Hard Choices – chancellors debate: 'a few blows, but no knockout'

In the end it was a bit of a disappointment. Not much blood on the mat or any clear knockouts. Gorgeous George did better than expected: there was some smart money on him to be on the canvas early, but it didn’t happen. Vince Cable was the most depressingly realistic and emerged as more of an honest broker because of it. The other parties still largely sidestepped the issues of exactly which spending areas would feel the axe swinging.