THE savage and unnecessary public spending cuts outlined in last week’s Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) leave the Con-Dem coalition wide open to accusations of dishonesty and unfairness.

The swingeing cuts were announced as a package to reduce the deficit caused allegedly by the previous Labour government, yet the Chancellor inadvertently admitted last week in a Radio 4 interview that the recession was caused by a global economic downturn.

What we see in the CSR detail is nothing other than Tory ideology, an instinct to butcher the public sector and thereby weaken its trade unions and keep working people in their places.

That the Liberal Democrat coalition lapdogs have supported this stance is to their eternal shame. They have sold their policies and supporters cheaply for an illusion of power at David Cameron’s top table.

The coalition insists the cuts are fair. Recent TUC figures, however, confirm that the poorest ten per cent will be hit 15 times harder by the cuts than the richest ten per cent.

Low-waged families, the unemployed and the most vulnerable in our society will be forced to pay for the greed and indiscretion of the bankers and City fat cats who converted taxpayers’ bailouts into bonuses for themselves.

Councillor Rob Crute, Labour, Blackhall Division, Durham County Council.

IS there anybody out there can say this was a fair spending review when the poorest people in our society were punished the most, leaving the super-rich and multi-millionaires virtually untouched?

But there again this was a “Tory” review so what can we expect from a government that has done nothing else but look after the rich and famous when in power?

We are all in this together, they keep saying. What a laugh.

Edward Halliday, Langley Moor, Durham