Cut everything accross the board and make people realise that the state is only here to support the most needy, not the bone-idle, lazy or rich.

Stop IVF funding, as the NHS is here to save lives, not create them.
Make public sector workers pay their fair share pension contributions.
Stop paying child benefit for more than 2 kids (if you can't afford them, don't have them).
Slash Job seekers Allowance and other non-working benefits and force the non workers to do voluntary work to help society, whilst looking for paid employment.
Reform Prisons and make them basic. No more TV's, Pool tables, conjugal visits etc.
VAT on kids clothes and food.
Bring back Hanging, to get rid of persistent and costly prisoners. I'd volunteer to pull the lever and cut them down!

I could go on for ages, but don't want to rant to much, just yet!

Good grief. Not sure I know where to begin with your post.

For a moment I thought Pat had been transcribing the budget as it happened, but then I realised... Prepare yourself for a bumpy ride Ex FH Pat. Are you ex cos you were chased out of town????!

Jon - no I was not chased out of town - lol

Fully expect some reactions and I welcome them, maybe some will prove that what was writtenis wrong, time will tell

I would love to come back to FH, however children are in school in Tooting and one is just about to go to year 11, so maybe in a few years time I will come back, if FH will have me - ha ha

Ok, I'll start with an easy, minor point. Prisons in England and Wales do not allow conjugal visits. I'm not sure how much money you'd be saving if they we're allowed and you banned them though.

It is unclear how much IVF treatment costs the NHS as it doesn't appear to be published but whatever...should we extend the policy to the treatment of all non-life-threatening conditions?

Tooting? What would Citizen Smith have said eh?

Power to the people ??
Freedom for Tooting ??

Summed up quite nicely:
http://sydenham.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.p...8746#38746
'senseless bigotry' and 'sub-Mail nonsense'.

I was going to respond but it would only encourage our friend from Tooting to post more similar rants. Such a shame that while we can't always hear the views of local people on SE23.com we have to have the views of the Daily Mail represented by people who pay half our council tax and then complain to us about their local services.

The good news is that Tooting has it's own forum to discuss issues of school policies and public hanging in that area.
http://www.tootinglife.com/forum/

So who pays half your Council Tax - it was meant as a tongue in cheek to see what responses came back, if you had read soem of my earlier rants - whoops sorry posts, you would know that Im not a tory.

Appears that our friend David Cameron has lied also as he stated that anyone earning under £40k would not be out of pocket, very odd that from 2012 anyone earning over 25k will lose their child tax credits

So because i dont live in FH, you saying that I should not post any threads ??

The main rant I had was with the schools admissions policy and by the way, im fully aware that there is a forum for Tooting, must have taxed your brains to find that link[/align]

I don't see SE23.com as a place for the whole world to post rants about random topics. I welcome posts from people outside FH if they have something useful to contribute to local issues.

People reading this forum might actually believe that your 'tongue in cheek' rants represent the views of people in Forest Hill rather than the London Borough of Wandsworth. Instead it has provoked the good people of Forest Hill to object in such terms that they get thrown off their forum.

then in that case - for the latest rant - if it has caused upset or anyone to be thrown off the forum, I apologise, yet i will always rant as you call it about schools admissions, as this does affect the good people of FH and im sure many would agree with me on that one

Hmmm
Many threads on the sydenham forum contain lots of right wing twaddle, so I'm not sure we should take any lectures from their members.

I'm not sure anyone should be hounded off the forum for their views when the other posters here might not have representative views themselves, especially say, compared with those of the older generation.

I think there should be a place for ex-pat and brian - a place without padded walls that is - and if other posters cannot control their posts when replying, then I have no sympathy.

The budget holds/held no surprises for anyone probably.Its a real bone of contention whether economically its better to cut deeper now or cut back steadily over a period of time. However from my own perspective and that of my family we have calculated that we will be around 15% worse off due to the tax credits going, child benefit held constant, and VAT going up so we are not going to be putting any more money than we have to back into the economy. So if everyone holds back on spending, guess what will happen?

Its still possible that some of the phased changes may not happen if the economy takes a turn for the better however it is the inherent policy of the Tories to reduce investment and the role of the public sector so we are probably fairly doomed for a while. However as most of us who do any sort of real work know, the public and private sectors operate fairly synergistically and need each other to function. If Cameron thinks the private sector are going to wading in with lots of investment then he has another think coming as they are as bruised as everyone else by recent events and historically private sector success has relied on public subsidy of some kind ie investment loans, regional development agencies etc, tax breaks, and who pays for that? We do

In addition I can't see the Big Society working except in well off parts of rural Oxfordshire where people do not need to work and hence can spend their days doing good works. Most of us are too busy just keeping going let alone trying to run the world. And as someone who has school governor experience and who works in educational investment I really despair of the future if it contains a large break away state school sector outside of local government control. This will only lead to marginalised pupils and sink schools for the majority and an eerie over reliance on private firms for the rest.

I can envisage a lot of resistance against the proposed Child Benefit and Tax Credit changes. The cuts have to start somewhere however but my preference is to immediately cancel the morally and logically wrong wars in the middle east and bring the troops home. That would save a few bob immediately. And why do we need a Deputy Prime Minister exactly? That role was only ever created for John Prescott to keep the unions happy. Its not a real job, Nick.....

Nice post Roz

Now I will also be out of pocket like many due to the Child Tax Credits going, Family Allowance freeze and vat rises and will more than likely spend less

Yes I agree that cuts were needed and would not heave been that annoyed about the CTC if we were told, yet they lied as Cameron said that noone with a combined total income of between 25k - 40k would be affected, yet he knew all along this was not the case, totally agree about the absurd war on terror in Iraq & Afghan

I thought they were only stopping child tax credits if you were earning 60k and over? There was a lot of good news for small businesses, although it's not applicable in the south east which is a real pain.

Child tax credits will stop for people with a combined income of over 40k in April 2011

It will stop[/align] for people with a combined income of over 25k in April 2012

Under 25k - then it be cut by various amounts

People reading this forum might actually believe that your 'tongue in cheek' rants represent the views of people in Forest Hill rather than the London Borough of Wandsworth

And what is wrong with the views of the London Borough of Wandsworth and why should they be associated with the any 'tongue in cheek' rants?

Now I did not want to stir so much trouble - yet my name is EX FH PAT, so think most would get the drift that Im not in FH anymore and on many of my posts, Ive stated that I now reside in Tooting

Anyway I will not say anymore on this subject