The clear blue water that Labour supporting bureaucrats love using to justify throwing money at the party just before every election seems to be evaporating as quickly as a puddle on a sunny day. The more numerate can pore over the spreadsheet below to see what you can glean from it. The Institute for Fiscal Studies has already done the hard sums. Their conclusion is that recent public spending increases “may need to be completely reversed to fill the hole in the public finances”.

What the figures seem to show is that the Treasury is planning for cuts of 8.6% in the three year to 2014. These are cuts on a scale similar to the 1970s. The money that will be stripped from government departments will be used to pay for social security and to cover the debts incurred by bailing out the banks. The Tories are trying to make hay by claiming that Brown has been lying about his knowledge of just how deep Labour’s cuts would be in the event that they get re-elected. We know that Brown was complicit in the campaign of lies around Iraq so on this we can give Cameron the benefit of the doubt when it comes to impugning his integrity.

Imperceptibly the discourse has moved from the crisis of capitalism to all three main parties bragging of their commitment of long and deep cuts. The IFS estimates that if Cameron keeps his word to protect health and overseas aid he’ll either have to raise taxes or cut overall spending by a whopping 14%. Flagship Tory boroughs like Hammersmith are showing the way. Cameron has a plan. It’s a nasty plan but it’s easy to understand and coherent.

Labour by contrast, after a summer spent denying that it will cut public services, is now bragging about it. In local government their councillors are not planning how to resist. They are beginning to work out what can be cut, outsourced or pared to the bone. This amalgam of lies, bragging and cutting is a pretty good recipe for further antagonising its own supporters. Many will return the favour by staying at home or voting for someone else. The far right will be the big winners from this plan.

If there was such a thing as Brownism it was an amalgam of neo-liberalism and social democracy. It is now a rapidly fading memory. He used to describe social security spending as “the bill for social failure”. In a month when almost one million 16-24 year olds are on the dole he has a point but not an answer. As the banks return to business as usual the people who rescued them are going to pay twice.

A party with any real life left in it would now be a ferment of debate as different schools of thought started organising around their solutions. That’s what Thatcher and Blair did. Maybe these rows are all taking place in secret conclaves with all the participants sworn to secrecy. Maybe not. On a day when the government’s big announcement is that you can register with a doctor close to where you work rather than where you live it’s hard to see much evidence of a big vision. It’s a stupid idea anyway. If you are sick enough to need to see the doctor you shouldn’t be at work.

In the unions too the Simpsons and the Woodleys are doing what they always do at moments like this. The wagons are being circled and the cheque books are being dusted off to fund a party which is entering the election with the avowed aim of making major cuts to public spending and which is bereft of ideas for creating jobs.

The interesting question that all this throws up is to what extent Labour’s adoption of Cameron’s ideas will impact inside the unions. Any guesses?