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United Kingdom Budget Visualization

uk.wikibudgets.org

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Re: United Kingdom Budget Visualization

#61

Post by reallydontask »

ackshually wrote: post #22
frobozz wrote: post #5

There, at the top of "Other Expenditures", Slightly smaller than running the Office of the Secretary of State for Wales. That is what's governing the entire political agenda right now. That's the amount of money stuck on the side of a bus with the suggestion that we could spend it on the NHS instead

I didn't vote leave because of the money. I voted leave because I was dubious about the control the elected and unelected officials and secretaries in brussels had over British politics, and the rats nest of well paid jobs with crazy benefits waiting for british politicians in brussels when they retire from british politics, so long as they play nice with the EU and go along with the will of the government in Brussel…

> ... because it chips away at the very concept of majority rule and proportional representation.

I'm not entirely sure how to read this comment. This country has one of the least representative electoral systems in the whole of the EU and this is for the commons, nevermind the wholly unelected lords.

Re: United Kingdom Budget Visualization

#63

Post by pbhjpbhj »

NeedMoreTea wrote: post #17
Chris2048 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"the Office of the Secretary of State for Wales" takes over 12 billion to run?

Seems low. That office was formerly known as the Welsh Office. I'm not sure how it separates from or overlaps with the Welsh Assembly, who don't have tax raising powers like Scotland. Presumably spends on a number of Welsh schemes, infrastructure, projects, roads etc.

WAG have had tax raising powers since April 2018, fwiw.

Re: United Kingdom Budget Visualization

#64

Post by lucb1e »

the-dude wrote: post #55
lucb1e wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some things I found interesting: - We spend a billion on water management ("deltafonds"). I had no idea it took so much upkeep. I also like subsection "experiments" of 21 million euros. - 21 million still goes to "healthcare for resistance fighters and victims of world war 2", plus 246 million for pensions of the same group ( https://rijksfinancien.nl/visuele-begroting/2018/jv/u/volksg... ). We're still paying for th…

Aren't we spending ~300 billion ( in Dutch, 'miljard' ) in total?

Yes, some 375 billion in total. I don't see the exact number anywhere but the chart near the top of the page shows 2018 as somewhere between "350mld" and "400mld" (miljard; billion).

The tables are a little confusing at first, dividing the amounts by 1000 and still having 8 figures, but I got used to it after a bit.

Re: United Kingdom Budget Visualization

#65

Post by richmarr »

Reason077 wrote: post #21

It's staggering to me that £46 billion goes to HM Revenue and Customs. So it costs £46 billion to administer £506 billion in tax revenue! That's almost 1/3 the budget of the entire NHS! That doesn't seem like a good ROI at all. A product of an over-complicated tax system?

I don't know what their actual budget looks like, but I do know that they're huge and have been making significant changes around digital transformation. That would result in high spending followed by later savings.

Re: United Kingdom Budget Visualization

#66

Post by ibeckermayer »

reallydontask wrote: post #61
ackshually wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't vote leave because of the money. I voted leave because I was dubious about the control the elected and unelected officials and secretaries in brussels had over British politics, and the rats nest of well paid jobs with crazy benefits waiting for british politicians in brussels when they retire from british politics, so long as they play nice with the EU and go along with the will of the government in Brussel…

> ... because it chips away at the very concept of majority rule and proportional representation. I'm not entirely sure how to read this comment. This country has one of the least representative electoral systems in the whole of the EU and this is for the commons, nevermind the wholly unelected lords.

Do you recognize that this comment doesn’t expose anything contradictory in the OP? The British system can be far from ideal, and yet it still wouldn’t be better to overlay an even less accountable, more centralized government on top of it.

Re: United Kingdom Budget Visualization

#67

Post by riazrizvi »

ackshually wrote: post #22
frobozz wrote: post #5

There, at the top of "Other Expenditures", Slightly smaller than running the Office of the Secretary of State for Wales. That is what's governing the entire political agenda right now. That's the amount of money stuck on the side of a bus with the suggestion that we could spend it on the NHS instead

I didn't vote leave because of the money. I voted leave because I was dubious about the control the elected and unelected officials and secretaries in brussels had over British politics, and the rats nest of well paid jobs with crazy benefits waiting for british politicians in brussels when they retire from british politics, so long as they play nice with the EU and go along with the will of the government in Brussel…

Voted Leave in support of the agenda of Brexit politicians due to doubts about European politicians’ pay, when pro-Brexit MEPs make 4x the compensation compared to average MEPs [1]. I wonder who is paying them this extra money? This argument confirms my general impression of the reasoning powers of Brexiteers.

[1] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-party-...

Re: United Kingdom Budget Visualization

#68

Post by pjc50 »

quietbritishjim wrote: post #44
ackshually wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't vote leave because of the money. I voted leave because I was dubious about the control the elected and unelected officials and secretaries in brussels had over British politics, and the rats nest of well paid jobs with crazy benefits waiting for british politicians in brussels when they retire from british politics, so long as they play nice with the EU and go along with the will of the government in Brussel…

I know Hacker News policy is to not talk about votes, but can we please be more vote friendly to this user, especially as they're new? I find it's very rare to see a Brexiteer in my usual bubble so I'm grateful to hear the opposing view. (At time of making this comment, the parent is greyed out from down votes.)

At this point, anyone who's still a Brexiteer has engaged in some extremely selective listening. There's no point in having a discussion with someone who won't seriously address the entirely likely problems of Brexit, both as a concept and how it is currently being done.

(I mean, Brexiting to the status of Norway might at least have been feasible, but that's now a long way in the rear view mirror.)

Re: United Kingdom Budget Visualization

#69

Post by reallydontask »

monadgonad wrote: post #58
ben_w wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good for you. Unfortunately, I have encountered quite a lot of people who do care about the money. Today, just half an hour ago, I saw someone tweeting that the EU was “bleeding the UK dry” by “taking” “£1 billion per month” [1] so I’m fairly sure that quite a lot of people did actually vote on the basis of the money. [1] 1e9, or roughly 0.01% of the EU-(annual)-GDP per month

Comparing £1b to the EU GDP per month and not the UK one is a bit disingenuous.

true but even against the UK GDP is not that much really, is it?

UK GDP is $2.6 trillion, or about $200Bn per month, so a 1Bn a month is not a massive amount.

The amount is in and of itself irrelevant. What really matters is the ratio of that amount to the benefit the UK gets from free trade with the EU.

Re: United Kingdom Budget Visualization

#70

Post by Quarrelsome »

ackshually wrote: post #22
frobozz wrote: post #5

There, at the top of "Other Expenditures", Slightly smaller than running the Office of the Secretary of State for Wales. That is what's governing the entire political agenda right now. That's the amount of money stuck on the side of a bus with the suggestion that we could spend it on the NHS instead

I didn't vote leave because of the money. I voted leave because I was dubious about the control the elected and unelected officials and secretaries in brussels had over British politics, and the rats nest of well paid jobs with crazy benefits waiting for british politicians in brussels when they retire from british politics, so long as they play nice with the EU and go along with the will of the government in Brussel…

I voted Remain partly because I am dubious about the control of elected officials in the UK. I feel like some of these concerns have been vindicated as part of this process.

Regardless of one's original outlook, I'm sure we can all agree that this is just one political party slowly shitting the bed over the course of three years. I'm pretty disgusted that they spent three years failing to get a deal past themselves and now they've shat so hard they've tossed their majority.

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