They have cut staff, shaved salaries and tightened budgets generally, but what has been inevitable for some time has been the need for a really large saving.
Osborne said he expected changes to save the government £1.8bn a year by 2014-15, would would be the third largest saving outlined in the spending review.
The most frequent switch (TDF/FTC to ABC/3TC) only generated the fourth largest saving.
A large "Save the Queen, Ban the Board" banner hung outside the meeting today.
It isn't quite as much of a mutant as the lofty Countryman, but it is almost as large, save in height.
While there is no question that Illmatic was a ground breaking album by and large, save for a couple hot tracks per album, Nas never really progressed as an artist beyond his opening effort.
By and large, people saved the money they received or paid bills (which is the same thing); very few used their rebates to increase spending.
A second dam (1836 38) across the Kollidam (Coleroon) River, the Kaveri's northern and larger channel, saved the old system from silting and extended irrigation.
Many parents swear with near-religious devotion that the program, one of the nation's largest, has saved their sons and daughters.
According to Credit Suisse, Greece has the lowest gross national savings ratio of any large country, saving 4% of estimated 2010 GDP.
