The Third Most Important Man in Britain

Well, in the government anyway. After David Cameron and Nick Clegg, the next most important chap is David Laws. So it’s reassuring to see that the Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury is prepared for the worst. I recommend this interview with the Financial Times which, frankly, offers just another reminder that the calibre of the cabinet has been improved by including the Orange Bookers:

[S]ome of the decisions that have got to be made, particularly in the spending review later on this year, are going to be a choice between the unpalatable and the disastrous.

[…]I’m mentally prepared for getting a lot of representations from angry people about reductions in budgets and I’m mentally prepared for having to go out and sell the decisions that we make to people in this country who are going to find some of the things we do very challenging and some of those things are going to be unpopular in my own constituency as well as across the rest of the country.