Cut to the chase Brown...

It is pleasing to know that Brown has finally realised that you cannot escape the recession without making cuts in some areas. However, it will be interesting to see what is on his list for cutting, and whether their status will be one of postponing or abandoning it all together. I am particularly interested after reading this from The Telegraph:

The first signs of the new approach may emerge at next month's TUC conference in Liverpool, when Mr Brown and the Chancellor will call for pay restraint among top earners in the public sector, calling on them to match the belt-tightening in much of the private sector

Belt tightening in the private? So those big bonuses bankers have at mainly state owned banks, which would have crashed without tax support are examples of belt tightening? No! This is yet again, if it is true, is another attack on the public sector, much like the last few weeks with the Tories slaughtering of the NHS, even though the public have failed to see through it as they actually now trust the Tories more than the other parties with the NHS. It makes you wonder what would actually break through the Tories' facade. I wrote a blog recently about how our own position on the NHS has not been communicated as clearly as it should be either, and it is worrying, as if we want to be a serious election threat we need to engage in the key issues.

Trident is apparently on the list of Brown's cuts, but we all know it will only be a delay not eradication. I have argued repeatedly that we as a party need to be radically different to the other parties and say that we will scrap the scheme and NOT replace it by a cheaper alternative, as Clegg states. How is that going to help gain nuclear disarmament, we need to take these bold decisions to capture voters imagination, to show that we stick to principles, not what we think will settle well in the mainstream political world.

So, whilst it is encouraging that the Prime Minister has finally realised that we need cuts, the things they want to cut will be interesting to study. The cuts obviously wont include flagship but wasteful and costly policies such as the ID scheme and big brother databases. This is our chance to clearly outline our cuts, but hopefully as our party we will rethink our decision to drop key policies such as tuition fees to 'ambitions', and reassess our position on areas such as Trident.