Camping out for foreign affairs cuts
Post categories: 5 live Drives Down The Deficit, Drive
|19:20 UK time, Tuesday, 27 July 2010
Welcome to Camp cuts. As holidaymakers set up the awnings on the side of their caravans, three Harrier Jump Jets perform an exercise less than discreetly a few thousand feet up.The noise is unmissable - but could soon be gone for good round here.
RAF Cottesmore up the road is due to close in a few years. People here know the reality of defence cuts.
But how much could be saved from the foreign affairs budget - on defence, membership of the European Union, international development and the Foreign Office? It was here that we set up our stall for day 2 of our week driving down the deficit for 5 live Drive.
Our East Midlands chancellors for the day were 21 year old Oliver, Grahame, a lecturer who spent 10 years in the Navy, and Charlotte, a farmer's wife who also works in marketing and corporate entertainment.
This coalition of bean counters - casting popularity to the wind - didn't need the Treasury to do their business. A picnic table at the Rutland Camping and Caravan Park was fine, if a little windy.
They concluded civil servants in the Ministry of Defence should be ruthlessly cut back. But, they decided, the UK's forces should battle on in Afghanistan and the country should stay in the European Union.
The international aid budget - ringfenced by the government - also took a hit here, down to £2bn from £7bn. "We shouldn't give money to countries that can afford a space programme" was the consensus.
The Foreign Office would take a cut though, our chancellors decided. Too much money, they said, is spent on posh chocolates and fancy apartments in places like Paris and Rome, when civil servants could fly out there when needed - or meet in Brussels.
So how much would these fantasy plans save? Well no accountant would sign off our very rough calculations - but, perhaps, around £9.5bn.
On Monday, our panel of chancellors in Berkshire saved just over £2bn. So we are up to around £11.5bn, and none of our panellists had to worry about re-election. The deficit is £156bn.
Next stop is Haltwhistle in Northumberland to discuss what the state could sell to save money. Would selling the Crown Jewels really save us very much?
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