[monk_e_boy]

Austerity in the UK is extreme and it doesn't seem to have helped much. It seems to be a convenient way for the Tories to auction off more of the public services because 'they are too expensive'...

[hathathat]

Austerity? The government’s spending more this year than it has ever done in the whole of British history![1]

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Budget_of_the_United_Kingdom

[tonyedgecombe]

Austerity is what the Greeks have had to put up with, we have had a mild belt tightening. We have unemployment lows whilst southern European countries have 40% youth unemployment.

[hardlianotion]

Auction off? I am unaware of this. Perhaps that is not what you meant. Can you clarify or show where this happened?

[netsharc]

Somehow they privatize things saying the market can offer a better deal than a government funded institute, when this happens the government-employed people are fired and then only some of them get hired by the private company. Savings at a cost of worse service, because fuck the taxpayers.

https://www.opendemocracy.net/shinealight/kiri-kankhwende/uk...

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/jul/29/serco-bigge...

[hansjorg]

One example is the Royal Mail which was sold on the cheap a few years ago.

It was purchased mostly by a group of secret investors which promptly turned around and made bank on the 1bn pound price difference.

[Boothroid]

Putting aside the fact that extreme austerity is a gross misrepresentation of the facts, what's the alternative? The UK is already living beyond its means, increasing the public debt every day. Do you suggest we increase the deficit still further? At some point investors would pull the plug.