Cameron defends his spending cuts – and suggests there won't be more before the election

Yosemite Sam

I heard the Today interview. To be honest, I thought it much fairer than many BBC interviews. Cameron was put under pressure and responded pretty well. The issue of unidentified savings, contrasted with specific identified cuts, is one of credibility for all the political parties. I would trust the Tories to make a better job of delivering saving than Labour. But I thought Cameron came out well. Where is G Brown?

Chris lancashire

Once again New Labour has proved it is better at politicking than running the country. They have successfully (and disgracefully) avoided a Spending Review; produced and got away with a Budget that completely ducked the single most important economic issue and yet managed to turn the spotlight on Conservative plans.
Its brilliantly good politicking. It's the worst possible way to govern the country.

Hugh

re Finkelstein's Article.
Surely they must have done the workings for a spending review, its just not been published. Cannot some honest civil servant send it to the editor of the FT anonymously? Fraser's figures from the Red Book showing 10% real cuts over the next few years are a good start.
The moves to prepare for a Hung Parliament suggest that the work has been done, that the Cabinet Secretary knows the score and that he is, rightly, terrified of the markets.

Richard

Call me Dave had a bad time on the today programme he was nailed to be honest. So there you have it...no more information until after the election (if they win)

So vote Tory and get the full picture after it's too late.

So much for the big policy bash yesterday it didn't even make Newsnight ....not one mention of it.

Cheshire Cut

The BBC seems increasingly to be the communications wing of the Labour Party. Perhaps, now that BBC execs are paying themselves salaries that “compete” with the private sector, those extremely well paid executives should face the same challenges. Reducing the License Fee by, say 30%, would mean they are facing the same challenges as other media that have seen a sharp reduction in advertising revenue.
The cut would benefit the economy by putting around a £billion back into people’s pockets to spend more usefully, increase freedom of choice and force the BBC to cut back on so much waste and face up to the reality of the economy that everyone else lives in.
Let’s hope the Conservatives will take their revenge on the BBC in such a constructive and popular way.

Nash

The BBC is not doing itself any favours with the way it tackles interviews with politicians...and is either incompotent or heavily biased in favour of the left.

Sarah Montague attacked David Cameron as though it was her money he was stealing whereas Justin Webb gave Liam Byrne an easy ride with the nonsense he was sprouting.

What was amazing was Liam Byrne's use of "false correlation" to justify his arguments. (The classic example of false correlation being: The wheat harvest is high when cases of sun burn are high; hence if we can increase cases of sun burn, we can have a better wheat harvest.)

Liam Byrne made the statement that last time Labour increased NI contributions, more jobs were created....so how can you say that increasing NI will hurt employment. Since employer's NI is ALWAYS a tax on jobs - regardless of what it is for, why didn't the BBC challenge Liam Byrne's statement!?

Hopefully Liam Byrne did not believe what he said but the BBC should be skilful enough to know a false premise and be able to challenge it. Either the BBC is biased or they need better training.

Alfred T Mahan

Compare and contrast the aggressive, hectoring tone Sarah Montague used against Cameron this morning with the easy ride given to Liam Byrne shortly afterwards.

Go figure, as they say.

Dorothy Wilson

The sting in the tail of the Montague interview came at the end. She was joined by Nick Robinson and asked him: "Don't they [the Conservatives] have a problem with that?" Robinson replied: "Yes, they do".

Good old BBC. Totally impartial aren't they?

Tiberius

It is indeed June 1940, and BBC News are the fifth columnists.

Hawkeye

@Alfred T Mahan - I do not have to "go figure". I have been of the opinion that the BBC hates the tories for about 20 years now.

To be honest, how could it be otherwise. A lot of public sector jobs are published in The Guardian which is rarely bought by those on the right.

If you advertise jobs only to "lefties" then do no be surprised when public service fills up with lefties. Stopping adverts for the public sector from appearing in The Guardian may be the best way to eventually get a more balanced public sector.

THX1138

Dave had awful time on Today this morning and the usual suspect blame the BBC -YAWN!

marc antony

Classes! Stop chattering! David, as I have always said, is playing the long game. It's his instinct. The fact is, he's so obviously right and greedy Mandelson so clearly wrong. Goodness, has Sky tv really turned your minds into such mush?
Do you really think Gordon's client state are actually going to leave their lush leather sofas to vote? Imagine if it's raining!
We have a big job ahead of ourselves, so get out there and make a start!

Simon Denis

The "tough time" as you call it was sheer left politicking on the part of Montague. She kept shifting the goal posts for one thing. The moment Cambo had established the connection between efficiencies and not putting up the National Insurance, the vile woman started yapping about the deficit in general. Can't see her doing that to Labour, can you? It is patently clear that she and most of the beeb are left leaning Labour voters who cannot help themselves from giving Tories an unfair, rough, interruption strewn and frankly insulting interview. Time for a license fee strike, no?

Richard

When Nick Robinson says the tories have a problem then rest assured they do.

Not exactly known for his pro Labour bias.

Funny how the promise not to explain or detail the spending cuts comes just as they are exposed for a 23 Billion black hole.

Something is not right with this tory campaign they are very dis-jointed and confused today.
Is anyone actually co-ordinating it?
Simple truth Cameron can't win a working majority from this position. Anything less will be a failure and the end of his leadership. Result will be 10 more years in the opposition benches.
Maybe they will ask Teresa May to lead next time .....should be fun as when she laughs she reminds me of Ted Heath in drag.

old fogey

How can anyone stand the sound of that Montague woman, its not so much her voice, which though not pleasant is at least slightly cut glass, but that bloody laugh--God its the most disgusting noise on Radio4, and its not sparingly used either. It alone should disqualify her for a broadcasting role. But on an equally trivial point, did Cameron really use the phrase 'gagging for' ? Ugh what loathsome, oikish connotations that phrase has, more usually associated with young men writing in the Sun about their sexual longings and exploits. Demotic Dave is rapidly losing my vote---and I live in his constituency.

Natasha

We already know what will happen to public services under Cameron, by looking at what is already happening to public services in London with Boris Johnson as mayor and 'overseeing' Transport for London. There has been a substantial deterioration in the performance of overground train services since Johnson took over and, as for the Underground, the less said the better. The Circle Line has been virtually abolished, and about half the network will be either completely or partially closed over the Easter weekend, a time when many tourists come to the capital and when Londoners should be able to enjoy their city without having to spend two hours planning their journeys to take account of line closures.

There was also some disruption under Ken Livingstone, but the planning was much better co-ordinated so as to avoid multiple line closures. There is a growing perception that Boris Johnson has either taken his eyes of the ball or simply doesn't care about the quality of public transport in London. The way things are going, Johnson will be a one term mayor and Livingstone will, despite his many faults, get his old job back if he decides to stand.

Unfortunately the shift in priorities in London is an omen of what we can expect from a national conservative government. The talk will be of localism, devolving power and enhancing choice; the reality will be an ideologically-driven vendetta against any service currently provided as a 'public good'.

Lizzy

I put in an official complaint to the BBC as it is now obvious to many people that they have an agenda and that is reflected throughout their entire news operation- and beyond. I know a scriptwriter who submist work to the Beeb and says it has to have a left wing agenda or they won't take it.
How has it come to this?
If Cameron does win this election with a clear mandate he needs to take an axe to the entire structure.
The lies that Brown alone has uttered and remain unchallenged is scandalous. It seems the media in Scotland are also clamping down on the Purcell story because, allegedly, it goes right to the heart of thye Labour party.
Journalism which should deal with the facts and hold those in power to account. Anything else is propaganda...and traitorous.

Vulture

Dave politiely but firmly insisted that Montague ( no towering intellect, she) let him finish his points when she tried to intrrupt.

Everyone knows that the BBC is irrevocably biassed to the Left. If the Tories don't want their Govt undermined from day 1 ( assuming they squeak in) they should purge it by selling off the profitable bits, and reducing the News to a hardcore, tightly controlled branch of the civil service under a ruthless Chairman and DG. All jobs should be advertised online and not in the Guardian.

Needless to add, the License fee should be scrapped straightaway as a Government cut.

Who gives a s**t if we lose a few costume dramas and un-funny Leftie 'comedy' shows?
That would be a price well worth paying.

Chuck Unsworth

It's about time that those Conservative interviewees who are constantly interrupted by BBC personnel (paid for by us!) attacked these 'interviewers' on air.

When the likes of Montague interrupt they should be asked whether they are actually interested in hearing the answer, or whether the interview should now be terminated.

I am disgusted by the constant hectoring and talking over which goes on. Are we paying our Licence Fees for this? Apart from anything else, is the audience actually allowed to hear these answers?

This is a serous problem. My complaint has gone in - and I think it's likely to be one of many - but does the BBC actually give a stuff about its Licence Payers?

AG

Ms Montague interrupted David Cameron 20 times .

Richard

It's a BBC plot!...they are out to get us! They just interupt us all the time! They wont listen! They never report the good things we say!

Oh my god it's boring...yawnnnnn!

The BBC gets just as many complaints about Tory bias......would suggest they are getting it about right.

Guardian jobs are online by the way.
The Times seems to be under attack for being free thinkers and not three line whipped by CCHQ.....Tories what censorship and an end to intellectual critisism.

John

I thought Cameron did very well.
Like most people (I suspect), I couldn't understand the economic details, but he was confident and articulate and as ever patient and polite with his irritating host.

Nicholas

Natasha you can bleat for New Labour all you like but I for one don't want a thinly disguised communist government. Beneath all the froth is a serious ideological conflict. New Labour have brought communist authoritarianism to Britain in the guise of something else (Vote Blair get hard left ideologue Brown). Cameron is having to fight on the centre ground and make socialist concessions to even get a look in because the media and the leftist power base control the public narrative. This is euphemistically described as "left/liberal bias" but it is actually something much more extreme and pernicious than that. These people have risen high under the cod-communists, created a new elite and enjoy their power and prestige too much to have it threatened. A vast cod-communist hegemony living it large at our expense - the new establishment - Europe being just a grander version. No surprise that Cameron is struggling against this tide.

Frankly, my dear, I'd rather have a somewhat incompetent, fuzzy old government cutting public services than the rigidly imposed cant and interference of the national socialist cod-communists infesting our politics. If you want the latter I suggest you piss off to Cuba or North Korea.

Noa Zrk

Cameron handled the Today interview well I thought. It seemed to me that the Conservatives may have developed a strategy to handle hostile interruptive interviewers, which he was implementing;
be polite, insist on making ones points, point out the interruptions.
The partiality of the BBC's interviewers is both obvious and a disgrace.
Post election, with a new government in place, it should radically reformed. I am in favour of Vulture's proposal of the scrapping the licence system. The immediate result would be that the BBC would have to meet the public needs to secure fuunding from it. The present public subsidy of socialist propaganda would be removed and a genuine breadth of political perspective could emerge.
"The blue shoots of recovery" as we retrieve our democracy.

Of course none of this is on the current political agenda. The BBC is unlikely to support any party seeking its extinction. We can only trust that the Conservatives will remember and act appropriately if they are elected.

General Zod

Byrne's assertion that employment increased afte NI increase went disgracefully unchallenged, of course. What he was preumably saying was that PUBLIC sector employment increased.

Simon Denis

I can well believe your story, Lizzy; everything the beeb now offers has some left wing "message" attached. Even the Antiques Roadshow is at it now, disfigured by the smarmy purring of Fiona Bruce, the Mockney Moralist. Let's keep a sharp ear out for the next time a Labour figure appears on "Today" - for which read "Yesterday", the inglorious communist yesterday - and see whether the motormouthed interruption technique is tried on them AND from which ideological direction.

AndyinBrum

Vulture ~ considering the shite that the pay tv chennels pump out, I will have to strongly disagree.

Although the Beeb can have some irritating bits, it has to try and cover the whole nation, not just your myopic little bit. I'm all for the News and politics being unbiased by law, but most of the time they're reasonably so.
Id say 90% of the population is to the left of you, (the majority of the remaining 10% appear to lurk on here) so of course it seems leftie.

Can you name the last good programme ITV produced? Or Sky?

Paddy

Nicholas: Couldn't have put it better.

Nicholas

"Id say 90% of the population is to the left of you, (the majority of the remaining 10% appear to lurk on here) so of course it seems leftie."

And the evidence for that is? The public narrative is so tightly controlled and represented that we have no way of knowing for sure. And it works on the basis of intimidating and shutting up dissent (the right wing are baby eaters, Thatcher, lefty comedians, racism, etc.) so English people may be scared to reveal their true views. The supposed left/liberal "consensus" may just be a metropolitan myth.

Paddy

Natasha: If labour get in again you will have more to worry about than the transport in London.

JONNY

The game's up gents.
The BBC's irredeemably biased against Cameron and all his works, as Vulture correctly states..
But what really worries me is Midge Richard.
Cn he be, the greenest of all political sages, the baby termite that sinks the battleship?

Richard

@JONNY,

Oh I hope so!
When you get fed up of following your leader up hill and down until you are only half way up ..you will be neither up nor down.
Cameron reminds me of the Toby jug with two faces....not sure if he wants the old party to follow him or to ditch them and entice a new set......his problem being neither set are large enough to get him the keys to the big house.

Norman Dee

Andyinbrum, almost every ITV news broadcast is better than the BBC's, and the recent series "Married Single Other" was superb, best thing on TV for a while

Simon Stephenson

Nicholas (12.45) - amen

Marcher Baron

"Yet the Opposition – who, by definition, aren't in power – seem to catching most of the white-hot flak." Are you surprised? The BBC has been in Labour's pocket for a decade or more and the media have not been lagging far behind. Some people, including those here below the line at Coffee House, have been pointing this out for some time. It's good that it is, at last, being acknowledged by those who have the clout to get it widely reported.

Simon Stephenson

I think, to be fair to the BBC, that post-Hutton there is an awareness that they are expected to be even-handed between the parties, and that this overrides the reason and intellectual veracity of what's being said. The Hutton affair cowed them into accepting that there is a higher goal in journalism than seeking the truth, and that is that a similar degree of reverence must be given to both sound reason and codswallop.

This favours the Labour party, of course, particularly in it's current incarnation of a bunch of commies passing themselves off as social democrats. Much of what they say cannot be anything other than piffle, because they're having to defend policy that is designed around a real motivation quite different from the one they give out for public consumption. It's understandable that much of what they do won't stand more than a cursory investigation of the interconnection between the policy and its justification.

By replacing editorial independence with the necessity to treat nonsense seriously, Labour has effectively disguised its true credentials by making the BBC toothless in its role as a challenger of the establishment.