My efficiency saving is bigger than yours!

“I don’t believe it!” Victor Meldrew adds his two pennies worth to the various claims about efficiency savings

Lord Adonis wants YOU! (well, if you’re Liberal Democrat)
And so the first week of the election campaign ends much as it began, with the Tories and Labour still trading blows over efficiency savings. The Tories have arguably had the better of it this week, with Labour usually on the defensive. Today saw the Tories’ chief efficiency savings guru, Sir Peter Gershon (previously employed by the Government to advise them on, er, efficiency savings) give a bit more detail on where the Tories have found more efficiency savings than the Government. Labour did its best Victor Meldrew impression (Alistair Darling didn’t quite say “I don’t believe it!” but it was close) and said the Tories would be cutting up to 40,000 public sector jobs.

More interesting was Lord Adonis’ plea for Liberal Democrat voters to vote tactically for Labour to keep the Tories out. Adonis, a former Liberal Democrat councillor himself before metamorphosing into the lovable (unless you live near Heathrow) Transport Secretary/train geek, seems to be taking a somewhat negative approach for a campaign still in its infancy.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"I f****** hate Paolo Nutini."

– regardless of how much one might loathe Mr Nutini, Rule #1 of How To Be A PPC is don’t broadcast it on Twitter. As sacked Labour PPC for Moray, Stuart MacLennan, discovered to his cost having tweeted on David Cameron, John Bercow and Nick Clegg with equally heavy reliance on expletives.

THE GREASY POLL
Lab 31, Con 38, LibDem 20 (Sky News Poll of Polls)