Unless you've been hiding somewhere, you can't have failed to notice all the chatter about the impending public service cuts and the debates surrounding how big they will be, when they will happen and whose approach you support, Conservative or Labour?

What strikes me is that all this discussion and even the arguments amongst economists are all distracting from one key fact. That is, that regardless of which party you support, never before in history will we have experienced such huge public sector spending cuts. The economists have in fact all agreed that the cuts are inevitable, they have simply been arguing over the finer details such as how big the cuts are (only a few billion pounds difference between the two approaches) and whether they should begin in 2010 or 2011.

These cuts have to be made and doing nothing is not an option. Change is going to happen and front line services will be directly affected. It will ultimately come down to those who have the responsibility for taking the tough decisions to make sure the appropriate changes are made and to decide where the savings will come from.