I COMMEND the Government for continuing to cut the deficit that shot up during the Gordon Brown spendthrift years.

Who wants to waste good money on Gordon’s interest payments when it could go on schools, hospitals and cutting tax? Not our children and grandchildren, that’s certain.

So this week seven government departments signed up to more savings as part of the upcoming spending review. The big question is, will the Opposition endorse the planned £11.5bn in savings announced or reject them and borrow more.

Borrowing more, which Ed Milliband seems to be advocating, is likely to put up interest rates. This would mean another barrow-load of government debt and more people struggling with overdrafts and mortgages.

I have been to Norway to discuss defence cooperation with one of our most enduring allies. In planning collective defence and security it helps to be dealing with countries that see the world as you do and have forces that are at ease with one another.

We are fortunate in northern Europe in having several such mature friends with whom we are forging closer bilateral and multilateral links.

This sort of practical defence planning makes the EU highly suspicious since it relies on a tapestry of interconnecting alliances and understandings to lever effect rather than the Brussels centralised bureaucracy.

I’ve had some emails from people worried about the lifting of the EU arms embargo to Syria. I do understand their concerns and, of course, would not want arms to fall into the wrong hands either.

However, it is right that the option of selectively arming the identified Syrian Opposition is open.

The alternative is to allow the Russia and Iran-backed Assad regime to terrorise the population indefinitely and with impunity.

The prospect of Assad using chemical weapons at scale on innocent and defenceless people is a nightmare I’d rather avoid.