Chancellor George Osborne said on Monday it would be unrealistic to cut the size of government faster than planned in his flagship austerity programme. "There are those who say we're cutting too slow .... I'm the chancellor (finance minister) who is cutting the size of government faster than anyone in modern times," Osborne told the annual Conservative Party conference in the English city of Birmingham. "We're reducing the size of government from almost 50 percent of our national income to just 40 percent in just five years. I just don't think it's realistic to cut a great deal faster than that," he added (full story)