CUTTING LABOUR'S DEFICIT

After nearly 13 years of Labour government, there is one point on which the main political parties agree. That is the need for cuts in public expenditure to curb our rising national debt.
The debate in the last few days has seemed to centre on ‘who will cut what’ and 'who will cut most’.
Let us be very clear about the contradictions in Labour policy.
Treasury Ministers say there will be "extremely painful" cuts under Labour, but Gordon Brown says spending will carry on rising.
Treasury figures already imply 17% cuts in non-protected departments under Labour, but Gordon Brown keeps adding new protected areas without saying where the money is coming from.
The National Audit Office say that Labour’s defence plans are already "unaffordable", and Bob Ainsworth has announced defence cuts, but today Gordon Brown is promising more spending on defence.
Ed Balls says education spending will carry on rising, but Alistair Darling claims he has only protected "front line" schools spending.
Peter Mandelson says you can't make cuts this year but is cutting more than £300 million from his own Department this year.

Conservative policy is clear. Start cutting the deficit in 2010 and aim to have a plan to get rid of most of the structural deficit by 2014.
Philip Hammond (Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury) has said that the Conservatives plan to “eliminate the great bulk of the structural deficit by 2014”. Mr Hammond said that it was “important to send signals to the markets [that we] have a credible plan, over the life time of a parliament, to get the deficit down.”

The state in which our country finds itself was not started in America (as Labour like to suggest) – it was started in 11 Downing Street and moved on to 10 Downing Street.

Only the Conservative Party has a credible policy. Britain and Brighton need the election soon, to provide the stability that we need to move forward.