The Lib Dems could go from being the ‘nice party’ to the ‘nasty party’

Danny Alexander managed to please Ed Balls at Treasury Questions today by revealing that he wasn’t opposed to the Shadow Chancellor’s call for the Office for Budget Responsibility to audit the spending pledges made in an opposition party’s manifesto. He told the Commons:

‘I think this is an idea well worth further consideration, Mr Speaker. What I’d be worried about in taking it forward is the pressure it would place on the Office for Budget Responsibility, which is a new organisation that’s only recently taken on responsibility for forecasting the public finances. I’d worry that in the first election when they have those responsibilities this function might be difficult for them to carry through but I do think it’s an idea that is well worthy of debate because of course the British people need to know that what every party says is what it means. I’d suggest respectfully to the Shadow Chancellor, Mr Speaker, that spending a bank bonus tax ten times over doesn’t meet that test.’