[danielf]

Originally Posted by Osem

Oh right so the party in power during the entire period when all this was being allowed to happen aren't responsible for it? That's a novel definition of political accountability.....

Responsible yes, but that doesn't mean they caused (all of) it. A large part of the current deficit was caused by an international financial crisis. The UK is not the only country that has to make drastic cuts. It seems rather naive to me to suggest there wouldn't have been a mess under a different government. Perhaps there would have been less of a mess, but if you look around Europe, there are plenty countries that need to make deep cuts regardless of the colour of the government.