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  The root of the problem is that government at all levels has grown far too large over the last 30 years, as a consequence it has spent far more too much money and has had to borrow this money on the world gilts markets.
  
  Like all debt this needs to be repaid.
  
  The first steps have to be to get government spending to be less than its income, thus allowing the repayment of not just the interest but also the capital element. There are two ways to do this either reduce spending or increase tax income. Ideally you do a bit of both and to be fair there is scope for increasing tax income by closing loopholes and ensuring everyone pays their taxes; but on its own this is not enough to reduce the deficit so we are therefore left with the need to cut spending.
  Sadly this will invariably have a short to medium term social effect as civil and public servants jobs are cut and other government spending reduced. There will be, and we are seeing, a growth in private sector employment as state jobs diminish, but this invariably lags a little way behind the reductions. Government can mitigate against some of this social cost through targeted spending in key areas and proper tendering and contract management.
  
  There is not however a magic wand to solve this and attacking the private sector is only going to worsen rather than solve the problem.
  
  (As an aside - I would not have privatised the railways or the public utilities as they have not delivered lower costs to the consumer, have seen huge numbers of jobs shed, have transferred significant amounts of wealth outside of the UK and removed real control of strategic services from the UK)

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