The FT highlights a bit of Indian Bicycle Marketing ...

Commenting on the consensus between the two major parties that government spending will have to be reduced ...

Now, everyone wants to cut. But who is going to get to do it?

The Conservatives’ pitch seems to be: let us do the cutting, because we thought of it first. Also, they will slash the deficit by hiking the price of a plate of fish and chips in the House of Commons canteen, which is roughly equivalent to an attempt to save Lehman Brothers by fishing out the spare change from down the back of Dick Fuld’s sofa.

Labour’s bid is subtler, or at least more baffling: both of us will cut, but only the Tories will enjoy it. Better, apparently, to have a machete taken to the undergrowth of the public sector by someone with a tear rather than a glint in his eye. Mr Brown’s Calvinist instincts are evident: don’t let anyone do anything they might conceivably take any pleasure from.

Yup, more-or-less identical policies, different spin. That sums up UK politics today.