“Dear Kevin,

"The deficit was not caused by ¿waste¿ or ¿overspending¿ as Cameron, Clegg and Osborne claim. It was caused by the biggest worldwide recession since the 1930¿s."

That statement is entirely untrue, the Lab government was running a deficit from 2002-3 time. Check the figures and come back.”

“So, the great unwashed of Plymouth will be revolting at the weekend. Nothing new there then.

And to Tony Staunton, "tax the rich" and give it to the Sky-watching stay-at-home layabouts is not a good way to run an economy. that sort of thinking went out of vogue the last time Labour ruined the economy and Bitian was turned into the poor man of Europe.

Sadly, these cuts are needed. I wish they weren't, but even heavily socialist countries don't have the high ratio of public to private employees that the UK has managed to swell to ovber the last few years.”

“Kevin, Plymouth: More leftie claptrap. Remember the 1980's? Yeh I do. Labour ruined the economy during the 70's and the tories had to sort it out yet again.
I agree, in post war Britain we did have the infrastructure in place....adequate for the population at the time. And then Labour allowed uncontrolled immigration that swamped our services and welfare system expecting all working people (rich and poor) to pick up the bill. Just so they could pick up extra Labour voters.
Labour and the unions have ruined this country, probably for good.”

“Too shy to say: My income won't fall because under the tories I'll be paying less tax towards the shysters who don't want to work.
Trade unionists simply promote the politics of envy. They are envious of those who have worked themselves up to decent well paid jobs and then expect the same for themselves for no extra effort.
As for the party they fund. Every time they get voted out the country is in a bigger mess than when they took power. This time the mess is bigger than ever. Don't blame the bankers, Labour reaped the rewards when things were going well and didn't prepare like they should of when things got tough. On the subject of pay, I don't see many union leaders giving up their £200k per annum salaries when they expect their members to go on strike for nothing!”

“The argument against the cuts is that they are unnecessary and are likely to be counter productive. That they will shrink the economy at the wrong time, reducing government revenue from taxation and pushing up expenditure on dealing with the costs of unemployment.

Deficit reduction would have been better managed more slowly and in a controlled way, that protected jobs and the economy. Please bear in mind that most of the cuts haven¿t happened yet, so the effects won¿t be seen for some time. However the governments own growth forecasts are already shrinking, and the evidence from the real economy (3rd quarter figures to Dec 2010) show we could already be heading back to recession. The cuts will therefore hurt us all.

In the post war years Britain actually had a much bigger deficit as a proportion of national income. Yet we still built millions of homes, created the NHS, built roads, hospitals, schools and other infrastructure. Despite this we reduced the deficit and had a strong and growing economy. The cuts will hurt us all and will stop us growing the economy.

The deficit was not caused by ¿waste¿ or ¿overspending¿ as Cameron, Clegg and Osborne claim. It was caused by the biggest worldwide recession since the 1930¿s. This made government revenues fall dramatically at the same time as money was pumped into the banks to keep them afloat. This and other measures to support the economy cost money in the short term, to rebuild the economy in the longer term. This was working up to and beyond last years election, but now that recovery is under threat. The cuts won¿t help at all, but will hurt all of us.

On Saturday over 100,000 people are expected to protest against the cuts in London. Maybe Cameron and Clegg will try and ignore us, but you can only ignore the will of the people for so long, as the people of Egypt and Tunisia have proved so admirably. My ideal way to spend this weekend would be a relaxed start to the day, watch the cricket world cup, the Wales v England football, and maybe go out in the evening. Instead I will get up at four in the morning and travel to London to show my opposition to the cuts. I do this not for my benefit, but because I care deeply and passionately about the future of our country and in particular the welfare of the next generation ¿ that¿s why I choose to do the job I do.

Some readers may have other views, but I challenge them to explain how forcing students to start work with a debt of £50,000 helps either them or the economy. Homelessness is already rising (see government figures published on March 10th), perhaps someone could explain how this will help the economic recovery? House building has now fallen to its lowest level since 1923 (see figures published in February); maybe there are people who can explain how this makes us more prosperous? Remember the cuts have hardly stated yet but already unemployment is spiralling. 2.53 million (8.0%) are unemployed according to the governments own website (23rd March), the highest figure since 1994. Youth unemployment is now 974,000 (20.6%), the highest figure since comparable records began! Does anyone think that this helps the economy?

So on Saturday I and thousands of others will be in London to speak out. Not just for ourselves, but for the young people with no jobs, no homes and no future. You don¿t have to get up at 4 am to join in (although we would welcome your support). People can protest in many ways on Saturday, but the most important way is the one you can do on your own and without leaving home. You can say ¿enough is enough, I withdraw my support for these disastrous polices¿. Write to your MP and tell them how angry you feel, write to your local paper; message your friends on email or social networking sites. This is the time for the really big society to speak up, before another generation is lost. We must do all we can to prevent a return to the devastation felt by so many in the 1980¿s.”

“Ronald - the argument against the cuts is that the banks caused the crisis so why should the rest of the country have to suffer to suffer whilst the banks keep the taxpayers cash used to bail them out, continue to pay their staff billions in bonuses and pay minimal tax. The demonstration is a wide ranging protest against the government's plans They're Tories so chances are they will take no notice but to not protest is as good as saying we'll take whatever you throw at us and whilst you're at it come and take some more.

Dave - the Demo is on SATURDAY

Mark - there will be hundreds of thousands at least protesting and of course people will not be claiming expenses - that's a ridiculous suggestion to make.

Johnny et al - as your public services go down the toilet and your shopping bills rise whilst your income falls and life in general just gets tougher and tougher remember that you did nothing to make a stand against what the Tories are doing to this country and don't forget to tug your forelocks whilst you're at it.”

“Here we go again. Labour ruin our economy once again, somebody else has to come in to put it right and the unions/commies demonstrate!
A thousand people could be an over estimate judging by Tony Staunton's recent marches in Plymouth. It will probably end up being 50 people and a dog!”

“Hope there is a no fly zone to protect these rebels .”

“Great! So that will be 1,000 return tickets to London on expenses for us to pick up the bill!!

I'm sure the government will cave under the immense pressure of 1,000 janners! GREEN ARMY!!”

“OH no what will we do without these 1000 workers the city will grind to a halt. Oh hang on a sec their plymouth city council workers...... oh well no loss all services will probably work quicker.”