Déjà vu, both Home and Away  

It's certainly been an interesting week in politics. Of course the ‘highlight' of the week in Parliament – apart from my Westminster Hall debate on policing cuts in Greater Manchester, that is – has been the new Coalition government's emergency budget. Much has already been written about the budget, and as the measures begin to bite, no doubt much more will be written; but I can't help but feel a real sense of déjà vu. Geoffrey Howe's ‘tough' budget of 1981 saw attacks on housing benefit, child benefit and of course a near doubling of VAT to 15%.   That budget, of course, precipitated a deep recession from which parts of the country, especially those over-dependent on traditional industries – including my own Denton and Reddish constituency – have struggled to recover from. Today, almost 30 years on, there are similar fears...