derbyhilltop
To respond, I prefer that we feel the pain now (including me) rather than my childrens children feel the pain later.

We all know that the country is in the global recession - why pay off the debt now?
We had higher relative levels of debt in the past and we survived.

Your assumption is that we will be able to continue borrowing the money to 'live it large' - this is not the case. As a country, the UK's credit rating is already under scrutiny. All it will take is a signal that the UK is not being determined in its efforts to reduce its level of debt before its credit rating is lowered, which leads to borrowing money at even higher rates than it is now. So new debt is increasingly expensive, the refinancing of old debt is increasing expensive and the debt burden increases. The cuts are not even to the actual debt, but to try to reduce the interest payments on existing debt!

No one said this would be pain free. Yes, there will always be the 'haves' in the world who are insulated from the pain, and these may include the PM and some of the cabinet. Jealousy will not change the economic position the country is in. And I still do not believe that they are taking any pleasure about the decisions they are having to make. And a Labour government would have been making cuts as well.