CUTS FOR ALL - the popular choice

The focus has changed from who can cut the least, to who can cut most effectively. And, don't the people love it.

Today Brown, Darling and the rest of Labours increasingly lowly high command are in meetings to find areas of the public sector that can be cut. Presumably (hopefully) they will be looking for areas where the cuts will have little affect and might go "unnoticed" (if this is possible). Realistically however any cuts to public services are going to be felt somewhere by someone to some extent. The politicians know that they just have to bite the bullet - there is no option.

What seems odd to me is the pleasure that the press and the majority of the public are taking in the prospect of these cuts. People and journalists, who haven't fully grasped the basics of Macro-economics, have failed to understand or forgotten that the UK government has been living in debt for as long as we can remember. A small amount of debt can be beneficial to a country. A country is not like an individual where a large amount of savings is required for prosperity.

Few would argue against the statement that the public sector investment over the last 10 years has been largely positive for this country. Classrooms are no longer closed due to leaking ceilings and waiting lists for critical treatments are now almost non-existent. And, it is of no surprise that the conservatives are in raptures over having legitimate grounds to reduce public spending. But the public, who has benefited so much from spending, should not be so eager to see cuts. So eager that most politicians now think that this will be the battle lines of the next election.

Cuts need to happen. Debt must be reduced towards 40% GDP. Cuts are going to happen. Most likely they will happen before a full recovery has occurred, even though basic economic thought suggests this is counter productive and will end up costing the economy more in the long run. Cuts are going to hurt people. Most likely it will be the people at the bottom, in most need, that will suffer the most. However, cuts should not be celebrated. Rather they should be accepted, minimised where ever possible and stopped as soon as financial possible.

The Conservatives have fooled the press and the press have talked the country into a "cut for your life" mentality. Hopefully this mentality will not be in the top level meetings today.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly and The Sad End of Mr Brown

So it is over. At the end of a 14 day period, where we have seen the best and worst of Mr Brown, the house has finally fallen. We will now have a year more of polling and campaigning, but the McBride scandal will come to be seen as the moment that this Prime Minister was finished.

At the start of the month it all looked so good; Gordon was doing what he does best. His political brilliance was on show for all to see as he mixed it on the world stage. The polls responded as world leader after world leader heaped worthy praise upon their host. People were reminded that behind the Tory spin there was a leader of the highest calibre who, if he was not the Prime Minister of Britain, would most likely have been the leader of the IMF, the World Bank or some other such institution.

Top line politics doesn't however allow ones strengths to show for too long without ones weaknesses casting a shadow. So as the McBride scandal broke the attack dog, brief/counter brief machine that Brown set up to oust Blair, which he didn't dismantle when he came to power, was coming back to haunt him. And, it is important to realise here that this is Brown's machine. He can try as might to disown this incident, but this is a beast that he has built. Brown believes that if you don't agree with him you are his enemy and as an enemy you must be destroyed. This in the past has been his way of doing just that.

Even by modern political standards this was gutter-ball stuff. Inexcusable and tasteless. Any half decent PR adviser would have insisted on Brown spending 5 humiliating minutes in front of the Cameras: "I have fired McBride (not let him resign), I knew nothing of these e-mails, but the buck stops with me" and most importantly "I am very sorry". Not doing this will be his downfall. By not killing the story at its source Brown has let it run and run. The conservatives are now going to spend the next month on Question Time questioning not just the moral integrity of Brown, but Labour as a whole.

Labour MPs with a majority of less that 6000 most probably have only 12 more months on the green benches. 8000 is a dead heat. Parliamentary Candidate's who are fighting marginals should save the money and effort for a brighter day. But high calibre Candidates, with a chance of winning, should be given the donations and publicity they require to do just that. For the election is gone and Labour will need the best and the brightest to rebuild in opposition.

And, as for Brown the manner in which he leaves Number 10 will determine his legacy. 'When the fall's all that's left, it matters a great deal'.