THERE, it wasn’t that bad after all, was it? After one of the longest softening-up exercises in modern political history, Tuesday’s emergency Budget was not the ideologically- driven “slash and burn” exercise that some would have had us believe.

Yes, it is tough, but we all knew that it would be. Everybody suffers a bit. As a balancing act between the need for the nation to re-invent itself as fiscally prudent and the protection of the truly vulnerable while encouraging private enterprise to take up the slack left by a shrinking public sector, it had much to recommend it.

There is much detail, no doubt much of it devilish, still to come, particularly on how individual government departments are going to find savings of up 25 per cent over the next few years. But there were encouraging signs that the new Government has understood the arguments about the relative fragility of the economy outside London and the South-East in its commitment to press ahead with some important regional infrastructure projects, and the pledges to produce a White Paper on the economic disparities between the different UK regions. More information about the proposed regional growth fund will also be eagerly awaited.

This is by no means as damaging a Budget as champions of the public sector will paint it. Public services will be maintained, but not provided in the style that some have become accustomed to.