On The Agenda tonight...

There was a time, long, long ago, when the a discussion on the deficit was the preserve of economists and political policy wonks. If you remember it with affection, you are not alone.

But once again this week, another big parliamentary event - the Autumn Statement - will be dominated with our dire fiscal position, despite arapidly improving economy.

The hard truth is that for all the talk of immigration and the NHS and many other issues besides, what we really experience at the hands of the next government is likely to be determined by the deficit and what the individual parties decide to do about it.

If it is George Osborne in the Treasury, he has to find something close to forty billion pounds a year to fill his black hole, which he is likely to do largely through further spending cuts.

If it is Ed Balls, he needs to find somewhere around ten billion (because he is not intending to eliminate the deficit entirely).

Neither man has specified where the vast bulk of this money is going to come from, which makes the election choice itself somewhat surreal. One might argue; how can we vote when we don't really know what we are voting on?

In the hope of helping a bit, we will be discussing this on The Agenda tonight with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander, Former BBC Economics Editor Stephanie Flanders (now of JP Morgan Asset Management), the Daily Mail columnist (and former Press Secretary to William Hague) Amanda Platell and, for a different perspective, acclaimed actor Charles Dance. If you want an excellent start point of the discussion, have a look at this clever summary by our Agenda team;

With Charles on the panel (who has played a few of late), we will also be discussing our national love of a good villain. So if you want a really good laugh, check out this;

Tune in tonight at 10.35 on ITV.

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