Three weeks into the new government I am now faced, as a cabinet minister, with a big spending department, with a demand for cuts.
The public, I think, understands the need to cut the massive deficit in the budget which resulted from the banking collapse and the recession. But when it gets round to cutting specific things the goodwill becomes strained.
Let me take one example. I am now responsible for universities. They expanded in the last decade mainly on the back of government money.
More students (despite tuition fees and living costs). More universities: Roehampton, Kingston and St Mary’s have all emerged recently. There will now be cuts. Where and how?
We could cut the number of students. Probably sensible but only if there is someway to keep them off the dole queue. My department is providing more industrial apprenticeships but that will only suit some.
We could try to squeeze higher fees out of students. But many already have big debts and cannot contemplate big purchases like a house until their mid-30’s.
We could try to squeeze the pay of the staff. There are some very highly paid administrators who could go. But college lecturers are not very highly paid in the main.
We could cut research but that destroys Britain’s base of ideas for the future.
We could try to make universities more efficient and flexible: shorter courses; longer terms; more part-time students. But universities are independent and I can’t order them to change (though the carrot of money helps). The staff also say they reject being ‘sweatshops’.
Every part of government is now being faced with hard choices like this and there will be enormous resistance. The next few years will be tough for all concerned.
