3 ms·

> The UK has until recently been trying to follow a policy of reduced public spending Um, what? [1] [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_the_United_K

• ben_w 8y ago
  Trying, not really succeeding: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_government_austerity_programme https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_government_aust...
  • hathathat 8y ago
    > deficit reduction programme Your link just explains that they’re trying to reduce the gap between tax income and expenditure, but the absolute level of expenditure (my link) has gone up every year (in real terms too)!
    • jimnotgym 8y ago
      As a citizen of the UK I can tell you that until Brexit became along the political narrative since Cameron became PM had been all about 'The Cuts'. The fact that, despite widespread cuts to the civil service and the police, spending has increased just goes to show that ideology has become more important than sense in 2018. Talking about the specifics however, the number of police officers in the UK have been reduced by around 19 thousand. Since that only leaves 126k I hope you will find that significant. I find the continued expenditure on unproven gadgets rather distasteful against this backdrop. https://fullfact.org/crime/police-officer-numbers-have-fallen/ https://fullfact.org/crime/police-officer-numbers-have-falle...