This government has prepared the way extremely carefully for this event. We all must agree that the deficit is unsustainable and has to be cut.

Too many here are scaremongering. The cuts will be fair - hitting everyone from the rich to the poor. We can't carry a sizable number of people who chose not to work on our backs any longer. Neither can we allow a lavish lifestyle to teenage mothers and those who claim they are too ill to do any kind of work. Labour have already decided not to fight every cut, accepting perhaps that having spent months electing a new leader, it is simply too late to try to kick against the idea of tackling the deficit that they created.