Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

"If spending is cut too soon, it would undermine the much-needed recovery and cost jobs."

Well, to be fair the did leave it almost a fortnight before signing off today's announced by the coalition government at Westminster.

A lot has changed since the party's manifesto, which includes the above quotation, first appeared on the bookshelves.

Today's cuts mean a reduction of Β£162.5m in the Welsh Assembly Government's budget for this year. Our man with the anorak and the abacus says that's a 1.03% cut in its Β£15.7bn budget.

It could have been tighter. The overall reduction would have been Β£187m, but for more than Β£24m in cash generated from Whitehall spending elsewhere. That won't stop opposition politicians - and devolved governments - from using the higher figure, the one that makes Wales look more hard done by.

Is a one per cent cut a lot? say Wales is disproportionately losing out, with a percentage cut above the overall spending reduction. Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Analysis and Research suggest the devolved administrations are losing less than most Whitehall departments.

Welsh Secretary Cheryl Gillan says the cuts are fair and proportionate. Peter Hain, her Labour shadow, says they are the first salvo in a fusillade of cuts. (Labour too would have cut spending, although not as quickly.)

Assembly Government Budget Minister Jane Hutt warned: "We are already relatively efficient compared to Whitehall - for example, Wales has already led the way again in the UK by scrapping the major Welsh quangos.

"So the scope for administrative savings in Wales is simply not the same as it
is in England."

It's fair to say not everyone would accept that but political parties do manage to swap roles effortlessly between government and opposition. It can only be a matter of time before the Tories accuse Labour of talking Wales down.

Labour will doubtless blame the Tories for rising unemployment, something the Tories will doubtless put down to the global economy. It's what politicians do.

Opposition politicians at Westminster and government politicians in Cardiff have criticised the scrapping of the child trust fund, to which the has been adding its own top-up.

The cuts in Wales will not only be felt inside the Assembly Government. Wales has more than 35,000 civil servants, 80 per cent of whom work for the UK Government and its agencies. Most now face a recruitment and pay freeze.

Things could be worse. In Ireland, often held up as a role model for Wales, public servants have faced .

In the next few months, Britain faces an emergency Budget and a comprehensive spending review.

Twelve months hence, we may be looking back with nostalgia at those carefree days when budgets were cut by just a penny in the pound. No-one is humming Things Can Only Get Better just yet.

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