No, I refuse to get irate about the spending cuts announced this week.
We have known spending cuts — big spending cuts — have been on the way for a year or two now.
Now we know exactly where they fall. That is all.
Anyone claiming life would be so much better if Labour was still in and the Lib Dems / Tories / both were still out is talking bollocks.
Labour was promising smaller overall cuts, delayed a little longer, but still cuts that were worse than anything the Tories
managed in the 80s. They would have been different cuts — smaller cuts to benefits, perhaps, but they would have slashed the
NHS as well, which the current government is not doing. The cuts would still have been on the same sort of scale.
And of course they would have refrained from cutting ID cards and (at least) delaying renewing Trident.
Am I happy with the overall pattern of cuts? No, no I’m not: for example, I don’t think exempting the NHS and overseas aid from
cuts is sensible; the cuts elsewhere could be less severe if they were not. Do I support the government? In as much as I think it’s the best government that could be formed from the
current parliament, yes I do. Beyond that? No, I want a Lib Dem government, or at least a Lib Dem—led coalition.
And am I going to apologise for voting Lib Dem, or for campaigning for the Lib Dems, or being a Lib Dem?
No, I’m not.
Edit: Did I say we know exactly where the cuts are falling? Yes, and I suppose we do. But we don't really understand yet. It will take a while to sink in.