Our Prime Minister Business Secretary, Lord Peter Mandelson, has come out swinging blindly against the Tories. From the BBC:

Attacking the Conservatives, the business secretary said David Cameron's party wanted "deep, savage, indiscriminate, across-the-board spending cuts".

He added: "The fact is that a new generation of Conservatives is now foaming at the mouth with excitement at the turn of economic events.

"They believe it releases them from the need to remake the image of the Conservative Party as a nice party with a genuine concern for fairness and commitment to public services now."

First of all, what is wrong with "deep", "across the board" spending cuts when the country is on the brink of bankruptcy? And what evidence is there that any spending cuts would be "savage" and "indiscriminate"? None, really. But I guess "deep, savage, indiscriminate, across the board" sounds far more terrifyingly arbitrary than "deep, across the board."

But it says something about the skewed logic of political debate and reporting in this country that a party has to be wed to colossal levels of public spending in order to be "nice". Well, what is "nice" about taking the taxpayer's money and spunking it away on inefficient and costly public service? What is "nice" about unwarranted and often deeply intrusive theft from the taxpayer's purse?

Yes, Lord Mandelson, you're in the "nice" party. Really fucking "nice".