"The cuts are surely not a surprise to anyone are they? Lewisham have been telling us about them all year and ran a long consultation exercise where they asked us to go onto a modeller and choose were we would make just to balance the books. I assume everyone did that as it was a direct consultation."

You would have thought this was the case, wouldn't you?!!
Obviously not.

It would be better if Lewisham just came out with brutal, factual honesty about the cuts rather than the (frankly) pathetic wringing of hands, talk of difficult decisions and trying to look like they are 'consulting' and 'listening'.
They have a huge mandate and they are now carrying out the Tory cuts under that mandate.
More pain to come.