Osborne vows to play straight

George Osborne’s statement is, I hear, about 40 minutes long. I also hear that there is no obfuscation in it about what is being cut. The coalition is determined that no one can accuse them of trying to disguise what they are up to.

Given what we have learned from pre-briefing, the cuts must be just massive in the departments we haven’t heard anything about yet.

There is word this morning that the legal aid budget is going to be being reduced by far more than was expected even at the weekend. It appears that legal aid is one of the things that took the hit as the Treasury tried to find some other money to make the numbers for the fairness premium and the defence review add up.