The present government came to office with a commitment to cut state spending while reducing government intervention in the economy and extending the sphere of private choice through tax reductions. This philosophy, while of significance for the longerterm development of the public sector, is actually of limited use in explaining the 1979 public expenditure reductions. These stem from one of the recurrent crises of financial control which have afflicted public spending plans in the last decade and a half. The purpose of this article is to analyse the financial and economic background to the cuts, which, it is argued, would have called for programme adjustments whatever administration had been in office, though the type of reductions made may bear the imprint of different political philosophies.