Labourlist
"Fast forward to the present day, and the Labour blogosphere is making noise about Greg Barker, Tory minister of state for energy & climate change, who is on a visit to the US. Barker apparently told an audience at the University of South Carolina that "We are making cuts that Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s could only have dreamt of". Not the wisest or most sensitive choice of words, but he's basically echoing what chancellor Darling said last year. The truth is that any government in power today would have no choice but to cut public spending, in order to restore confidence in the nation's finances.
If Ed Miliband was the one invited to become Prime Minister last May, where would the wider Labour Party stand on the cuts that he and his chancellor would be carrying out right now? Would we be accusing the Labour government of outright Tory-ism and a heartless attack on the poorest? No. Of course, Labour's austerity programme would have been enacted slightly slower than the coalition's current plans, but have no doubt, there would have been deeply unpopular service reductions and cuts under a Labour government."
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