Wow, GodBless... that is some list... almost as exhausting to read it as it was to suffer on the wrong end of it.
I fear that Rosie has not grasped the awesome sums that this and previous governments have been in receipt of.
Let me put this simply. If government (notice that I mention no party) were to focus its spending only on matters which should concern it, we would enjoy a world class infrastructure, a top notch health system, a reliable and sufficient welfare system, a well equipped army navy and air force... and an effective police force.
But government lost its focus a long time ago... and they are now obsessed with "social engineering" in one form or another. Consider one trivial detail... highways. The money spent on schemes designed to tax and frustrate the motorist... if spent on maintaining and improving the roads... would facilitate traffic flow, reduce emissions, improve everyone's quality of life and add years to the life expectancies of vehicles.
Do not misunderstand me... I am not against speed cameras in villages, towns and cities... and I am not advocating that people be encouraged to drive recklessly... quite the reverse.
The point is this. Once you decide that citizens cannot be trusted... and that you are going to do everything to ensure that they behave "correctly"... you will spend and spend and spend... and get no closer to your objective. A "socialist" society which requires that all the chickens point in the same direction and cluck with the same voice is an expensive society... and not a society that any self-respecting chicken would want to live in.
You can trace the self-indulgence, larceny and corruption of "our" politicians back to the introduction of VAT. They found themselves in receipt of so much dosh, they knew not how to spend it. Visit any hospital... and sneak into the administration's accomodation. Once you get over the depth the of the carpet, the "no expense spared" furniture and the Dynsaty style atmosphere, try to remember what the rest of the hospital felt like...
No wonder these bottom feeding skum are so out of touch...
