Will a would-be-Chancellor make a break for it?

The three Shadow Chancellors are gearing up for tonight's debate on Channel 4 as I type, no doubt wrestling with their consciences and respective leaders over how revealing and detailed they should be in terms of what should be cut in the next parliamentary term.

I wonder though, given that all independent bodies from the IFS to the EU are stating that not enough is being done to cut the deficit and crucially not enough is currently being promised by any party, whether Darling, Osborne or Cable should gamble on the all-in strategy of announcing unrelenting, uncomparable and frankly unpalatable slashing of spending, and even some tax rises to boot.

I appreciate that the public votes for fiscal pain as much as turkeys vote for Christmas but we live in special times, unique even for this generation. Labour and Tory spending plans differ by less than 1%. Perhaps the rulebook has to be thrown out and someone has to make a sprint to the finish to give us a fully informed dividing line to work with.

Vince Cable is the most trusted of the three men on tonight's show per a recent poll and he could cement that status, and perhaps create an overwhelming public clamour for Vince to be Chancellor irrespective of who forms the minority Goverment (as it will surely be) if he is the one to law out the clearest path.

Watching two Shadow Chancellors stutter and splutter as a third provides a detailed four year plan for clearing the deficit rather than denting it is what I would call a result from this evening's proceedings.