Sqad's Political Assesment so far.

[Sqad]

Labour...one week ago..GB@ the TUC told all that in the year 2010 Education would be protected....applause, applause from all the delegates. NOW Ed Balls says Labour will cut by 5% the Education budget with job losses around 3,000.

Conservatives...WILL cut public spending, but where and how much.....I have no idea.

Lib Dems......We will cut public spending AND raise taxes......we all know that is going to happen but they can say that and be honest, as they know that they will never be in power to implement them.

A week is a long time in Politics eh?

[Kathyan]

They will all say what they think we want to hear and then, once in power, will do nothing!

[VHG]

How do you know when a pilitician is lying.

When they are talking.

[buildersmate]

A week is a long time in politics - so much so that few can remember what GB did say a week ago. What he probably said was that front-line services would be protected. This could mean many things but in education it means very little since it is blindingly obvious that core teaching is not going to be cut.
It's the biggest spending departments that are going to have to bear the brunt of this. In terms of those that employ labour, that means the education sector (and to a lesser extent the Health Service). The DWP also has a massive budget but a large chunk of it goes in hand-outs to clients - not salaries to civil servants.
The Health Service is something of a sacred cow, so I reckon health budgets will be impacted less in proportion - that's call it 5%.
Cutting the DWP spend depends on cutting benefits. Tricky that.
So next big budget in line is the Education budget. I reckon a 10% cut for starters.
Oh, and we are going to need tax rises too - lets say 4p on the basic rate since whacking up top-earners sounds sexy and attractive but doesn't raise much money. The brunt has to fall on middle earning types - the very same centre-ground people that ultimately decide which Party gets to run us for the next 5 years.
The real big surprise is that this 'cutting' business has remained so quiet for the last 6 months - its been obvious what was going to happen once all that money got stuffed into 'quantative easing'.