Should we cut the deficit now? Or alternatively should we keep spending, andmore importantly borrowing to cut the spending, in the hope that it will getus through the worst that the recession has to offer. I am firmly of the belief that the new coalition government is on the righttrack, by preparing to cut the deficit straight away. This is not someright-wing conspiracy against public services as some would have us believe.It is rather a realistic understanding of the situation we find ourselves inafter 13 years of spending. There maybe some truth in the fact that you can "spend your way out of arecession", almost by definition if you are spending more money, the economywill not continue to shrink. This is however a conjuring trick. The truth isthat this country has been borrowing its way out of the recession, and thisis simply not sustainable. If the UK Government was sitting on a huge budget surplus, then there would be an argument for increasing spending to help the economy. This is not thecase however. Instead the government's huge deficit, estimated to be £180bnthis year, is part of the economic problems we face. To increase borrowingnow is only storing up cuts and tax rises in the future. The new Chancellormust get a grip on public spending now, not in order to cut back onfrontline services, but rather to safeguard them for the future. Continuingto waste public money for a further year or more, as advocated by the Labourparty, would only be to store up greater cuts in the long run.