When is a council cut not a council cut but something else? In the case of Kent County Council it is when politicians try to persuade us that they are doing something which most people would readily understand as a cut but in their eyes is something more nuanced.

The issue is - you must have guessed - the troublesome one of lopping £4m from the budget to support 78 socially necessary bus services which thousands - including pensioners and school children - rely on to get around.

Such has been the hostility towards the announcement that KCC is looking to save £4m from its transport budget that members of the ruling Conservative administration at County Hall have got into a panic.

Backbench Conservative councillors today engaged in linguistic contortions aimed at trying to neutralise what has become a rather toxic issue.

In the face of their own report from officers which made no bones about the fact cuts to bus services would have a significant impact on those that relied on them, councillors sought to make the proposition more palatable.

How did they sugar the pill? By voting for a recommendation which made no reference to the loss of the services - ie cuts - but which urged the council “assess the future level of subsidy and timetable on possible withdrawals of subsidies which may impact on the delivery of bus services.”

So there you have it. The county council is not talking about the loss of services or cuts to services but is instead assessing the possible impact of ending subsidies for them. Something rather different. Or not.

It is reminiscent of the party’s attempt to detoxify what became known as the bedroom tax by branding it as the “spare room subsidy.”

It did not get catch on and neither will the county council’s attempt to persuade us to talk about subsidies rather than cuts and even more confusingly the criteria for those subsidies.

So where have we got to? The language may have changed but the outcome at this point seems pretty bleak for those who rely on some of these services.

The public consultation planned to start in January will go ahead and the cuts - sorry, the withdrawal of subsidies - will provoke a public backlash.

The council will do what it can and may row back on some cuts but in all likelihood will have to shrug its shoulders and say the cupboard is bare and they don’t have a spare million or two down the back of a sofa.

It is true that the council is in an invidious position but it is so largely because of the Conservative government’s austerity regime which has seen council funding savaged in recent years.

Cuts to bus services are on the authority’s radar simply because it is a discretionary service which presents an easy opening to save money.