Britain’s Conservative Government Insists on Spending Cuts, Including Police



When a Plan is Not Working, Keep the Plan

England, like the U. S. has not had a very good summer.  First there was the phone hacking scandal which demonstrated that at least one newspaper in Britain was engaging in illegal and reprehensible acts, and that this same newspaper has strong ties to the government.  Then the economic growth numbers came out, along with future projections that showed, surprise, surprise, that the government’s policy to contract the economy was resulting in contracting the economy.

 

Now in the wake of uncontrolled rioting in major cities, the Conservative coalition led government has come under attack for continuing budget cuts in law enforcement.  The response of Mr. George Osborne, Secretary of the Treasury (no that’s not his title in Britain, but his title in Britain sounds pretentious and so The Dismal Political Economist will not use it).



Is This What A Safe Haven Looks Like to Britain's Government or
Is it the "disaster" that would occur if major cuts in
spending on British police services were not made?





The chancellor insisted Britain was a haven in “the most dangerous time for the global economy since 2008”,

And as for any change in the policy to cut police budgets, Mr. Osborne

told MPs in an emergency Commons session that it would be a disaster to relax £81bn of spending cuts. 

Besides, it turns out one can cut 20% of a police budget, and

after David Cameron faced more than two hours of Commons questions about the riots that hit London and other English cities this week, with many MPs demanding the scrapping of plans to reduce police budgets by 20 per cent.  Mr Cameron insisted the cuts were “totally achievable without any reductions in visible policing”,



Can't See the Police
That's the Invisible Part

 

That’s right, you can cut police budgets 20% with reducing  “visible” policing.  See, all of the reductions will be in “invisible” policing, and since no one can see “invisible” policing, it won’t matter will it?