The Fawcett Society takes the cuts to court

This summer the government found itself in a fix that had never confronted a government before. Nobody had ever tried to take a government to court over its budget, still less for a sexist budget. The Treasury is reported to have been stunned when the Fawcett Society put in an application for a judicial review of its apparent failure to honour its legal duty under the Equality Act to give "due regard" to the impact on women.

The action followed the emergency budget that proposed an initial deficit reduction strategy of tax and benefit changes. Even before the projected 500,000 public sector job cuts (mainly affecting women) were announced this week, it was clear that women would be the biggest victims.

The legal case centres on the 2006 Equality Act, which imposed a legal duty on governments and public bodies to give "due regard" to the impact on women of all their policies and services, to promote gender equality and to mitigate policies and practices that will have an adverse effect on women. 

Read the article at:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/oct/22/yvette-cooper-fawcett-society-cuts

Moray Council writes to David Cameron over RAF bases

Moray Council has written to Prime Minister David Cameron over fears for the area's two RAF bases.

 It follows the decision to cancel the new Nimrod aircraft which will effectively close RAF Kinloss.

A task force has been set up to fight for the future of Kinloss, as well as RAF Lossiemouth which is also at risk.

The council's letter to Mr Cameron states: "We feel it is imperative that you visit Moray at the earliest opportunity."

Moray's two RAF bases contribute more than £150m to the local economy annually and support 5,700 jobs, according to a report in August by consultants hired by Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE).

PCS will be supporting our members in their campaign to save their jobs.

Save RAF Lossiemouth and its' Local Community

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Save-RAF-Lossiemouth-and-its-Local-Community/163728373655213

Defence Cuts Cost – the PCS fight back starts here

The SDSR announcement of 25,000 civilian job losses in the Ministry of Defence is a devastating blow to staff, whose loyalty and commitment in support of the front line has been thrown away in pursuit of an ideologically driven slash and burn cuts exercise.

Read the latest here:

http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/ministry_of_defence_group/mod-news/index.cfm/id/6DA92BF0-F71B-4FA7-B4369FFA47DAC127

RAF Kinloss

The RAF bases in Moray, situated in the north east of Scotland, make a significant contribution to the local economy and social environment.

Highlands & Islands Enterprise and Moray Council commissioned a major study into the economic impact of the RAF bases on Moray in 2005, and commissioned an update in 2010. The RAF has been in Moray for around 65 years and is therefore tightly woven into the social and economic fabric of the whole community. Both bases make a significant contribution to the population and economic prosperity of the area, collectively supporting 5,710 FTE jobs in the local economy, some 16% of all FTE employment within Moray. Gross income from the bases is estimated at around £158m per annum.

The wider impact on population is significant, with RAF households accounting for 7% of the total population of Moray and some 8% of the working age population. It is estimated that at least 15% of all NHS staff have partners connected to the RAF activity in Moray. In some departments such as midwifery, district nursing and cardiology, up to 25% of staff have spouses or partners connected with the RAF Bases.

The report can be downloaded here:
http://www.hie.co.uk/common/handlers/download-document.ashx?id=b54c1a27-0085-43a5-8651-87fe6b41d0f5

SDSR the White Paper

Headline cuts in military expenditure were announced in Tuesday's Strategic Defence and Security Review - the government's attempt to present it as a separate policy-led exercise rather than one simply dictated by the Treasury's demands for cuts has not worked. 

The reality is that the Defence Review is a Defence Cut with some 42,000 jobs to be lost.

The chancellor confirmed today that the defence budget will be cut by 8% over four years.

The Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) report is available on the Cabinet Office website and can be accessed here: http://www.direct.gov.uk/sdsr

Defence Review - Defence Cuts!

Civil Servants offer significant value for money in supporting the front line.

They are dedicated to defence but have been hit as an easy political target.

25,000 job losses will have a detrimental impact on the economy where they are located.

Civil Servants are the best people to support the services on adminstrative process because a civil servant flying a desk costs at least a third less than a uniformed officer doing the same job.

Since April 2004, civilian numbers in the MoD have decreased by some 22%, 40% of those remaining are not told thank you and good bye.

The MoD and Dr Liam Fox the Defence Minister assert that: “Our greatest asset is our people” yet the impact of the cuts on their greatest asset in real terms is job losses.

The front line should be supported and the best value for money support is through civil servants.

The review is not a defence review it is simply a cuts exercise where the lowest paid in the MOD are going to be hit the hardest. Ask those people who will be jobless at RAF Kinloss.

We are not all in this together

We have been told over and over again by the CONDEM coalition that these cuts are inevitable and we are all in this together.

We are not. Ordinary working people are being condemned to years of poverty by this government as the economy; jobs and social support are dismantled. It is the poorest and most vulnerable in our society that will be hit hardest.

The collapse in the finance sector, due to greed, was a root cause of recession and higher unemployment; tax revenues shrank dramatically, and the welfare bill increased.

The Cuts in Defence are a folly.

300,000 UK manufacturing jobs depend on UK defence success. This is 10 per cent of all UK manufacturing employment.

UK defence industry has a £35bn turnover.

UK defence had a 21 per cent share of the defence export market in the last five years.

Defence contributed £12bn in value added to the UK economy in 2008.

Tens of thousands of job cuts will hit some of Britain's most deprived regions.

Civilians working in defence offer significant value for money in supporting the front line; however, some 25,000 civilian jobs were announced yesterday.

Since April 2004, civilian numbers in the MoD have decreased by some 22%, now 40% of the remaining civil servants are to have their lives devastated as they loose their jobs.


The Public and Commercial Services Union (www.pcs.org.uk) pamphlet, There is an alternative: the case against cuts in public spending, sets out what could be done instead. We outline a strategy to deal with the deficit by investing to create jobs, raise revenues and generate economic growth. We can also tackle the £120bn a year in tax that is evaded, avoided or not collected, and use the £850bn we hold in nationalised banking assets to work in our interests.

The MoD and Dr Liam Fox the Defence Minister assert that: “Our greatest asset is our people” yet the impact of the cuts on their greatest asset in real terms is job losses.

Cuts Cuts and yet more Cuts

The spending cuts will lead to the loss of at least 500,000 public sector jobs and between 600,000 and 700,000 private sector jobs by the end of this Parliament.

Public spending is an investment, not a debt. Public servants – the vast majority of whom are low paid – deliver vital services to our communities.

If the government cuts more jobs this will only exacerbate the deficit crisis – more people will be unemployed and there will be less revenue.

Addressing the ‘tax gap’ is a vital part of tackling the deficit. Figures produced for PCS by the Tax Justice Network show that £25 billion is lost annually in tax avoidance and a further £70 billion in tax evasion by large companies and wealthy individuals.

An additional £26 billion is going uncollected. Therefore PCS estimates the total annual tax gap at over £120 billion (more than three-quarters of the annual deficit!). It is not just PCS calculating this; leaked Treasury documents in 2006 estimated the tax gap at between £97 and £150 billion.

Richard Murphy of the Tax Justice Network has revealed that 92 per cent of the cost of cutting public sector jobs when we have less than full employment is paid by the state, making it counter-productive economically