David Prosser: A little knowledge is a dangerous thing

Outlook: It can’t be much fun working at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, the think tank that has become the de facto judge of political parties’ economic plans.

Invariably these days, its reports make depressing reading and yesterday’s audit of the main parties’ lack of candour about their plans for the public finances was no different. To offer a flavour of the challenge identified by the IFS, it says the Liberal Democrats – which, having declared plans for spending cuts of £15bn, can claim to have gone furthest – will need to find another £36bn of reductions by 2017. The IFS message is that no one is really being honest about the savage nature of cuts to come.