Диссертация (1168845), страница 98
Текст из файла (страница 98)
They must not be allowedanywhere near our economy, ever, ever again.Reducing spending will be difficult. There are programmes that will be cut. There are jobs that will belost. There are things government does today that it will have to stop doing.Many government departments will have their budgets cut by, on average, 25% over four years. That'sa cut each year of around 7%.Of course, that's big. But let's remember, a lot of businesses have had to make the same or biggersavings in recent years.And when we're done with these cuts, spending on public services will actually still be at the samelevel as it was in 2006.The spending cuts we do have to make, we'll make in a way that is fair. Fairness includes protectingthe service we most rely on – the health service.We said five years ago we were the party of the NHS and now in government, by protecting NHSspending from cuts, we are showing it.And as we work to balance the budget, fairness includes asking those on higher incomes to shouldermore of the burden than those on lower incomes.I'm not saying this is going to be easy, as we've seen with child benefit this week.
But it's fair thatthose with broader shoulders should bear a greater load.And I think it's time for a new conversation about what fairness really means.Here's what I think. Yes, fairness means giving money to help the poorest in society. People who aresick, who are vulnerable, the elderly – I want you to know we will always look after you. That's thesign of a civilised society, and it's what I believe.506But you can't measure fairness just by how much money we spend on welfare, as though the poor areproducts with a price tag, the more we spend on them the more we value them.Fairness means supporting people out of poverty, not trapping them in dependency.
So we will make abold choice.For too long, we have measured success in tackling poverty by the size of the cheque we give people.We say: let's measure our success by the chance we give. Let's support real routes out of poverty – astrong family, a good education, a job.So we'll invest in the early years, help put troubled families back on track, use a pupil premium tomake sure kids from the poorest homes go to the best schools not the worst, recognise marriage in thetax system and, most of all, make sure that work really pays for every single person in our countryRemember last year? When you stood up to show how angry you were about the injustice of some lowpaid single mothers going out to work and losing 96p for every extra pound they earned?Well after months of hard work, I can tell you Iain Duncan Smith has found a way to end that system.So to that single mother struggling and working her heart out for her children, we can now say: "We'reon your side; we'll help you work; we will bring that injustice to an end."Here's something else about fairness.
Fairness isn't just about who gets help from the state.The other part of the equation is who gives that help, through their taxes. Taking more money from theman who goes out to work long hours each day so the family next door can go on living a life onbenefits without working – is that fair?Fairness means giving people what they deserve – and what people deserve depends on how theybehave.If you really cannot work, we'll look after you.
But if you can work, but refuse to work, we will not letyou live off the hard work of others.Tackling the deficit is what we have to do. But transforming our country is what we passionately wantto do.Here again we need the big society spirit – of activism and dynamism. We need it to get growth.Let me tell you what I believe. It will be the doers and grafters, the inventors and the entrepreneurswho get this economy going.Yes, it will be the wealth creators – and no, those aren't dirty words.When you think of a wealth creator, don't think of the tycoon in a glass tower. Think of the man whogets up and leaves the house before dawn to go out and clean windows.Think of the woman who sits up late into the night trying to make the figures add up to make sure shecan pay her staff.I can't tell you how much I admire people who leave the comfort of a regular wage to strike out ontheir own.I'll always remember what the owner of a small business told me once.
He said: "When I was startingout, the government didn't lift a finger to help me. Then as soon as I start making money they're allover me trying to take it away."That is completely the wrong way round. We need to get behind our wealth creators. That's what we'redoing.Dealing with the deficit so interest rates stay low. Slashing red tape. Cutting the small business profitsrate, corporation tax and national insurance contributions for new businesses.But I don't think our job ends there. I don't believe in laissez-faire.
Government has a role not just tofire up ambition, but to help give it flight.So we are acting to build a more entrepreneurial economy. Tens of thousands of university andapprenticeship places and a new generation of technical schools.A new Green Investment Bank, so the technologies of the future are developed, jobs created and ourenvironment protected.Big infrastructure projects like high speed rail, super-fast broadband, carbon capture and storage.A £1bn regional growth fund to stimulate enterprise in those areas where the private sector is weak.507And as we've announced this week, a new enterprise allowance that gives money and support tounemployed people who want to start their own business.And there's another way we're getting behind business – by sorting out the banks.Taxpayers bailed you out, now it's time for you to repay the favour and start lending to Britain's smallbusinesses again.Just as we need the big society spirit to get our economy going, we need it in our society too.Social change is where this coalition has its beating, radical heart.
This is what drives us. To changeforever the way this country is run.We're going to start by taking power away from central government and giving it to people.On 11 May, a great shadow was cast over the empire of the quangocrats, the bureaucrats and thepower-hoarders.He is the enemy of the bureaucratic state. Public chum number one. The big man on the side of thepeople. Eric Pickles.Eric has come in to government and hit the ground sprinting, leading the most radical shift in powerthis country has seen for decades.More freedom for local councils to keep more of the money when they attract business to their area, tofinance big new infrastructure projects and to run new services.More power for neighbourhoods to keep local pubs open, stop post offices from closing, to run localparks, to plan the look, shape and feel of their area.New powers to you to choose the hospital you get treated in, the school your child goes to.And because information is power, we're bringing transparency to government.All those things the last government kept from you, who spends your money, what they spend it on,what the results are, where the waste is, we're putting it in your hands.
After all, it's your money – soyou should see where it's going.This is not about a bit more power for you and a bit less power for central government – it's arevolution.Let's leave Labour defending the status quo, the vested interests, the unions, the quangocrats, the elites,the establishment.We are the radicals now, breaking apart the old system with a massive transfer for power, from thestate to citizens, politicians to people, government to society.
That is the power shift this country needstoday.And let me tell you why we desperately need this change. It's because the old way, of just pouringmoney into public services from on high, didn't make the difference it promised to.Health inequalities got worse. Almost four in ten children left primary school unable to read, write anddo maths properly. There were nearly a million violent crimes a year.So if anyone tells you that all we need to improve our hospitals and schools or keep our streets safe ismore money, tell them, been there, done that and it didn't work.So this is what radicalism means. No more top-down, bureaucrat-driven public services. We're puttingthose services in your hands.The old targets and performance indicators that drove doctors, nurses and police officers mad – they'regone.All that bureaucracy that meant nothing ever happened – we're stripping it away.The big, giant state monopolies – we're breaking them open to get new ideas in.Saying to the people who work in our public services - set up as a co-operative, be your own boss, dothings your way.Saying to business, faith groups, charities, social enterprises – come in and provide a great service.Already, businesses are getting people trained and ready for work.
GPs are coming together to deliverlocal NHS services. And next year, the first generation of free schools will open in the state sector.But as with any radical changes, there's going to be opposition. I want to give you an idea of thementality we're fighting.508Ed Balls, the man who used to be in charge of education in our country, said one of the dangers of ourschools policy was that it would create "winners".Winners? We can't have that. The danger that your child might go to school and turn out to be awinner. Anti-aspiration.
Anti-success. Anti-parents who just want the best for their children.What an unbelievable attitude from this Labour generation.Now I've heard people say there are some places where reform can't go – like law and order.I disagree. Of course the state has a clear role, to score a line between right and wrong, to punish thosewho step over it, and to do it in a way that gives people confidence.That's why I have no time for those who sneer at public attitudes to punishing criminals.Offenders who should go to prison will go to prison. Justice must be done.But we also have to recognise where the state is failing on crime. We spend £41,000 a year on eachprisoner – and within a year of leaving, half of them reoffend.There are 150,000 people in Britain today who get their heroin substitutes on the state, their addictionsmaintained by the taxpayer.We have police officers who spend more time on paperwork than they do on patrol.