Results of British spending review reveal some alarming tendencies

The results of George Osborne's spending review should come as no surprise to the majority of Britain's populace, with further austerity being the order of the day, with public sector jobs once again set to disappear, with particularly local government and the NHS set to bear the brunt of this burden. However, the real controversy is in some of the more surprising decisions that have been made in terms of transport, energy and defence policies.

Perhaps the most controversial of these is the decision to offer tax incentives for shale gas drilling - this is a concern not just for Britain, but the world at large. Shale gas drilling is not the way forward to sustain our energy needs, and could be regarded as the easy option by keeping the focus on oil as a viable future energy source. However, given that large corporations and businesses are in the firing line for tax avoidance, the decision to incentivise shale gas drilling by offering tax relief is controversial indeed. If the concept of drilling fragile parts of the earth for oil were not controversial enough, offering tax relief on it given some of the more questionable taxes in place in the UK (i.e. the bedroom and pasty taxes, to name a few) is insulting indeed.

This comes on top of the guarantee for further nuclear power plants - the current UK Government's self-described 'Greenest Government ever' becomes less plausible by the second. Admittedly, we have seen some investment in wind farms and others, but nowhere near the level of investment further nuclear plants would require. Perhaps more positively, the UK defence budget has been maintained, perhaps reflecting the current tensions in the international system, with an increase in funding for intelligence agencies also announced - although given the recent revelations regarding Prism in the US, it is possible that questions could be posed as to how this funding will be best used.

The UK's international development budget has also been protected, although given the current scale of development crises around the world, it could also be asked as to whether this will go any further than in the previous round of decisions made. Finally, more money is to be made available for new embassies overseas - although depending which of Britain's interests are to be represented overseas, this may not be so effective. Time will tell, but the latest decisions on spending in the UK do not make for positive reading.