Hiding to nothing?

In just nine days time George Osborne will very possibly become the most unpopular man in Britain when he stands up in the House of Commons to announce a Budget full of pain.

We've been hearing from Professor Christopher Hood of Oxford University about public spending. He's presenting a paper this week to the 2020 Public Service Commission on the subject. When I spoke to him earlier, Professor Hood told me the scale of the cuts currently planned was similar to those of the 1970s and 80s but less severe than the reduction in spending carried out by the last Liberal-Conservative coalition in the early 1920s.