The budget holds/held no surprises for anyone probably.Its a real bone of contention whether economically its better to cut deeper now or cut back steadily over a period of time. However from my own perspective and that of my family we have calculated that we will be around 15% worse off due to the tax credits going, child benefit held constant, and VAT going up so we are not going to be putting any more money than we have to back into the economy. So if everyone holds back on spending, guess what will happen?

Its still possible that some of the phased changes may not happen if the economy takes a turn for the better however it is the inherent policy of the Tories to reduce investment and the role of the public sector so we are probably fairly doomed for a while. However as most of us who do any sort of real work know, the public and private sectors operate fairly synergistically and need each other to function. If Cameron thinks the private sector are going to wading in with lots of investment then he has another think coming as they are as bruised as everyone else by recent events and historically private sector success has relied on public subsidy of some kind ie investment loans, regional development agencies etc, tax breaks, and who pays for that? We do

In addition I can't see the Big Society working except in well off parts of rural Oxfordshire where people do not need to work and hence can spend their days doing good works. Most of us are too busy just keeping going let alone trying to run the world. And as someone who has school governor experience and who works in educational investment I really despair of the future if it contains a large break away state school sector outside of local government control. This will only lead to marginalised pupils and sink schools for the majority and an eerie over reliance on private firms for the rest.

I can envisage a lot of resistance against the proposed Child Benefit and Tax Credit changes. The cuts have to start somewhere however but my preference is to immediately cancel the morally and logically wrong wars in the middle east and bring the troops home. That would save a few bob immediately. And why do we need a Deputy Prime Minister exactly? That role was only ever created for John Prescott to keep the unions happy. Its not a real job, Nick.....