Time & Perspective Quote by David Cameron

“Strain every sinew” is the kind of old-blood, Churchill-flavored exertion Cameron liked to borrow: it casts austerity not as accounting but as moral athletics. The phrase does two jobs at once. First, it dignifies cuts as reluctant, even noble “difficult decisions,” pre-emptively framing resistance as childish or unserious. Second, it tries to launder the brutality of budget reductions through a universally booable villain: “error, waste and fraud.” Who’s against trimming fat? The move is rhetorical judo, shifting the argument from whether cuts are necessary to who could possibly defend waste.

The subtext is triage. Cameron reassures voters that the “things that matter the most” will be protected, while leaving conveniently undefined what counts as “most” (frontline services, pensions, the NHS, or a more abstract idea of national solvency). That vagueness is strategic: it invites every listener to imagine their own sacred cows surviving, even as the policy reality might not cooperate.

Context matters. This is post-2008 Britain, with the Coalition years making deficit reduction the master narrative. “Cut back without damaging” implies a managerial fantasy: that a state can be slimmed like a corporation, efficiencies found indefinitely, pain avoided if only the bureaucracy were competent. It’s a soothing story for an anxious electorate, and a pressure tactic on public services: if outcomes worsen, blame “waste” before blaming the cuts.