Roger Gambba-Jones

Andrew Lansley very nearly did the impossible the other day (for a politician it would seem) he made a straightforward statement without any spin on it.  Telling everybody that future government spending would need to be cut by 10% across the board should have been blindingly obvious given the miserable state of the finances. 

Yet Labour, with their standard issue head in the sand approach, immediately started whinnying on about how this was the Tory's revealing their true intentions and that voting for Labour next time was the only way to ensure the status quo.

The only failing in Andy's statement was the combination of the populist and the politically correct.  Populist because of his claim that the sacred cow of the NHS would not be affected - even though most people agree that there are many millions of pounds to be saved by culling many of the faceless managers, box tickers and bean counters it employs. 

His claim that overseas aid was safe was both surprising and extremely difficult to understand.  One can only assume that this is the big picture stuff we little people don't understand and something the adults in Westminster do for our own good - or is it that taking money away from foreigners is just not PC these days? 

I understand that hundreds of millions of our £s go to India every year.  Yet this is a country that has developed its own nuclear weapons, fights regular wars with its neighbour and has a space programme.  It can't be right that they are effectively using our money to do these things can it? 

Add to that the number of countries that receive out money and are run by corrupt leaders, who feather their own nests at the expense of their taxpayers - whoops I slipped back to Westminster without realising it! - and you have to question the soundness of continuing to send money abroad when, at the present time, the needs of our own people seem to be so much greater.