'WE are financially prudent,' says George Osborne. Oh yeah?' say all 'hard-working families'. This, and many similar statements, have been said by the Prime Minister and his Chancellor over the past four years and, in the run-up to the May General Election, there is a danger that we might think the needle has got stuck. But, if this was really the case why is it that there are examples, almost daily, accusing this government of exactly the opposite? Even a cursory glance over the newspapers (most not noted for their anti-Tory comments) will read accusations and reports that this government has been anything like 'financially prudent'. Some examples of this lack of care with our money are: Their over-severe cuts to all 'State' services included reducing the recruiting and training of nurses in the NHS — result — a huge increase of many millions of pounds to NHS bills when hospitals had to hire agency nurses to cover the gaps in the service. Prudent? The so-called bedroom tax has resulted in a vast increase in paying out housing benefits. There are examples of families moving to smaller premises that cost them more than their original home, of families having to move to another area to find accommodation that suits the DWP, but has resulted in loss of a job for the parent and/or the transfer of children to new schools (sometimes in their exam year). Add to that the many court cases involving appeals by those with a disability, and where the 'spare' bedroom is used either for their medical equipment or by night-duty carers. Prudent? The selling-off of the east coast railway line, that was being (very) successfully run by a public company with profits going back to the Treasury, to a private consortium whose profits go around the financial world before ending up on the (untaxed?) balance sheets of firms and individuals who will not be paying too much of their profits to the Treasury. Prudent? But, for me, worse of all is the fact that with all of the financial reports available to this Government and when they pounce on any item of 'good news', I have never read of any comment from our 'responsible' and 'prudent' Government about our ever-increasing balance of trade situation. Last year there was a gap of nearly £35 billion pounds between what we import to the UK and what we export. The biggest ever gap in modern times, and an example that little is being done to put proper jobs into the economy. Yes, proper, long-term and sustainable jobs that will really help hard-working families, increase exports, reduce imports, put real money back into the Treasury via taxes, and build up a good and safe pension fund for all of our workers and not just for those 'bonus buddies' of the Tories. So, before this election, and when you hear these claims of 'responsibility' and 'prudence' being thrown around by the Tories, perhaps we should start to look at examples of what they actually mean. I anticipate a short list. Bryan Podmore Tavistock