Kiss of life or the hiss of death?
Britain’s most respected budgetary think tank has turned its slide rule over the spending and taxation proposals of each of the major parties. There are three vast black holes – one in each of the party’s proposals. All the parties have announced plans to return the economy to balance by 2015/2016. The Institute for Fiscal Studies says that 87 per cent of the Labour government’s plans for cuts in public spending or tax rises have not been revealed. It says that 82 per cent of the Tory plans are unexplained and 74.1 per cent of the Lib Dems. This is the bit of this election campaign that none of the major parties want to talk about.
Anant M Vyas 
Of course, I think it stands to reason why few cuts have been announced yet. To get the massive deficit cut down, huge cuts will be necessary and they will be harsh and cause problems for many people, but if the government cant afford these schemes, services etc. then the only option is cuts in those areas.
I think the reason no parties are very forthcoming in announcing these cuts and tax rises is because the truth will be very very unpopular. Owing to the fact we are so close to an election, that is extremely risky for any of the major three parties to announce the full extent of the necessary cuts, because they just would not win the election.
I think the only way they would really put these open onto the table is if all three parties did the same. Otherwise, their honesty would cost them heavily in votes and for no reason whatsoever because the other parties simply have to make the exact same cuts.
The parties face growing scrutiny of their spending plans amid claims they are not being upfront ahead of polling day about the scale of future cuts.