What would you cut?

It was in the 1996 Budget that the Conservatives made a mistake they have yet to recover from, they began to say “investment” rather than “spending”. With that rhetorical shift  they accepted Brown’s logic that the more money spent by the state, the better. Now that Brown’s spendthrift, debt-concealing policies have led Britain into recession it is the perfect time for the Tories to think again – and start saying what they would cut.

I lay out a few proposals in my cover piece for this week’s magazine, arguing that freezing the health and education budgets would free up £6bn and £4bn a year respectively. As Tessa Jowell rightly says, the London Olympics is now recognised as an extravagance so what about keeping its budget to £8bn, twice the original £4bn, rather than the £16bn which looks likely? In a recession, most British people could live without identity cards which could save up to £12bn depending on which forecasts you look at.