The debate over cuts to the county council budget continue with the ruling Tory group saying these are the inevitable result of the “current” economic situation and various left wing groups arguing that the response must be strike action. The Tories have of course run the county council for years and knew full well the economic situation. No-one except possible the far left of the Labour party can deny cuts are necessary what is debatable is the depth and speed of the cuts which appear to be decided on ideological grounds rather than sound economic sense.

 Hampshire Liberal Democrats are in favour of fair and approriate cuts but not unecessary, ideologically driven, cuts to front line services. This week they issued the following statement –

“Hampshire Conservatives are imposing sweeping cuts across services used by the most vulnerable members of our community – older people, younger people, those with disabilities and those on lower incomes.  It’s not necessary.  The scale of the cuts is near double that needed to cope with the loss of income from government grant.  Hampshire’s Conservatives are driven by an ideology that fails to value people, services, or the needs of our county.”

“Taken together with cuts announced over the last two months, Hampshire will see more congestion on our roads, more vulnerable elderly priced out of care, more road accidents, more people with no access to buses, reduced access to the library service, more anti-social behaviour and fewer families getting support for young children.” 

“This is not a liberal vision of Hampshire.  The Liberal Democrat opposition will continue to support fair savings and efficiencies, but oppose cuts in frontline services deeper than needed to reduce overall funding.”