Raising taxes and cutting spending: the recommendations on how to get the government’s finances back under control show a lack of vision, writes Robin Pascoe.

So, after some six months on the job, the 20 civil service working parties have come up with their recommendations for getting government spending back on track.
These long awaited proposals should have been the backbone of ministerial efforts to get spending under control. But the collapse of the government in March put paid to all that. .
But, rather than waste the efforts already made, the outgoing cabinet urged the working parties to come up with their ideas anyway – who knows, they might still come in handy for political party manifestos.
After all, raising taxes and cutting spending is a very logical way of getting the national budget under control.
No taboos
When the project was launched we were told no stone would be left unturned and there would be no taboos. So we might have expected something a little more dramatic and innovative than we actually got.
Each suggestion has been given a price tag – cutting the minimum wage will save x million euros, increasing the health insurance own risk payment will bring in y million euros.
But none of it can be described as exactly visionary.
The list is the same sort of thing we get every third Tuesday in September when the government publishes its annual spending programme. A tinker here, a cut here. Add them up and voila, an extra €35bn for the treasury.

How much?
And at the same time, no-one seems to agree how much money the government actually needs to find. The 20 committees were told to find €35bn. But last week the government’s own macro economic forecasting agency said cuts of €29bn by 2015 would be enough.
And today, yet another government club said €18bn will do as well. And two leading economists said in the Volkskrant the government really needs €65bn to get its finances in order.
So there’s no innovation and no clue about how much money we actually need. What we do know is the man and woman in the street will end up footing the bill.
We’ve a general election in June and it will up to the next government to make the decisions. Let us hope it shows a little more vision. Perhaps a number of government working parties and advisory groups could be the first for the chop.