ARE we really in for massive cuts in services in the public sector – government spending, local council spending, and all the things provided by quangos?

All the things which make life bearable in a civilised country.

Nationally the Tories say they will cut 10 per cent off all government spending.

Since they say they will not cut anything from overseas aid or the NHS, that leaves a lot more for everything else.

That will include the funds the government gives to local councils yet at the same time the Tories say they will give councils more to help them peg the council tax!

Here in Lancashire the new Tory regime is borrowing an extra £10 million to fund election promises – yet at the same time threatening spending reductions of some £80 million over the next five years!

That's on top of the pip-squeaking cuts threatened by their own party if they get into power at Westminster.

Now New Labour is getting in on the act with Chancellor Alistair Darling rolling out the mantra served up by his Treasury mandarins.

So why is this all happening? Is the level of government debt really unsustainable and a cause for such panic?

Why is the hue and cry so much greater here than in the rest of Europe where the debt levels are as high or even higher?

I'm not an economist but it's glaringly obvious to anyone with a bit of common sense that the boost in spending (and debt) by governments throughout the world is at the heart of the growing hope that there is a light at the end of the global recession.

Without it we'd be looking at a repeat of the 1930s.

It's equally obvious that to start cutting back now would throw those hopes on to the scrap heap.

My personal view is that this is indeed a good moment to tackle wasted spending and bloated bureaucracies – as Nick Clegg has said.

But draconian service cuts are in my view neither necessary nor sensible, and countries that take such a lead backwards will suffer badly.

It's difficult not to think that it's all a sinister opportunistic plot got up by people who have ideological objections to public services as a matter of principle.