No, the real issue, and the only real worry for me re this announcement, is that there are going to be a lot of job losses in the short term. There is a question mark over whether the private sector in the UK still has the strength to absorb those people. There aren't too many things we export these days.
Speaking only for myself, work has picked up massively in the past six weeks - for the last 18 months it’s been pretty gloomy. It’s not as if the short term job losses are likely to happen overnight so we’ll just have to see how it pans out.
You are right though, there needs to be a bit of forward thinking. It’s not as simple as handing out redundancy notices.
Leeds City Council were canvassing their staff for viable ways to cut spending without laying people off right away, and waited for the spending review, and so far as I can tell are putting in a plan to lay people off in a way that keeps the vital services going. But they wanted to work with the new government and manage their downsizing properly.
In contrast, a neighboring council started handing out redundancy notices within days of the government being formed. They didn’t care who was going out of the door and blamed all the job losses, and their effects, on the new government. And for what? Sour grapes because Gordon Brown lost the election.