I?m also a believer in the softer side of government spending, and I also have difficulty with regard to raising the defence budget. For example I?ve never signed PerfectGeneral?s petitions, although I respect his views and fully understand where he is coming from.

The reality is that the military cannot really deal with the threat that the UK faces these days (which is basically a small number of young Muslim men who live in this country). I would argue that the Iraq and Afghanistan interventions have been failures and they have not increased our security.

I?m sorry if that offends people, and I?m mindful of the sacrifices that individual soldiers make, but that doesn?t alter the point. I do not see what other threats will face us this century, and the fact is that the military just isn?t that important. There is far more to life than big aircraft carriers! The other things you could bear in mind is that we are still the worlds? third or fourth biggest defence spender ? with a far higher proportion of GDP going to it than say Italy, Belgium, Germany or the Netherlands.

Also, what would success cost? Helmand alone needs a division plus (4 Brigades maybe) of British troops to hold ground against the Taleban and that is just one province! To pacify the whole country we would need an army and the costs to achieve that are too high and not worth it.  

With regard to health, the number of older people is rapidly increasing, and the government had to invest huge sums in the NHS (which basically looks after older people) to keep it viable. Although the NHS isn?t perfect, this investment has worked; average life expectancy has increased by one year for each of the past ten years.

As for education we have to increase the number of people with qualifications in order to compete with the Chinese and Indians, who are sending vast numbers of people to college. This is of enormous priority ? low skilled people cannot compete because other people in foreign countries can do the same job for one-tenth of the salary. If we want to maintain a high standard of living, we MUST up-skill children and the workforce.

Social matters is of course about helping people who are less well-off than we are. You might dislike ?skivers? (and I daresay that some people are abusing the system), but this spending does include care home subsidies, the long-term ill, help for disabled people, homeless hostels etc. Having been unemployed, I can assure you that it is no laugh, and the little help that you get is most needed.

Government does genuinely try to create efficiencies in all spending departments ? honest! Talk to doctors, the Police, people working for Social Services, quango?s, council officers, charities etc and they will all complain about under-resourcing in exactly the same way that the army/navy/RAF do. It all comes down to what you see as the key priorities ? for you it is maybe the army whereas I am more concerned about schools. Government tries to balance this, and it is a matter of opinion as to whether they get it right or not.

As to finding £8 billion, I?ve no idea how they will do it. Probably low wage rises and tight departmental budgets across government with some judicious tax rises.

To finish off, there is a shed-load of whinging about this government. I like Arsse, but it is full of utter whingers! I daresay that the criticism is justified in some cases, but the quality of most people?s lives is so much better than it was 15 years ago, that you can?t help but feel that they?ve got something right.