These cuts are a con – we'll soon be just like Greece (but without the lovely beaches)

This is Peter Hicthens' Mail on Sunday column

Anyone would think that the late General Pinochet, Chile's ultra-conservative military dictator, had risen from his grave and was stalking Britain, slashing public spending with an axe and machine-gunning screaming public-service workers in football stadiums.

The exaggerated fuss over George Osborne's Budget is crude spin.

Unlike proper, old-fashioned Budgets, which could not be leaked on pain of political death, this propaganda document...