With fingers crossed: The Chancellor is frontloading the worst of his cuts

As a very political sort of Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne’s decision to bring forward some £3bn of spending cuts to this financial year should be seen for its political rather than its fiscal significance. Though it still counts as “real money”, this £3bn has to be placed in the context of a total public spend of about £714bn. However, the chances are that, when Mr Osborne comes to present his Budget next month, it will come from a politically sensitive area, probably social security, and if that is the case then it is better to get the pain over with sooner rather than later – before the European referendum and the next general election hove into view.