The first sentence doesn't seem too controversial - A rather grand title I know, but I'm guessing we're going to have a fair bit to talk about in the next few days . . .

The second on edoes seem to inducate an unexamined assumption that the assumption that reducing a deficit is all about cutting expenditure.

Enormous extra costs were indeed loaded on to the public purse by the last government's response to the bank meltdown, but cutting public spending to make up for that is only part of the solution to the resulting deficit.

Putting up tax is the other part, with income tax being a far fairer way of doing than VAT, and it's at a very low level at present compared to previous times. 25p for the standard rate would make much more sense, if we're really "all in this together".