The biggest government cut needs to be its own expectations

On Thursday around 1800 soldiers and RAF personnel were made redundant as part of the first wave of military job cuts. Despite this we're still actively engaging in conflicts abroad in places such as Libya, which is reportedly costing the UK £1.5mn a day.

Weeks ago — before the riots, I read multiple articles arguing that the military should be above government spending cuts. I didn't agree with any of them. I don't believe the military should be above the cuts but what I do believe is that the government shouldn't expect troops to fight in wars without appropriate equipment or with too fewer personnel.

The government needs to realise that if it is to cut spending in this area then it can't be as forthright in troubled places such as Libya and Afghanistan as it has been in previous years. We can't interfere in other countries' politics, no matter how corrupt, because put simply we can't afford it.

And it's not just overseas that the government needs to curb its expectations. 'We need to reclaim our streets' was one of the key messages in an article written by David Cameron in the Sunday Express a few weeks ago as the Prime Minister called for a larger police presence in UK neighbourhoods. In the article, Cameron also said he wants to break away from EU human rights laws, most likely to allow for plans put forward by Iain Duncan Smith to be put into action.

Duncan Smith, who is heading the PM's task force on gangs following the riots, plans for police to literally harass gang members. This would include officers paying daily visits to gang members' homes and, more generally speaking, making their lives 'less fun' as he put it. That includes dusk-till-dawn curfews for gang leaders and police trawling through their lives and finances to find even the most minor infringements.

Duncan Smith wants other government branches such as the TV licensing office and the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency to chip in too by constantly checking that gang members' licenses are in order, with so much as an unpaid parking ticket landing them in court.

Not only this, but Duncan Smith also called on the police to engage with gang members and gain their trust (yes, at the same time as harassing them) by playing sport with them while off-duty. 'You are challenging the whole notion of the hierarchical father figure in the gang by introducing off-duty cops who become like father figures,' he said.

All of these extra policing duties and yet still no plans to back down on the decision to cut the numbers of police officers by roughly 16,000. So not only does Duncan Smith want less officers to do more work during their shifts but actually expects them to have a kick-about with criminals in their spare time too. I know that on my weekends there's nothing I like to do more than find a gang and challenge them to a five-a-side game so I'm sure officers will be jubilant with this announcement.

The fact that Duncan Smith and Cameron think these plans are actually achievable just highlights how unrealistic the government's expectations are. With spending cuts needs to come expectation cuts. We can't expect fewer police to do more work such as harassing gangs in their spare time and we can't expect our troops to go to war ill-equipped. That's like asking an MP to do their job without an expenses budget. Hardly seems fair does it?