The middle classes are unaware of the scale of government spending cuts that will hit them this year, Justice Secretary Ken Clarke has said.

Mr Clarke said the coalition should be prepared for political difficulty when Middle England feels the full impact.

He told the Daily Telegraph he did not envisage a "quick rebound" for an economy in a "calamitous" state.

Labour leader Ed Miliband said the coalition had not thought out the implications of its strategy.

He told BBC Radio Wales: "What you see is a government which has a plan to get rid of jobs in the public sector but not enough of a plan to replace them in the private sector."
'Very difficult'

Mr Clarke told the Telegraph: "One reason we're going to get some political difficulty is that [while] the public knows we've got to do something about it, I don't think Middle England has quite taken on board the scale of the problem.

"That will emerge as the cuts start coming home this year. We've got to get on with it [but] it's going to be very difficult.

"If someone says it's not as bad as all that, I say [they] just don't realise the calamitous position we're in."

BBC political correspondent Carole Walker says that while Mr Clarke supports the chancellor's deficit reduction plan, his tone is downbeat in contrast to the Treasury's recent efforts to point to some more encouraging economic figures.
'Economy stalled'

Shadow Treasury Chief Secretary Angela Eagle said Mr Clarke should be worried about "economic difficulty", not just political difficulty.

"The Tory-led government may have boasted before Christmas that Britain was recovering and out of the danger zone, but their decisions have meant the economy has now stalled and both unemployment and inflation are rising." she said.

"And this is before the full impact of the VAT hike and deep spending cuts have been felt."

She added: "Ken Clarke should come clean that his government made a political choice to reduce the deficit in this way. No other major economy is cutting this far and this fast."

In the interview, the justice secretary also questions Downing Street's hopes of limiting an extension of the vote in elections to prisoners serving up to one year, saying four years would be a more realistic figure.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-12438091

Isn't it amazing how politicians like Miliband suddenly come to the same conclusions as everyone else when in opposition...

The issue of political difficulties means that there will be significant economic difficulties to come. There may have been problems ahead but they are certainly not tackling them properly. In fact they are making it worse, without even realising it. I have a lot of respect for Ken Clarke because he speaks his mind, and was never so right wing as many in the Tory party. The government are talking about rebalancing the economy without doing a single thing to make it happen. So I do expect significant trouble ahead. They have done nothing to reduce the speculative bubbles that caused this crisis, and yet are still inflating asset bubbles via QE. I fully expect another stock-market crash sooner or later, another banking crisis within a decade and mass riots all over the country before the next election. The government are talking that we are out of recession yet I think that we are still in the depression.

Ken Carke is one of the few Tories who I find myself listening to. He's usually right, or very close to being there. It's obvious that he's not keen on the coalition - he's said in the past that it has a short life span. So I'm heeding this warning as more than just bluster and rhetoric.

He was a great chancellor last time round, shame he's not allowed to do it again.

The coalition will last longer than many in the coalition would like. Primarily because of political necessity. I agree with Clarke that the public have no idea of the pain that is coming. I also do not think that the public sector will grow anywhere near fast enough to absorb the job losses from the cuts.