One month from no cuts to £57 billion cuts

"9 December 2009: Pre-Budget Report 2009 forecasts Public Sector Net Borrowing of £176 billion, and Public Sector Net Debt of £986 billion, in 2010-11.

10 December 2009: Alistair Darling puts in a bizarre performance on the Today programme, claiming that the PBR implies that departmental budgets would remain “pretty much flat.”

10 December 2009: The IFS works out that the PBR implies departmental budget cuts of around 19 percent over three years.

9 January 2010: In an interview with the Times, Alistair Darling admits that a tough spending review will see £57 billion worth of spending cuts and tax rises. He adds: "Many departments will have less money in the next few years." "

The above is from The Spectator Coffee House.
So in one month Alistair Darling has gone from saying that departmental budgets would remain "pretty much flat" to saying that departments will face £57 billion of cuts.

Now I think this is a pretty big story; surely it means that Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling were being less than truthful in the PBR and in subsequent interviews and speeches. Surely this is a major news story; not according to the BBC whose main headlines are "Togo pulls team out of Africa Cup", "Woodward in NI devolution warning" and "PM pledge on cold snap gas supply". Hidden way is a story entitled "Alistair Darling warns of tough spending cuts" which manages to not report the volte face by Alistair Darling but instead portrays the story as one of Alistair Darling's brave decision making

"The next spending review will be the toughest we have had for 20 years... to me, cutting the borrowing was never negotiable. Gordon accepts that, he knows that."

I found this part of the story interesting:

"Mr Darling said electors support his plan to balance the books.

"Most people know that public spending has doubled over the last 10 to 12 years, so we are coming off a much higher base, " he said.

"We are not talking about a situation where we have already cut to the bone." "

So when Gordon Brown said that Tory cuts would threaten services, was he wrong? Will he be questioned about this by the BBC ever? Will Nick Robinson do an in depth report on his blog? Will Jeremy Paxman ask the tough questions? I think we know the answers to those questions...