Government departments make cuts proposals
The Treasury says that all government departments, except those whose budgets are ring-fenced (Health and DFID) have now come up with their proposals for 25 per cent spending cuts, as the Treasury has requested.
But not all departments met the deadline of Friday 16 July, a Treasury spokeswoman told us. But she refused to say who which departments were late, coming up with that old "running commentary excuse".
And which departments bothered to come up with requested plans for possible 40 per cent cuts? Ken Clarke's Ministry of Justice seems to have been one of them, as I reported on 16 July - despite him having once been Chancellor.
Again the Treasury spokeswoman refused to say which ministries decided the 40 per cent question wasn't worth answering.
I'm Michael Crick, and I'm Newsnight's political editor. My guiding rule is that in any story there's usually something the politicians would prefer the world not to know. My job is to find that out. Follow me on
Comment number 1.
At 27th Jul 2010, Briantist wrote:My RSS feed has this story as
Government departments make cuts proposals
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Comment number 2.
At 27th Jul 2010, Isatou wrote:Well, the mandarins and civil servants will do all they can to obstruct the cuts. Will the new government have the guts to cut them down to size ?
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Comment number 3.
At 27th Jul 2010, stevie wrote:oh, great, abolish the film industry..great, an institution that actually MAKES money i.e. for every pound we put in....you make five...yes five...nice one Dave
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