George Osborne attacks Labour government spending
Speaking at the CBI annual dinner, Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne launched a ferocious attack on the former Labour government's "reckless spending" in the last few months of office. The new coalition government has announced a review of all Labour spending decisions over the last few months with speculation that a number of senior civil servants were unhappy at the rate at which funds were being allocated to new projects.
There are even accusations that the Labour government underwent something of a "scorched earth policy" leaving the incoming government with massive spending commitments which will need to be addressed and revised. Whether the situation is quite as bad as the coalition government is now making out is open to debate because ultimately if the government can pin as much blame as possible to the former government this will take some pressure off David Cameron in the short-term.
One of the main problems which George Osborne will have in the months and years ahead is that voter memories are very short and by the time the next election comes around the blame for controversial and hard-hitting cost-cutting exercises would be aimed at him. There are still many senior Labour members who believe that losing this election is not the end of the world with so many difficult decisions to be made.
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