SO the week we had all been dreading has finally arrived – the time when George Osborne was going to tell us how many more notches our belts would need as they tighten ever further.

But the feared announcement of cuts deep enough to dwarf the Hole of Horcum was surprisingly benign and, so far, it seems most of us have got away with it.

Unless, of course, you’re one of those who will now have to slum it with the rest of us in second class on the 8.20 from York to Kings Cross, or if you suddenly find yourself relieved of a desk at the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA), but don’t expect too much sympathy.

The thing is, why has it taken so long to get rid of this sort of nonsense? Quangos have always been a disgrace. Can someone really convince us why the likes of BECTA were forced upon us in the first place? What do they do? If anything of great importance, how come this government is able to shut them down at a stroke?

The projected savings coming from the “bonfire of quangos” is about £600 million and what’s even more astonishing is that another £1 billion of our cash is to be rescued by slashing the Government’s consultancy bill and travel costs.

It’s a staggering amount of money and Alistair Darling should be hanging his head in shame because these measures are as obvious as they are overdue.

Perks and jobs for the boys have long been a Whitehall tradition, but can it really be true that time is about to be called on the wastrels who help themselves to our money with alacrity? Well, the chancellor says that in only one week the coalition found and agreed to cut £6 billion of extravagant spending across the public sector, so that’s a promising start.

Then he went on to tell us frontline services in the NHS and schools spending are to be ring-fenced, which is another encouraging sign that perhaps coalition government is what we need after all.

The Queen’s Speech promises freedom, fairness and responsibility as well as a welcome change in the way our schools are managed.

And Cameron et al seem to be using their common sense. The expensive and unnecessary ID card idea that should have bitten the dust long ago will now finally do so. And you might have missed it, but the unpopular HIPS pack for house-buyers was immediately scrapped to resounding cries of “about time too”.

Politicians are elected to do what needs to be done but they must also be quick to get rid of things that blatantly do not work and unnecessarily irritate the electorate. It’s early days, but everything so far has been heartening. We’re promised a stronger economy and a fairer society and you get the feeling that they actually mean it, or at least they have no choice but to mean it.

Isn’t this new way of governing just what we have been crying out for? Coalition is about compromise and neither party can afford radical policies because they won’t get them through the Commons. So maybe we’re in for a dogma-free few years.

Yes, of course, we have been offered a sweetener by Osborne who has let us off the hook with phase one of his cuts, but this country is saddled with a mountain of debt and it won’t go away on its own. So we need a government that will take it on and this lot already looks streets ahead of the last incumbents.

And when it’s our turn to be hit by cutbacks at least we’ll know that our hardships won’t be sneered at by ministers and civil servants swanning around at our expense. Surely that is the most important message to come out of this long feared week.

A lot rests on the Prime Minister’s shoulders and the next five years will undoubtedly be a rough ride. But his first fortnight in office gives rise for a sense of optimism that we just might get through this financial battle after all. And if Treasury Chief Secretary David Laws sticks to his pledge and cuts with care, maybe we’ll come out of it with fewer scars than we feared.

• Julian Cole will be back next week.