Letters to the Editor – 05/02 – Civil service, More cuts, Best of Twitter
Civil service
[Re: Would political appointments to the civil service increase government effectiveness? Yesterday]
Public bodies are largely run by people who have an instinctive opposition to enterprise, standards and choice. No wonder senior Tories are now realising that they need to make drastic changes. It would be nice to return to a world of independently-minded quango leaders, but that is not an option. The Tories know full well that the moment they leave office, Labour will flood the quangos with its supporters. Tories need to implement their own policies quickly – so why should they opt to leave in place the roadblocks to reform?
Alex Singleton
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More cuts
[Re: The City needs to start planning for a leftist Labour government, yesterday]
Winning the next election will be a poisoned chalice. Spending needs to be reduced further. But many of the easy cuts have been taken already, and the next round will likely hurt even more. Moreover, there is little room to raise taxes, which currently sit near an all-time high. My gut feeling is that pensioners will be next in the firing line, along with highly-paid civil servants and teachers. These are the people who often vainly hope that Labour can hold back the tide.
Name withheld
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BEST OF TWITTER
Pimco had $6.9bn (£4.2bn) outflows across US mutual funds in January, eighth straight month of outflows.
@zerohedge
There are 44 elections in emerging markets this year (the most since 2007). Buckle up…
@ianbremmer
Nearly all companies interviewed in Greece, Italy and Spain complained that corruption was widespread.
@nr_zero
The EU Commission spent £65,000 buying comment in UK newspapers to tell us why we need the EU.
@DouglasCarswell