Yesterday George Osborne – the man who would be Chancellor of the Exchequer (despite no actual expertise in finance, not to mention Treasury finances), stood up in the British Museum and when he spoke the Tory manifesto pledges on the economy and budget deficit etc started to unravel before our very eyes. 

You may recall that the Conservatives had pledged massive cuts in their first 50 days of Government. For this they were roundly attacked because of the damage such mid-year cut backs would have on the finances of many public sector and voluntary organisations. 

Now they say they are not going to be nearly so brutal after all. But most worrying of all, they have decided that they are not going to tell us anything about the cuts. Yesterday George Osborne was repeatedly asked about the cuts – where, when, how much. Repeatedly he refused to answer.

It is frankly not credible to stand up and make vague and veiled promises about how they would handle the economy and budget deficit and then refuse to go into any detail. He might as well of stood up and said “Just trust me, I’m a Conservative politician”. It would be as detailed as the spinned double-talk of a speech yesterday and would have saved him and the media a lot of time.

The Tories are now in turmoil over the economy. They wanted to act tough with cuts and appear strong in their handling of the economy, prepared to take the tough decisions etc, But for whatever reason they are now recoiling from that position. There policy seems to vary depending on which Tory is speaking!

Only the Liberal Democrats have a coherent economic policy that is both credible from a treasury/economy point of view and importantly is designed to protect key public services.

The Liberal Democrats want to split up the banks so that taxpayers no longer have to underwrite reckless risk taking.

We will create a fairer tax system with an income tax cut which will make work pay for those on low incomes.

Through targeted cuts in spending we will be honest about how to reduce the deficit. And by setting up an infrastructure bank we will ensure that public infrastructure projects get the private funding they need to revolutionise our economy.  Now that is how you usher in an economy that is fit for the challenges ahead.