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Libya/European Council

I think the simplest way of putting it is this: if we cut the deficit in half in four years, as Labour proposed, that would mean that in four years' time our deficit would be about the same size as Portugal's today. That really brings it home to us that the problem in Britain is that much deeper because the deficit we inherited was that much bigger. That means, as the European Commission and the European Union said:"““Consolidation should be frontloaded in Member States facing very large structural deficits””." I think they mean us.