IN DECEMBER we will publish the first draft of the council budget for 2011/12, and our medium-term financial forecast, covering the following three years.

We will not know with any certainty what funding we will receive from central government until December 2, and at this time are having to make a number of assumptions based on the information given in the Comprehensive Spending Review.

What we do know is that the deficit inherited by David Cameron is nearly three times as big as Margaret Thatcher faced when she took over from a previous Labour government.

Robust and difficult decisions will need to be made, and I have no doubt that David Cameron will be portrayed, as Margaret Thatcher was, as someone who made cutbacks in a number of areas of public spending.

I also do not doubt that we will see and hear from Labour politicians in their full hairshirt mode, urging civil disobedience and denying the necessity of dealing with the massive debts that they have left for David Cameron's government to sort out.

The last two prime ministers have gone to ground. Tony Blair, now a multi-millionaire owning numerous properties, has his rewards for his devotion to socialism to occupy his mind.

Gordon Brown, who continued until the end to deny the necessity to deal with the debt problem, was best summed up by Boris Johnson as being 'like some sherry-crazed old dowager, who has lost the family silver at roulette and who now decides to double up by betting the house as well'.

While as a country we are indeed fortunate that he did not get a chance to place his final bet, he has left his successor an enormous problem.

It is only six months since the general election, and already we are being urged to forget the cause of the problem and blame those left to clear up the mess. Over the coming months you will witness this at local level as we, a Conservative administration, deal with our share of the Labour mess.

We will, however, take neither comfort from Labour's failure nor advice or criticism from them, as we deal with their legacy to Hillingdon residents.