Practicalities of Budget Cutting

By the way, one of the issues with the current ConDem government's cuts programme that I haven't seen addressed anywhere is the sheer speed of their implementation.  Whilst these cuts would be bad in any circumstances, it is the fact that they are being rammed through so swiftly that makes them especially difficult to manage.  Most of the spending in public services involves employing people, so that when you cut a budget on this scale, you generally have to make people redundant.  Quite rightly there are rules in terms of consultation, notice periods and so on that take time to implement, delaying the time before there is any saving.  I don't see any sign that government ministers have given any thought to this.