What's the story on spending cuts?

Lib Dems recognise many people are very unhappy about the government spending cuts - but we hope people recognise that they are not being made as a vote-winning exercise, they are being made because the country simply can't afford to go on borrowing billions upon billions of pounds every day to pay the bills.

Labour left the country spending far more money that it earns, running up a national debt of over £1 trillion. It is vital that this situation is addressed - if not, our children and grandchildren will be bequeathed an enormous debt millstone around their necks, and the country risks following Greece and Ireland in effectively going bust. Labour admitted that if they had won the election, they would have introduced "cuts worse than Thatcher" - their approach differs from the Coalition's only in they would make 7/8ths of the cuts, but extend the pain over a longer period. The Coalition's approach will balance the books much quicker. We know it's not popular and not comfortable for many people, but the alternative would be far worse.