Whollier

Hello there. I'm very worried about your arm then. The cuts are coming whether you like it or not. The Coalition's got no choice in the matter. And what's more, they were given a clear mandate to do it at the last GE. The sooner they start the better. Apart from a few unreconstructed old lefties like Tony Benn et al, everyone else can see that it's necessary and inevitable.

Firstly, as a newcomer here, may I express my pleasure at alighting upon a forum in which matters of great pitch and moment are discussed in a calm, civilized and reasonable manner and where the unpleasant extremes of personal abuse and vitriol are scrupulously avoided at all times. I look forward to exchanging opinions and views with many of you and to contributing myself to the maintenance of this forum's polite and dignified ethos. If there are any members here who used to enjoy the cut-and-thrust of the old BBC 5 Live Message Board, feel free to make yourself known to me. I used to be active there myself under a different screen name. Of course the cuts are necessary. Labour spent the money we didn't have and now it wants to spend even more. They expect future generations to pay for their own irresponsibility and incompetence. Well that isn't fair. I can understand why that course of action might appeal to childless people, apres moi le deluge and all the rest of it. It's selfish and appears seductively easy. But to anyone with children, do you really want to steal their future prosperity from them? No, we need to bite the bullet now and get on with it. No gain without pain. And the unions can like it or lump it.