I think the phrase used by one of the senior CS's went along the lines of "its going to make them look like complete idiots"...
Not even close. As StopStart alludes to below, having got away with the premise of major cuts without sparking armed insurrection or an overthrow of the elected Government, they now are simply moving in to fine tune those areas where they think they will get away with it again - and they will.
But not in a good way. More like "now you've got used to the planned cuts, we can squeeze in a few more".