Four obstacles to cuts David Cameron must overcome

In my Telegraph column today I look at the four obstacles to cuts and public sector reform  David Cameron and George Osborne will face if the Tories are returned on polling day: the unions, the civil service, politicians, and us. Not impossible, but far more difficult than those pressing him to act acknowledge. It wasn’t easy for Margaret Thatcher, and it won’t be for them.

“Mr Cameron proposes a long-term project of restraint and reform, but will face resistance, not just from the machine in the centre, or from the demoralised manager of a Leeds benefits office baulking at making a 10 per cent headcount reduction, but from top to bottom, an accretion of human resistance, born of short attention spans, lack of imagination, special pleading, and the siren calls of an economic recovery. How easy will it be for a Cameron government to argue austerity, when others are emerging into the sunlight and thinking: “It’s over, why bother?”

“Still, I remain an optimist. The public gets the need for “more for less”. It’s what they have always done, in the kitchen, with the home finances, and in running their small businesses. With the right leadership they can be persuaded to support a national endeavour to spend less and run things better. But it will require candour from government. In 1979, Mrs Thatcher was returned with a majority of 44, not a landslide. Her side wavered and came close to throwing her out when things got tough, until a gamble in the Falklands rescued her. We should not make the next government’s job any more difficult by pretending that what lies ahead will be easy. “