The Best and The Brightest?

Are politicians really as stupid as they sometimes seem?

Take three silly examples from the last ten days:

Cameron, in his weekly attempt to put the world to rights from the podium, announces that there will be no free lunches for MP's. Saving the tax payer millions! At a time when UK national debt is heading to 1 Trillion (and beyond) this must be a piece of political satire, surely?

In the midst of attempts to grab the headlines Clegg had the opportunity to be seen to be rising above it. To show himself as a level headed leader prepared to put well thought policy before publicity. But no, the cameras were there and the chance to get the main headline spot on the News at 10 was too much: "Savage Cuts" was the soundbite, and the response was as expected.

Ed Balls then decides to play his trump card: 2 Billion of savings from the top of the teaching profession. It appears that the teaching unions were not consulted on this knee jerk policy announcement - the Tories didn't need to criticise, the NUS would do it for them.

Where have the great statesmen and women gone? Why have policy announcements from Sunday morning TV sofas replaced announcements from the dispatch box? Why do the best and the brightest of all parties get sidelined for cheap hacks that are prepared to tow an ill-thought party line?

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.