Drinking in the last chance saloon

Parliament is announcing 15 per cent cuts in its budget. There will be “outside prices” without subsidy in the bars and restaurants, a recruitment freeze, a cut-back on non-essential building works and general retrenchment.

Meanwhile the rest of us await the traditional IFS “It’s worse than you think” budget analysis at lunchtime. Could it actually be worse?

A Tory MP this morning said he felt IDS was being lined up for some mighty cuts in welfare which other ministers from both coalition parties will be dared to back to protect their own budgets from vast surgery.

But this wasn’t exactly the welfare vision IDS outlined from the backbenches. His plans were quite expensive with front-loaded costs to bring down benefits in the longer term.

Ahead of the IFS analysis we have some very helpful number crunching in the FT on capital spending (set to fall by 60 per cent by 2016 though that is based on some projects Labour brought forward to stimulate growth) and welfare cuts (he’s cutting 5 per cent of the £213bn projected tax and benefits cuts for 2014-15) and a headline that the government won’t be putting on its campaign leaflets. Imagine this on a Lib Dem Focus newsletter: “Well paid breathe collective sigh of relief.”