Too little, too late

The much vaunted comprehensive spending review was about as comprehensive as our education system - i.e. not very. Of course, the media, the unions and the vested interest groups are all throwing up their arms in exasperation and dismay claiming that this will cause untold misery to untold millions, but the reality of the cuts is that they amount to nothing more than a damp squib.

They are no where near enough and, as such, represent a missed opportunity.

That might seem a bit harsh - given that the unions are planning mass protest and promising huge disruption, but the unions were going to do that regardless of what the cuts really were or who they affected. The unions are rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of flexing their newly acquired muscle and taking on the Tories again. They are more confident and more powerful than they have been for twenty years and they are looking forward to a good old fashioned ding dong with the government.

So given that this was always going to happen, the government should have taken the opportunity to really wield the axe - but they didn't. And they didn't because, contrary to popular misconception, the Tories are not conservative anymore. David Cameron doesn't believe in a smaller state - he believes, like all progressives, that the state is the nation and the nation is the state.

The up shot of all this is that we will have massive disruption and civil unrest and the measures taken by the government to address the economic problems we face will have about as much effect as a sticking plaster on a gaping wound.