US economist Paul Krugman, writing in the New York Times, in a nutshell explains the crassness of the Con Dem austerity measures masquerading as economic policy:
‘And yet what’s happening in Britain now is that depressed estimates of long-run potential are being used to justify more austerity, which will depress the economy even further in the short run, leading to further depression of long-run potential, leading to …
It really is just like a medieval doctor bleeding his patient, observing that the patient is getting sicker, not better, and deciding that this calls for even more bleeding’
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/30/bleeding-britain/?smid=tw-NytimesKrugman&seid=auto