The axe is out. Today the UK’s coalition government unveiled their “”https://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/junebudget_documents.htm">emergency budget", which is designed to reduce the country’s structural deficit through a combination of tax increases and deep cuts to public sector spending.

Appearing in the House of Commons, George Osborne, the Conservative Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced plans for deep cuts in public spending and an increase in taxes. “The truth is that the country was living beyond its means when the recession came,” he said in a speech punctuated with characteristically British cheers and jeers. The new budget will fix that, according to Osborne.

For scientists, the speech contained a few hints of difficult times to come. Osborne announced that departmental budgets would fall by roughly a quarter over the next four years, a steeper decline than many expected. Those cuts could decimate government R&D at departments like the Ministry of Defence and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which had already seen their budgets shrink in recent years.

Presumably the government’s research councils will also be stung by the spending cuts, though exactly how remains to be seen. The department of Business, Innovation and Skills (which houses both research councils and universities) will see its budget fall slightly in the coming year. But there’s little detail about how those cuts will look in later years, or how they will be distributed through the department.

It wasn’t completely doom and gloom on the science front. Osborne at least mentioned the Conservative review of R&D by vacuum tycoon (say it five times fast) James Dyson during a section of his speech on corporate tax. That presumably means the Treasury supports the review’s key recommendation of tax incentives for high-tech start up companies. Osborne also said that the government would support so-called capital projects that could strengthen the recovery. The recently unveiled designs for the £600 million (US$887 million) UK Centre for Medical Research and Innovation would, presumably, fall under that category, meaning that its funding may be safe.

Still, the overwhelming message for researchers, and indeed anyone working in the UK’s public sector, is that tough times lie ahead. We can expect still more bloodshed in the autumn, when the government details its planned cuts in its Comprehensive Spending Review. Osborne has announced that the review will be released on 20 October.