The battle is raging  fiercely. The usual tools of generalisation, casuistics, feeble and sometimes misleading statistics, are being brought into play.

Riding in to help the beleaguered coalition is, believe it or not, the Guardian newspaper! Simon Jenkins has pointed out that if George Osborne gets what he wants total public spending, in real terms, will be £640bn in 2015 compared to £665bn today. Even more telling is that after New Labour’s first term on office it was only £449bn.

Read more on Cuts! What Cuts?…