In the last fortnight it's become obvious that the Lib-Con coalition, led by the Tories, are using the deficit as an excuse to radically re-balance the economy. For this they have no mandate, and in doing so they are flying in the face of the settled public will for an interventionist state and well-funded public services.
The election result was a public expression of dissatisfaction with a stale 13-year-old Labour government. It was not in any sense a mandate for the Tories - who failed to secure a majority - to dismantle the welfare state.
To successfully blame this economic crisis on public service spending has been an act of breathtaking political sleight-of-hand on the part of Cameron's PR team - led by the controversial Andy Coulson, who makes Alistair Campbell look like some kind of moral sage.
Furthermore, we are not "in this together" if the deficit is being tackled almost entirely through public service cuts, which disproportionately target the poor and regions outside of the South East.
To summarise: the economic situation was caused by irresponsibility in the city, not profligacy in public spending; this government has no mandate to re-balance the economy; and David Cameron looks like the comedy theatre mask.
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