Stick.
Wrong end of.

Neither Cameron or Osborne requires rightwing backbench pressure to lower taxes and to slash public expenditure.
It's what they intended right from the outset.
It's why they chopped infrastructure spending early on and cut the top rate of tax first.

It's their raison d'etre, Rodney.

The thick posh b@stard Osbourne probably thought they were referring to batteries when the mentioned triple A

They've taken alot of stick for NOT cutting properly.

What on earth are you rambling about now?

What are "proper" cuts?

Gidiot, writing in the Sun – so not a newspaper for grown-ups – claiming it was evidence that his polices were right all along and need to be continued.

Quite, quite unbelievable. And worse, people will continue to believe him.

However this government did have the top rate of tax at 50% for the first two years and 45% for the most recent year, compared to the Labour government that had it at 40% throughout apart from the last 6 weeks. So they are not really doing their rich chums as much of a favour as Blair did.

As the Bank of England has been running a policy of devaluing sterling in an orderly fashion for some time the loss of the AAA rating was inevitable. Indeed, it is laughable that it lasted so long. Official policy has dictated we would lose it. Osborne's political error has been stressing its retention as a key plank of his policy. In reality though that was always likely to have been bluster to try to put of the day. Logically, our rating has a long way to drop yet.

Perfect storm brewing for April - the new bedroom tax for those on social housing relying on benefits to pay their rent will be kicking in at just about the same time as the current incumbents turn down another opportunity to think about a mansion tax.

And still Labour will sit on their hands.

There is no easy solution - unless you have one? It is difficult to cut taxes at present (although some people suggest slashing corporation tax to nearer 10% attract inward investment) and there is little prospect of economic growth taking off unless we have become the epicentre of a new industrial revolution. That leaves cutting the welfare state. Despite all the protestations that has not happened to a great degree yet.

This country was effectively bust until North Sea oil saved us. It's bust again but there seems little prospect of another North Sea oil to save us. Our long-term decline has been continuing for decades and has only been masked by two things - North Sea oil and more latterly credit expansion. Both have had their day. Sadly, this means the future looks dire, especially with our demographic profile. We need some very serious innovation to save things.

That's because they haven't got an alternative, because they are, in essence, basically the same as the Tories.....Its the same as when Labour were in power and the Tories just promised to match Labour's spending, because they had no alternative either.

They are all incompetent and come election time their uselessness will be reflected by the electorate turning their backs on voting.