Professor Malcolm Sawyer, in a paper for the left think-tank CLASS, explains why the Con Dem austerity programme is economically irrational, socially irresponsible, and doomed to fail in its central goal of reducing the budget deficit. It is the jobs deficit and not the budget deficit which should be at the centre of economic policy. This requires stimulation of demand and joo creation programmes:
http://www.classonline.org.uk/pubs/item/fiscal-austerity-the-cure-which-makes-the-patient-worse-full-paper