The unanimous conclusion is that spending over the next two parliaments must be drastically cut.

Good. It's about time we had some more honesty about the scale of our country's finances, which are diabolically bad. The "we must keep spending at all costs" contingent are now outliers, and rightly so.  Their type, which includes Gordon Brown, are completely incapable of controlling the spending tap when times are good and would still call for increased spending even as the bailiffs were starting to carry out the furniture.

Unfortunately for voters, although Alistair Darling appears to have grasped the severity of the issue, he's the one person who cannot be picked as Chancellor by the people. A win for Labour means Ed Balls as Chancellor and, given the hash he has made of the Department for Children, Schools and Families, he won't share Darling's sense of urgency. And it's a pity that the Conservatives, who first made the case for cuts, aren't getting their fair share of the credit.

Even Darling's case is over-egged by The Observer's article - he could and should be doing much more to cut now. Every cut he makes this coming financial year is one that won't be adding go the deficit and will be helping to deliver a lower base from which to make future cuts. Our children demand that we don't make them pay for our fiscal cowardice.

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Filed under: Economics, Politics with tags alistair darling, conservatives, deficit, ed balls, gordon brown, guardian