Cut, cut, cut: Alistair Darling versus Greg Barker

New Statesman
"The inconvenient truth is that Labour, thanks to the so-called Darling plan for deficit reduction, had also planned to go beyond Thatcher too - and were equally keen to "let the cat out of the bag".

Here's the relevant quote from the then Chancellor, Alistair Darling, in an interview with the BBC's Nick Robinson in March 2010:

Robinson: "The Treasury's own figures suggest deeper, tougher than Thatcher's - do you accept that?"

Darling: "They will be deeper and tougher - where we make the precise comparison I think is secondary to an acknowledgement that these reductions will be tough."