Virtually everyone I have spoken to over the last few months seemed to accept, sometimes reluctantly, that the new Coalition Government needed to take swift action to deal with the economic mess left by the previous Government.

 

Some tough decisions had to be made.  The big challenge was how to balance protecting the most vulnerable and disadvantaged whilst cutting costs right across Government.

 

Like many of you, I am angry at the previous Government for leaving the nation in such a dire financial state.  In our relatively affluent constituency perhaps one side effect has been a doubling of the number of people forced to claim Job Seekers Allowance over the last few years.

 

The last Government left Britain with the largest budget deficit in the EU, aside from Ireland and if we carry on as we are, in five year’s time the interest we will pay on our debt could be around £70 billion.  We could be paying more on debt interest than on education, the environment and transport.

 

So I’m relieved that the tough choices have now been made.  Yet it is curious that, despite the cuts, the new Government will actually be spending the same proportion of our national income on public services as in 2006.

 

I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone for getting in touch and for the often excellent ideas on how to save money, which I fed through to the Chancellor and helped to inform his decision-making.

 

We have started to re-build and although it is not going to be easy as the cuts begin to be felt, I am now more optimistic for the future than I have been for more than a decade.