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U.K. announces huge budget cuts

LONDON: The U.K. government was on Wednesday accused of “gambling” with people's lives and the national economy after it announced the biggest post-War spending cuts that would see nearly half-a-million jobs disappear and take away welfare benefits worth £7 billion over the next four years.

The original time-line for increase in pension age from 65 to 66 is to be brought forward by two years and a host of universal benefits such as child credits to be restricted in what critics described as an “assault” on the “squeezed middle class”.

Defence cuts

A whopping eight-per-cent cut in defence spending had armed forces up in arms and sparked a debate on its impact on Britain's status as a global power. Experts warned that in future Britain would not be able to go to war alone and have to rely heavily on joint operations with its European allies and America.

There was anger in the BBC after it was forced to accept a six-year freeze in licence fee besides being burdened with the cost of running the World Service currently funded by the Foreign Office.

Only budgets for health and international development are to be protected under the government's four-year Comprehensive Spending Review announced by Tory Chancellor George Osborne.

Mr. Osborne defended the overall £80 billion-plus cuts in government spending arguing that tough action was needed to tide over the debt crisis that he blamed on the previous Labour government. He claimed new jobs would be created in the private sector to make up for job losses in public services but this was contested by experts who pointed out that the scale of public spending cuts would also adversely affect private businesses and their capacity to generate jobs.

Amid jeers from opposition benches, Mr. Osborne told MPs: “Today is the day when Britain steps back from the brink, when we confront the bills from a decade of debt…It is a hard road, but it leads to a better future.”

Labour, which favours a slower pace of cuts, said his plans risked plunging the economy into “double dip” recession.

Its leader Ed Miliband accused Mr. Osborne of taking an “irresponsible gamble with our economy and, indeed, many of the frontline services people rely on”.

Tories' coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, who had attacked their policies when in opposition faced accusations of “selling out” to them for the sake of power.

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