With three major "government consultations" currently in progress - covering the Scope and Structure of Government, Taxation Strategy 2012-2016, and Social Care Policy - the public have an opportunity to comment on some very significant matters of political and personal interest.
More significantly, our government - facing a dramatic decline in its revenues as a result of the VAT raid, and which has so far hidden its impact upon the public purse by a dependence on robbing the reserves - now faces the difficulties of "coming clean" as to the full impact.
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Chief Minister Alan Bell 'got carried away' (his own words) in Tywnald's Budget debate.
We get the opportunity once every five years, to vote ourselves a representative into government. Your vote this time, it is being argued, is perhaps the most important in many years as the new government faces challenging circumstances – a revenue budget under severe strain, a rapidly ageing population with ever increasing expectations of health and social security benefits, a private sector facing the high probability of years of modest growth at best, and the likelihood of big tax increases to fund our public sector spending plans......
