How Cameron should respond to the ‘Tory cuts’ jibe

The clunking fist will be swinging for David Cameron today at PMQs. Gordon Brown will see yesterday’s Tory decision not to pledge to match Labour’s spending plans for 2010-11 as his chance to paint them as both clueless and heartless.

David Cameron should reply to Brown’s inevitable tirade about ‘Tory cuts’ with something along these lines:

“We’ll match his party on education, funding for the police, the military and the frontline of the health service. But we won’t match them on waste, inefficiency and pointless bureaucratic schemes.”

However tempting it might be to get into an ideological debate about how more money does not automatically translate into better services, electorally the Tories need to protect themselves — this is where I disagree with Fraser — against the coming Labour charge, however bogus it may be, that Tory plans would require schools and hospitals to be shut. The best way to do this is to pledge not to cut funding for these services in 2010-11.