Legal aid cuts are crude, insensitive and a false economy

Of all the crudity and insensitivity of the Tory spending cuts, the proposed cuts to legal aid are among the most unnecessary, harsh and foolish.   Unnecessary because the planned savings of £350m out of a £2bn legal aid budget are just 0.3% of the Tories’ intended elimination of the structural deficit.   Harsh because it will hit the very poorest and most disadvantaged in their problems over debt, benefits and housing.   And foolish because, as the CAB has shown, it will actually increase public expenditure inasmuch as every £1 spent on early advice by their bureaux have been shown to save the State £8 in the costs of dealing with the consequences later.