TENS OF billions worth of spending cuts to be announced in the United Kingdom today by chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne will cost nearly half-a-million public service jobs over the next four years, according to confidential government papers accidentally displayed yesterday.
Two pages of the Comprehensive Spending Review were in view – and photographed – as the Liberal Democrats’ chief secretary to the treasury Danny Alexander left the treasury as final preparations for the £83 billion (€95 billion) cuts programme were being put together.
Thousands of trade unionists, who had gathered just a few hundred yards away at the Trade Union Congress, were told by TUC general secretary Brendan Barber that the cuts would “plunge the economy back into recession” and threaten to make the UK “a more unequal, more squalid, and a nastier country”.
However, newly elected Labour leader Ed Miliband did not attend the rally in Westminster Central Hall – even though he told the TUC conference in September that he would attend. This is being taken as further evidence that Mr Miliband is keen to keep some distance for now between himself and the unions – many of whom strongly backed him in the election race.
The Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition has already agreed to cut 17,000 military posts and 25,000 civilians from the ministry for defence, to close the British army’s bases in Germany by 2020, sharply to reduce the number of tanks and heavy artillery and to delay the introduction of a replacement for the Trident nuclear submarine as it struggles to meet its targets.
The UK’s defence budget will fall in real terms by 8 per cent over the next four years – though it will rise in cash terms. Prime minister David Cameron insisted the cuts would not affect the British army’s Afghanistan mission, since it is paid for directly out of the treasury, and not out of funds allocated annually to the ministry for defence.
However, the UK will not be able to mount a similar mission once the cuts have been implemented. Instead, it will be able to keep a 6,500-strong force in the field indefinitely – 3,000 smaller than the force deployed in Afghanistan, though it would be able to send 30,000 troops into action for a one-off operation.
All branches of the military will face cuts. The Royal navy will lose its only aircraft carrier, the Ark Royal, while two replacements will not be ready until 2020. There is a danger that the aircraft necessary for them may not be in service at the time. Meanwhile, the Royal Air Force will lose its Harrier jets, Nimrod surveillance aircraft and several bases.
Conservative MPs are clearly unhappy about the measures, particularly the decision to delay Trident’s replacement. Peter Tapsell, the longest-serving MP, said the national interest has been “subordinated to the coalition’s interest” – a point that was echoed publicly by fellow MP Julian Lewis, and, privately, by many others.
Meanwhile, the BBC is to be forced to pay for all of the £300 million-a-year bill for the BBC World Service. The service has been funded for decades by the UK foreign office. The corporation also faces a six-year licence fee freeze in a bid to stave off demands from ministers that it should not be compensated for the £600 million bill left by paying for licence fees for the over-75.