Does anyone actually back the government these days?

The simple answer to that question is that Cameron made it an election pledge that nothing would happen to the winter fuel allowance etc during this parliament. The grey vote is pretty powerful so anyone going back on that would suffer.... but I think, whoever is in charge in the next parliament, will find a way to claw some of the benefits back, possibly through the tax system.

That sort of economic nimby'ism drives me mad

yy, me too. If we must have cuts then we must ensure some fairness.....lets go after the old next, they appear to be getting away lightly. Bus passes, winter heating, free prescriptions. Of course you could give them plenty to live on and you would find that it wouldn't help the money-go-round at all.

Why are cuts to these non-means tested benefits off the agenda?

The loss of 'support' is natural and to be honest I'm surprised the loss hasn't been higher.

Whilst everyone knew going into the election that whichever party won, there would be cuts, it's also human nature that we all want the cuts to be on someone else. And that we didn't really realise what the impact would be.

So anyway, the cuts are here. And even now you hear people argue that they understand cuts have to be made....but just not to 's budget because that's special.

That sort of economic nimby'ism drives me mad.

I can't see why anyone who voted for them wouldn't like their policies. They have not done anything unexpected surely? They have just followed Tory policy in everything they have done.

I don't back them, but I didn't vote for them. I'm sure anyone who voted Tory still backs them - why wouldn't they.? They are getting everything they wanted.

There's plenty that don't like the government but never have. However, I think there is still a large section of the electorate who support the tough line being taken. The welfare bill became astronomically high under the last government, many believed that we were no longer supporting the right people (one reason Labour were booted) and that funds badly needed to be re-prioritised. The economy is pretty flat but we look around at other developed nations and can see economies in far worse shape than our own. A similar picture with redundancies... I think there's a feeling that we are over the worst, supported by gently climbing employment stats. I think 'peado's (sic) in the ranks' is a ridiculous statement frankly.