David Cameron on cutting the deficit

[ElenorRigby]

Todays full speech here

Truly scary to hear a politician telling it how it is...

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

It's a bit late for being scared, isn't it? Surely none of this is a surprise to anyone at this point.

did wonder why he wasn't making this speech in House of Commons where his numbers could be scrutinised. Rather it's a softening up excercise for the public so there will be less of a hoo-haa when the figures are announced.

No surprise to me I've been going on about this for months

Gives us something to talk about until the budget comes out anyway.

I think that is illegal, Riven.

They banned first class travel on trains, which seems rather counter-productive to me, ditto expecting the third (?) in command of the country to travel economy. I doubt there's many £100k+/year staff who fly long-haul economy.

Why is overseas aid being ringfenced? Surely if things are that bad then rather than cutting the throats of poor people here then they should look to holding back from being so generous elsewhere.

Don't know much about overseas aid.....

I think the point is that the poorest person here lives a life of luxury by the standards of most of the world.

Overseas aid is a drop in the ocean and, since we are still an extremely wealthy country and overseas poverty is at the root of a lot of things like terrorism, it's something we can still afford.

By far the biggest areas of public spending are things like the NHS, defence and welfare. It's good to hear the reassurances that those in genuine need won't be left behind. However, what's missing at the moment from all the dire warnings are departmental details and those won't come out until the emergency budget in a few weeks' time. I would expect it'll start with a freeze on spending and recruitment and work out from there.

overseas poverty is not the root of terrorism in Britain.