And Scotland is stirring...
BBCWelfare cuts 'will damage Scots economy'
Changes to the welfare system could take £500m from the Scottish economy, resulting in more than 10,000 job losses, a report has suggested.
The cuts will reduce spending power among poorer groups, according to the Scottish Local Government Forum Against Poverty and Rights Advice Scotland.
The study said people on low incomes tended to spend their money locally and so small businesses would suffer.
There would also be greater demands on hard-pressed council services, it said.
The UK government has warned that current levels of spending on welfare cannot continue, and it has already announced £11bn in cuts to benefits.
Willie Hogg, chair of the Scottish Local Government Forum Against Poverty, said the cuts equated to reducing the spending power of every woman, man and child in Scotland by about £100.
He added: "But the reality is that the poorest, most vulnerable and those with disabilities will be burdened with shouldering the weight of these cuts because it is their benefits that are most affected."
He said councils would be attempting to cut budgets while facing greater demands on their services, particularly in the areas of social work, housing and welfare advice.
And councils' income from charges, housing benefit administration, council tax and business rates would also decline as fewer residents would be able to pay, he claimed.
Chancellor George Osborne has said welfare cuts were needed to "take the pressure" off other government departments, which faced cuts of between 25% and 40%.
Mr Osborne came under fire last week after he told the BBC that welfare spending was "completely out of control" and suggested people who were making a "lifestyle choice" to live on benefits rather than trying to find work could find their support cut.
LinkSTUC in plea to Lib Dems on welfare
Union chiefs have turned on Liberal Democrat politicians after the party's UK leader mounted a staunch defence of radical benefit cuts.
The Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) is sending letters to all Scottish Lib Dem MPs, MSPs and councillors urging them not to back the coalition Government over "the most draconian attack on welfare in a generation".
It comes as party activists prepare to gather for their UK conference in Liverpool, which starts on Saturday.
The STUC is also putting pressure on the Lib Dems after party leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg argued welfare payments should not "compensate the poor for their predicament" but should instead act as "an engine of mobility".
Billions of pounds are to be slashed from the welfare budget by Chancellor George Osborne when he unveils the results of his drastic public spending review next month.
Mr Clegg told The Times on Thursday: "Welfare needs to become an engine of mobility, changing people's lives for the better, rather than a giant cheque written by the State to compensate the poor for their predicament.
"Instead of turning the system from a 'safety net' into a 'trampoline', as Labour promised, people have been stuck on benefits, year in, year out."
But in his letter to Lib Dems, STUC general secretary Grahame Smith argued: "It remains the fact that benefit payments in the UK are low compared to most other countries, income inequality is stubbornly high and work is not the automatic route out of poverty that it should be with the incidence of working family child poverty on the increase."
Mr Smith said his organisation was "horrified to contemplate the cuts" that could be made to the welfare system.
He urged party members: "The choice for Scottish Liberal Democrats is clear, you can choose to buttress the most draconian attack on welfare in a generation or join with wider civic Scotland in calling for a better way."
Huh, if Britain is deep in the shit and has systemic economic problems comparable to Japan and America, I guess I have little else to do but sit tight and wait for the whole rotting edifice of UK PLC to crumble away (or get demolished) in the next few decades or so.
