Bernard Ingham: Gordon Brown has left us in an unholy mess, and we must get out of hock fast

On this evidence, I told the Prime Minister, there were some parts of her government that her message of economy and efficiency did not reach. I doubt it ever did.

It follows that after the sheer profligacy of the last 13 years, Whitehall is not merely ripe for slimming; it needs drastic surgery.

I can only conclude that Gordon Brown has gone mad when he actually argues that, with a record 163bn deficit, the waste must continue in order to safeguard the recovery. It is self-serving nonsense.

The Government machine needs to sweat off 20 per cent of its fat. That would require Ministers critically to examine every function of their departments to eliminate the unnecessary and, in the process, set an example by volunteering a 20 per cent cut in the number of Ministers.

The surest route to economy and greater efficiency is to concentrate on essentials. What are departments for? How can they best do the job? And are policies giving value for money? Apart from welfare, one ludicrous area of waste is global warming, with the preposterous concentration on useless wind. Mention the word "Green", and I smell a scam.

To encourage Whitehall, I would produce a 20 per cent cut in the No 10 machine. That should be a cinch, given the proliferation of advisers and a press office three times the size of the one I ran. To set an example, Mrs Thatcher cut my press office by 12.5 per cent before I joined it.

I would also provide Ministers with a list of sitting ducks – quangos

and agencies which have grown like Topsy – plus the employment of consultants. Why have a Civil Service if it cannot advise Ministers without external endorsement?

Government advertising, which is too often Labour propaganda on the taxpayer; better management of contracts so that officials' jobs depend on delivery to time and price; and public sector pay which is out of control – incentivise the mandarins by freezing pay and pensions until the country is on course to balance its books by 2015.

By now you may be saying, as is the fashion, "OK, but where's the detail?" But if you think I am going to tell you precisely how I am going to bring order to public finances, you have another think coming.

Like everybody else, apart from the Prime Minister and Chancellor, I

haven't a clue what Britain's liabilities are after Brown's 13-year binge. The budget deficit is only a fraction of the problem.

How much liability is the Treasury ultimately guaranteeing as a result of the Private Finance Initiative? The rogues have left that off the balance sheet. This is not to mention unfunded index-linked public

sector pensions or meeting the ever growing burden of state pensions in

an ageing society.

And if the generals are right – and why should we doubt them? – what is required to play fair with our soldiers who daily risk life and limb in Afghanistan?

I am not ducking the issue of cuts. I am simply looking as a start for a 20 per cent cut in the size of government while protecting key staff who actually deliver services.

I am determined on two things: to expose for the people the true state of the nation's finances and to encourage them to work us back to solvency. The record shows that the less we tax people the more

willingly they work and, curiously, increase tax revenues.

This is where killing any increase in national insurance contributions

and lifting the threshold of inheritance tax is so important. It sends a signal to those who are the backbone of Britain. We must have a thriving private sector, with more manufacturing, and a much leaner public sector if we are to have a prosperous people.

But we have also to show we believe in fair play. If banks find it so easy to make billions and positively featherbed their staff, there is a case for a windfall tax on what, by any standards, are excess profits.

This is no time for kid gloves. Gordon Brown has single-handedly left Britain's finances in an unholy mess. They have got to be repaired. We have to get out of hock – and fast. Otherwise, we do not command our destiny.