initial reaction to the #csr

[miss_s_b]

So, as matgb and I both predicted, it was bad, but not as bad as it was being spun. Could it be that all the doom-mongering was to make us terrified so we'd be grateful for small crumbs of comfort? You might think that, I couldn't possibly comment. Nor, given his ongoing performance at the moment, could Alan Johnson. I've never seen a man so far out of his depth, even with the crib notes from Balls.

Glad to see science funding frozen, rather than cut (anyone else think that Vince ran this up the flagpole precisely because he knew what the reaction would be and then he could bat for science with the backing of the twitterati? Or am I just too cynical?). Other stuff needs examining in detail before I comment, I think.

If you'd like to examine the statement in detail yourself, it's here.

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Comments

[andrewhickey.info]

The main thing for me is the cut to housing benefit for under-35s. That's just fucking evil. Worried about cut to DECC funding, the rest seems less bad than I worried.

[bagfish]

Really concerned that Defra's been cut 32%. it's a tiny, tiny department doing important work for reducing and mitigating the effects of climate change and maintaining the life support that keeps the environment healthy for humans. When you think it's budget is 20 times less than the banks were bailed out with, it makes me quite certain that people in government have got their priorities utterly wrong.

[andrewducker]

Yeah - I assumed that Vince put it out there on purpose. You don't make a speech about how you'll try and make sure the cuts are dealt with as well as they can be unless you want people to complain that there will be cuts.

[burkesworks]

From an "I'm all right Jack" point of view, the blows from Gideon's Axe could have been a hell of a lot worse (and indeed they may bite once our next round of Euro-funding runs out in 2013 - thanks Eric). OTOH, there are some real nasties in here, notably the cap on H. Ben for under-35s and the restriction on contributory-based ESA/WRAG claims after a year.

Then again, while you can blame Osborne for many things, the whole clusterfuck that is ESA came to be on "Workhouse" Purnell's watch, not the Tories. Don't forget that Alistair Darling's original back-of-a-fag-packet figures for the cuts were a billion pounds more than Osborne's, and while none of it was costed you can bet where it would have gone. Also, take note of David Blanchflower's comments today; there'll be a lot of poking with a fine toothed comb before any of this makes it to the statute books.

Still don't really have the heart for much political blogging at the moment; but as things stand now that the CSR has sunk in, and doubtless to the chagrin of my many readers who still believe that Ed Miliband's Labour Party is any relation to the pre-Blair entity of that name, I've thought long and hard about my future in the Party and I have decided to stay, and a lot of that is down to Jeanette and David. Still doesn't mean I'm going to be any sort of cheerleader for Clegg, much less Alexander, and if there's going to be any split in the party you can rest assured which side I'll fall on.

And FWIW, I voted for Tim Farron this morning.