CRI听力:UK Unveils Biggest Spending Cuts in Decades

Britain has now unveiled the details of a plan to cut more than 80 billion pounds in government spending over the next four years. The coalition government says the plan will pull the country back from the brink of bankruptcy. However, the opposition parties argue the severe cuts will threaten Britain's fragile recovery. CRI's London correspondent Tu Yun has more.



The detailed plan revealed by Chancellor George Osborne includes an average, per department budget cut of some 19 percent by 2015, as well as a further 7 billion pound reduction to welfare.

This comes on top of the 11 billion cut outlined in the emergency budget in June, and a 14 percent cut in royal household spending by 2013.
 
"Today is the day when Britain steps back from the brink, when we confront the bills from a decade of debt, a day of re-building when we set out a four-year plan to put out public services and welfare state on a sustainable footing for the long term."

The coalition government also intends to raise the state pension age to 66 by 2020, rather than 2026, which was the target date set by the previous Labor government. It hopes the acceleration will save the state 5 billion pounds a year by the end of the next parliamentary session.

But it's not just cuts the coalition is looking at. The new review also lists some budget increases. They include spending on the National Health Service, renewable energy, and international aid. But the aid projects in China and Russia will be cut. The spending cuts are expected lead to nearly 500 thousand job losses in the public sector in four years.

"It's a hard road, but it leads to a better future."

But Shadow Chancellor of the opposition Labor Party, Alan Johnson, doesn't agree.

"Today is the day that abstract figures and spreadsheets turn into people's futures, people's jobs, people's pensions, people's services, their prospects for the future."

Johnson calls the plan "reckless gamble with people's livelihoods", which he contends could wreck the economic recovery.

Meantime, a series of protests have been held by workers, union activists and campaign groups across the nation in protest against the potential job cuts.

Tu Yun, CRI news, London