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Public Sector Spending - Activity

This Activity is designed to be used in the classroom or as a homework task to support the teaching and learning of Public Sector Spending.

Public Sector Spending - Activity

A voter casts their vote.

At the time of writing, the country is preparing for a General Election. The three major political parties are vying for public attention, making a number of promises about what they would do if they were elected into government.

Amidst the range of claims being put forward, some analysis has to take place to evaluate these claims. Each party might suggest that the 'sums do not add up' but seem to be keen to stress that their own figures clearly do add up because they have always been 'carefully costed'.

This Activity will enable you to carry out some of your own evaluations on the claims for public spending.

N.B. Biz/ed recognises that there are many other political parties representing legitimate concerns and interests. The links to the three major parties' manifestos is not intended to ignore those legitimate parties or the views they represent.

Image: Voting time - the perfect opportunity to persuade the voter on what public spending will be like under different governments. But how reliable are the claims and have they got the priorities right? Copyright: Kristen Price, stock.xchng

Task

  1. Look at the three manifestos and outline the main public spending pledges being made by each party.
  2. Comment on the priorities being implied by the three main parties in terms of the relative importance of their spending plans.
  3. Look at the information contained on the Institute for Fiscal Studies Web site
    (http://www.ifs.org.uk/election/index05.php). Evaluate the viability of the plans for the three parties on public spending.

Other Useful Web sites:

Related lesson plan: 
The Taylor Rule
Related mind map: 
The Taylor Rule - Mind Map
Submitted by aashwin on Mon, 24/04/2006 - 12:00