Quote of the day

Comes from the Ft's Philip Stephens

To put it politely, Gordon Brown and David Cameron are being less than candid about what it will take to fix Britain’s public finances. The prime minister deliberately understates the ferocity of the coming squeeze on public spending; the Tory leader sidesteps questions about the inevitable tax increases

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Cuts,cuts,cuts but who will start first

Spending is the order of the day so far in the world of politic as Lord Mandelson accused the Tories of "confusion and disarray" over their spending plans,meanwhile they return fire saying that Labour's plans were in chaos.

"The challenge for the Conservative Party is to be clear about its immediate plans: how much is it planning to take out of this year's spending? So far all we see is confusion and disarray,"said the business secretary outlining that whoever wins the next election will be forced down the road of spending cuts.

The only difference between the two parties being that Labour will wait until there are stable signs of recovery in the economy.

There were signs of wobble at the weekend from the Tory camp with David Cameron saying there would be no "swingeing cuts" in 2010.

Their shadow chief treasury secretary meanwhile has reaffirmed that the Tories will tackle the deficit,telling the BBC that cuts will begin after the election and the deficit will be under control by 2014

Universities set for cuts

Meanwhile at the other end of education,we will see spending cuts announced for universities which will see according at least to the Universities, thousands of people missing out on degree courses in England.

As BBC news reports

Professor Steve Smith, president of Universities UK, the vice-chancellors' group, said the cuts would impact on the quality of teaching, as managers prepared to cut teaching budgets for the first time since Labour came to power.He added that the cuts would increase competition for places.