Death by a thousand cuts
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Europeans across the continent are preparing to swallow the bitter pill of spending cuts. Today it is the UK's turn, as the new government sets out plans for billions of pounds in emergency savings. But British politicians are not the only ones warning of more tough times ahead.
The UK's new chancellor of the exchequer, George Osborne, braved the media spotlight today to unveil £6 billion of spending cuts. He noted bleakly that this was just the first round of belt-tightening measures - only a taster of what was to come in next month's emergency budget.
The moves to slash "wasteful" spending and freeze civil service recruitment are part of the recently elected coalition government's plan to soothe fears in the financial markets about the country's record budget deficit - now running at over 11% of GDP.
These cuts come hot on the heels of the austerity measures announced by many other EU economies in the wake of the Greek debt crisis and analysts are in no doubt that there are still more to come.
In the Netherlands, which is gearing up for parliamentary elections on 9 June, the economy was the main focus of last night's televised debate between the leaders of the four main political parties.
All the parties admit there will have to be budget cuts, although they disagree on the extent of the savings needed over the next decade, citing figures ranging from €10 billion to €30 billion.
The man widely seen to have come out ahead in the debate, the right-wing VVD party's Mark Rutte, scored points by accusing rivals Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende and Labour leader Job Cohen - whose parties formed part of the government coalition that collapsed in February - as being too focused on "bickering" with each other to deal with the tough economic decisions ahead.
The latest poll results show Mr Rutte’s VVD party pulling ahead. They are advocating the largest budget cuts of all the Dutch parties, and also want to slim down government and cut back on international aid and immigrant benefits.
