What Spending Cuts?

On 29th April 1945, Adolph Hitler committed suicide in the bunker in Berlin. The time had come that even he realised that his grand scheme was dead. Two days ago, Gordon Brown committed political suicide after his meeting with Gillian Duffy in Rochdale. Mrs Duffy will pass into the history books as the woman who precipitated Gordon Brown's political demise. The pensioner with a history of working with handicapped children and a life-long supporter of the Labour Party had just popped out for a loaf of bread when she saw a crowd and in the middle of it all the Prime Minister. She talked to the Labour candidate for Rochdale and he must have thought that Mrs Duffy was an ideal real person to talk to the Great Leader. What followed, it is now generally agreed was a defining moment in this election. So many people thought that Mrs Duffy had done absolutely nothing wrong and that she asked some quite reasonable questions - and yet Gordon Brown, with his microphone still switched on, questioned why he had been forced to meet that woman before calling her a bigot. Is this what the cossetted London political establishment thinks of anyone who questions their actions? Everyone has commented on the shock and dismay shown on the face of Mrs Duffy when Gordon Brown insulted her in the way that he did. After that the damage could not be undone. The return to Rochdale and the 40 minutes spent with Mrs Duffy just made the man look ridiculous. It has been pointed out that GB spent 15 minutes signing the Lisbon Treaty, 20 minutes talking with President Obama about world affairs and 40 minutes talking to Mrs Duffy about this monstrous gaff. It is now revealed that Mrs Duffy will not vote at all - even after the insult, she cannot bring herself to vote for the Tories.

In tonight's TV debate Gordon Brown performed quite well but he still comes in third in the polls. Cameron was much better and I think he may now just have done enough to have most seats after the election next week. Athough I still find it impossible to see him as a potential PM. In the debate and later on Question Time Joe Public tried to get something said about the cuts that any government will make in order to balance the books - and they got nowhere. There was much swapping of numbers like £6 billion for this and £10 billion of efficiency savings for that and more waffle. The magnitude of the problem is on a whole different scale. The government owes about £850 billion; in the next 12 months it will spend [unless cuts are made] about £600 billion and to do this it will borrow another £150 billion. Our debt will rise to £1 trillion; interest on the debt will be £30 billion; and these figures do not take into account the public sector pensions deficit [£1 trillion] and PFI debts [£200 billion]. The cuts in spending and/or [probably not even "or"] tax increases will have to be on a massive scale. And if the Labour government thinks that it can ring-fence the NHS and schools and the police, then spending cuts in other departments will be cuts almost to extinction. One day we will know but so many people don't want to know. They will follow the Greek model and carry on to oblivion - and there is much evidence that the main parties will go down the same road.

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