No gamble at all Keith. The gamble was over the previous 13 years, gambling on a never ending boom with a massive spending and borrowing spree.
Personally I would prefer much deeper cuts than a tax rise.
Actually Brian - you are simply wrong about VAT - do some research and you will see we are far from the highest, Sweden, Denmark and Hungary for instance are 25%. Several countries including Ireland (now 21%) and Poland (now 22%) are increasing to 23%.
Yopu can see the rates for 2009 here
http://www.scopulus.co.uk/taxsheets/european_vat_rates.htm