Ring-fencing the NHS and schools is no longer viable

The chancellor went on the Today programme this morning to trumpet his success in getting seven government departments to agree on their budgets for 2015-16 as part of the Spending Review that he will announce on 26 June. It is reported that they have all agreed to cuts of between 8 and 10 per cent.

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December’s economic update

Tony Dolphin is the chief economist at the IPPR and a regular contributor to The Guardian and New Statesman. During the autumn statement last month, George Osborne claimed that the UK economy was slowly on the mend; however, the latest data indicates the opposite may betest