the Axeman Comes

Well here it comes, The Cuts are starting to be announced. Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander has announced £2bn of cuts. This is not a massive surprise as I think I half blind turtle could see that the Labour Government had given out money that it did not have and could not afford in a shameless effort to purchase votes. (I thought this had ended in the 19th Century)

Mr. Alexander said "As a result of the poor decisions made by the previous government, I have taken the decision to cancel certain projects that do not represent good value for money, and suspend others pending full consideration in the Spending Review. "

Which sounds fair to me and I think is something that would be hard to argue against, However true to his delusions Liam "the Joker" Byrne has tried to reply saying that the statement "smashed the coalitions claim that Labour spent unwisely." - Now I assume that like his previous comments that he had spent all the money, this is also supposed to be a joke. How can finding £2bn of projects that the last government agreed too without the necessary funds to complete be anything other than proof positive that Labour's financial mismanagement is worse than we thought.

Although in "Joker Byrne's" fantasy world they have done nothing wrong whatsoever, I have a terrible feeling that Joker and his mates simply believed the view that seems to be shared by Labour Treasury ministers and No win, No fee lawyers, that governments simply have their own money, they don't, the money does actually have to come from somewhere.

Back to the actual topic, among the projects cancelled was the Stonehenge visitor centre, which is a shame as Stonehenge is one of our main tourist attractions and the facilities are really lacking for a site of it's worldwide prestige, however I understand that it has to be delayed as that is what happens when you have no money. Also cancelled is Outukumpu - £13m if anyone can tell me what this is I would appreciate it.

The full list of projects cancelled:
Stonehenge Visitor Centre: £25m
Local Authority Leader Boards: £16m
Sheffield Forgemasters International Limited: £80m
Rollout of the Future Jobs Fund: £290m
Six month offer recruitment subsidies: £30m
Extension of Young Person's Guarantee to 2011/12: £450m
Two year Jobseeker's Guarantee: £515m
Active Challenge Routes - Walk England: £2m
County Sports Partnerships : £6m
North Tees and Hartlepool hospital: £450m
Local Authority Business Growth Initiative: £50m
Outukumpu: £13m