The British Empire was run on 5% income tax which provided all the administration, defence and justice to run 1/4 of the planet. Suggests to me that most of what is spent now is just massive wastage.
Getting the public sector spongers off our taxes will be harder than getting junkies off heroin.

Colin, Glasow, UK

If the public sector workers posting to this topic feel that they are being hard done by, why don't they find jobs outside of the civil service, where they would (as they say) make more money, etc?
If their jobs are so hard, etc, why do they stay in them ??? Private sector work isn't easy.

Mal, Edmonton, Canada

Perhaps if David in France was still living in the UK he would see what an excellent service HMRC are providing despite budget cuts. The people who work for this organisation - myself included - are hard working and committed to providing a good customer service and ensure people pay what they owe.

Deborah, preston, england

The public sector stops the anarchy, crime and further poverty that will reign as the economy goes down the pan. I object to bailing out bankers and funding wars, ID cards and the Olympics, that is where the cuts should come. It seems we will have mllions of 'scroungers' when jobs don't exist anyway

Steve, Penzance,

I am delighted that 12,000 jobs are to be cut in HMRC. Why not increase to 20,000 or 50,000. Unlike the old Inland Revenue, who were efficient at what they did, these people are useless anyway. So why not get rid of them and stop them bullying people who are trying to earn an honest crust.

david, Ligneyrac, France

Having worked in various public sector bodies (e.g. MOD) for the last 8 years or so, the amount of slack is unbelievable. The quoted redundancy figures are a drop in the ocean and I suspect will have no impact whatsoever on front line services.

malcolm, ely,

If these comments are representative why is it that the people who pay the taxes get the problem but those that spend them (Gordon and his cronies) don't. The irony will be if the credit crunch caused by Gordon leads finally to smaller government under a labour administration.

Michael, Bromyard, England

To those on this HYS who equate everything Public Sector = Bad; Private Sector = good: Reflect for a moment…This move will result in 10,000 on the dole, not paying tax, claiming benefits. Well skilled and qualified people flooding the job market, effect on local economies.. Nuff said!

Bill, Bournemouth, UK

How about binning off the Olympics - its a shame but it would best part of 10bn, I know that there will be a short term boost to the economy in all the building but very few of the Olymipcs pay back anything near what they cost anymore so why not save a few jobs long term instead.

Ian, London,

Make Scotland pay its own way and England keep more of its own tax revenue.

Anglo, Sussex, England

Rarely have I been so angry . "Pointless jobs" (Colin, Glasgow) ? So, what are the jobs "with a point", then? Bank directors (private sector); Stockbrokers (private sector): Premiership footballers (private sector)? Dismantle the public service at your peril - one step away from mayhem.

John , Bridport,

Why cuts in this sector? Surely with crime to fight we should be building more prisons and keeping courts open for 24 hours. Crime affects everyone and dealing with it should be a priority. If you want to make cuts....get rid of pointless postings in Town Halls ie Financial Managers.

Janice, London,

Savings by "reducing overheads removing duplication and increasing efficiencies in order to prioritise frontline services”.

Has the MoJ been keeping quiet about such efficiency gains over the years or is this the usual spin precusor to cuts in public services.

patrick newman, stevenage, uk

Keith, 'tax revenue' lost from public sector workers made redundant doesn't work. If you earn 25k a year, you will pay approx 5k in tax (roughly?). But your wages are funded by taxes in the first place, so you pay taxes back from wages already funded by taxes. Jobless benefits less than wage=better

ted, london, uk

Keith in Swansea - No we won't lose the tax revenue. Think who pays you and to who you pay tax - the government. No new cash inflows there whatsoever. Public sector workers paying tax is just an exercise in government pencil pushing to keep yet more civil servants & IT developers in pointless jobs

Colin, Glasgow, UK

Please don't tar all civil servants with the same brush. I have been employed by the court service for 35 years and have never claimed any benefit whatsoever. I consider that I earn my salary which is not all it's cracked up to be - less than a refuse operative [bin man].

Name withheld, Lincoln , England

How depressingly typical of Labour to undermine the one part of the system that can challenge their abuse of executive power. I wonder if we'll get so many judges and coroners speaking out if they now know their jobs are on the line?

Not to mention the general denial of access to justice.

Rose, Stirling, UK

Government waste of epic proportion will be the next skeleton out of the closet. This country under labour has seen an epic rise in government employment as a way to counter unemployment. An efficiency drive could save all of us money except those that get the chop.

Duncan, Wokingham,

V. dissapointed to read some post here; This is going to affect front line staff in prisons / courts / probation who already work under severe pressure with staffing cuts, changes to policy, and dangerous clients daily! if only life in public sector was as rosey as you ignorant posters think!

Kevin, Manchester, UK

Jury service opened my eyes to the utter waste of time and money in the justice system. More important it seems for justice to be seen to be done than actually rendered. I would like to think that these cuts will encourage a saner approach but have no faith that vested interests will be disturbed.

ron, leek, uk

So that leaves only 590.000 of the 600.000 Labour added to the public payroll during their reign of disaster.

Chris, London,

" We need to lose about 500,000 public service jobs."

And then you'll have to fund 500,000 more benefit claims. And lose the tax revenue from those people - who pay the same rate of tax as you 'in the real world' - but often on a whole lot less pay!

Just think your idiotic suggestion through!

Keith, Swansea,

Where's the mention of reigning in social spending on benefits and child allowance? Why do people that have jobs have to lose them in order to pay for the workshy who haven't and never will have? Why are we rewarding teenage mothers at the expense of letting criminals go unpunished?

Chris, Derby,

Aren't they going to have to recruit mre civil servants to run the banks they've just aquired? Just a thought.

sheila, LEICESTER, England

actually in probation I already earn about half that of my equivalent in the private sector and most prison officers are on a lower wage - it is not all fat cats at the coal face - just in whitehall.

ps out of over 500 staff we only have 1 part-time diversity manager!

Julia, UK,

This makes sense...At a time of national crises, when we are already facing record levels of offending and crime is a major cause of public concern and just when there is a real risk of an increase in crime caused by a government failure to manage the economy effectively, lets reduce facility. Crazy

Mark, Essex,

isn't it easier to simply scrapped the ID card initiative. The project itself would save the government £12 billion. How reliable and competent are agencies staff to handle confidential matters. More importantly, can they even be trusted to not loose any important data?

dominik, london,

Can we PLEASE start by pruning Parliament and reduce the number of MPs from 650 down to a more manageable 400 or 450 at most. That way politicians can follow the example of business and a reduction in overheads can pay for any future increase in pay and pensions that MPs award themselves.

Kenneth Armitage, Suffolk, England

One cost cutting measure I heard was of a council turning off street lights from midnight to 5am. What would be far more effective would be to slash all gold plated civil service index-linked pensions, MPS included. Then cull the public payroll with an axe. Crisis times require crisis measures.

JohnW, Manchester, UK

About time , many civil servants would not last five minutes in the real world , they just milk the weakness of management for sick leave , poor work and expect a 2/3rds pension at the end . The country cant afford it - simple as that.

simon, london,

Justice is being unfairly neglected whilst other parts of the public sector remain unscathed, dependent upon the immediacy of the service in the public's mind. The Justice Department had already been neglected before these cuts came in whilst some parts of the public sector have large surpluses.

Jonathan Turner, Birmingham, England

thets ok,as long as footsie is up!!!! ten 20 percent.what drives it up is a mystery !!!!

eebi britt, rome, italy

Why the 'Ministry of Justice'? Billions are wasted in quangos, consultants and regional assemblies. For pities sake the one thing this Country needs is some kind of law and order.

Roger, Surrey.,

Brilliant. Finally the worm has turned and these socialists HAVE to tighten their belts.

We all know these so-called initiatives are a load of spherical objects designed to keep thugs in work anyway.

Paul Hunt, London,

Excellent. We have no room in prisons, offenders are being let out early and now we are cutting back on the courts etc..
Why not just shut down the whole system and save all the headaches.

Hamad Lone, London, England

You need to add at least one, preferably two more zeroes to the number of jobsworths being sacked to make an appreciable difference and improve our lives when they are no longer able to hound and fine us.

Simon, Exeter, England

How about ditching the National Identity Register and all the other totalitarian surveillance schemes so beloved of the New Labour Stasi?

Paul, Coventry,

Will from Grimsby: Public sector workers do live and work very much in the real world often putting their own lives at risk protecting the likes of you from some very dangerous individuals! A very foolish & precarious move to run the Criminal Justice System as a business and not as a public service!

Dave, Gloucester, UK

Let's just elect a government which actually WANTS to get a grip. This lot is diverted by everyone's 'human rights' except those of the diminishing band of mugs (like me) who foot the bill.

j griffiths, manchester, england

is it just me, or are entire news programs devoted to financial meltdown now being used to "bury bad news" like this?

What did happen to Jo Moore? Didn't head off to Iceland to run a Bank did she?

Tom Jenkins, Swindon,

"Knife crime?"

I'll tell you the solution- allow HONEST, LAW-ABIDING citizens to carry conceled handguns! An honest man with a firearm is a benefit to society.

Remember- When but seconds stand between you and a "knife crime," the cops are only minutes away! But they may find your killer.

Mike Best, Greensboro, NC, USA

Ruthlessly cull the consultants and quangos. Keep the wardens, increase sentences, reinstate capital punishment. I bet you'd save the money AND cut down crime.

Kennet, London,

due to all our financial circumstances the light at the end of the tunnel has been switched off until further notice

frank, stoke-on-trent,

We have to make sure that the jobs and services that are kept are the core, most important ones. It's a great opportunity to slim everything down.

Robert, Manchester, UK

It's a start - but what is needed is a radical shake-up of public services to weed out all the pointless administrators and jobsworths that bog the whole system down, and who contribute nothing. Many of these are employed by local councils. We need to lose about 500,000 public service jobs.

Martin, Newmarket, Suffolk

Is this in addition to the 70,000 that was announced before the 2005 election?

Tom Mein, Chania, Crete

Paul of Manchester, never unestimate the ability of the electorate to "get it wrong".
Having worked in and out of the public sector, I would hazard a bet that the 10% shake out will not include 10% of managers.

Barry Samways, London, UK

They need to get rid of the diversity officers, gay/lesbian outreach workers, 'elf n safety obsessives, change management consultants & all the other non-jobs which taxpayers are funding: & that includes 300 MPs -we don't need 650! The real public sector: police, nurses, teachers etc do proper jobs

Donna Walker, Effingham, England

Instead of sacking them, why not just cut their wages by 25% and their pensions by 50% to bring them into line with the private sector?

Keith, Norwich,

10,000 public service jobs to go? That just about covers the last few months recruitment from the Guardian jobs pages for outreach officers and diversity consultants.

Let's start at a level of 50% cuts in public service jobs and then work down from there.

JohnW, Manchester, UK

For those who have commented on this subject, you have said it all and with such clarity. I am lost for words!

Mike O Connor, Plymouth,

Dear Jill Sherman. Regrettably, you are not the only one who thinks a "spike" means a sharp increase. However, a spike is only a spike if the sharp increase is followed shortly afterwards by an equally sharp decrease. Hence the name. The term is used most accurately when this is shown on a graph.

Tom, Crieff,

Justice is rarely seen to be done, now it won't even be done at all.

Padraig, Perth, Australia

its about time the public sector lived in the real world

will, grimsby, uk

Amazing, everything is "CASH",upfront! Even to go "Bankrupt"!

paul, manchester, uk

The Public-Sector is composed of at least 40% Parasites. They are utterly worthless to society and are only employed to ensure the Labour Payroll Vote. I am not talking about doctors/nurses/police/firefighters, but the horrific number of "Administrators" that live off the backs of these Workers.

Steve, Chesterfield, UK

Presumably they will "Build More Prison's", just having a "Laugh"! Totally "Incompetent" Brown hasn't a Chance of being "Re-Elected", sadly the others do not give much choice!

paul, manchester, uk

The army can sort out the knife crime, it will make a nice easy change from Afghanistan, much easier than norther ireland.
The police haven't the bottle and haven't a clue when it comes to firearms action.

m wilson, bidache, France

Let me get this clear. A new department, set up just 18 months ago on Gordon Brown's watch, is to shed 10% of it's work force. !0% = approx 10,000 so this department has recruited 100,000 staff and, who knows, how many managers and bosses in just 18 months. What a farce and guess who's responsible?

A.M. Williams, Stafford,

Why bother having any loyalty at all under this Goverment, when an investment banker's Ferrari is safer than the dedication of those actually delivering things of value.

Gordon, you are a disgrace.

Tim, London,

No doubt the "£100 million drive to address teenage gang violence" will consist of flow-charts, power-point presentations, tours of hospitals, counselling and free Jamie Oliver kits !

Paul Neri, Canberra, Australia