It is now a more or less open secret that the Coalition Government is engaged on Spending Review 2013 – a year earlier than if they had stuck to the SR 2010 “plan A”.This hardly a surprise. SR 2010 was based on economic and fiscal assumptions that have turned out to be completely wrong – the economy has not bounced back in the way the Coalition promised and the effect on the public finances is dire.

Politically, the Coalition “partners” are already starting to fall out and certainly don’t want to agree SR 2014 which would effectively take them into the General Election in May 2015 on a shared public spending (cuts) platform. An earlier SR gives them the chance to part company in good time to establish their separate policy identities.

But as usual in UK government, the whole process is being kept under wraps. SR 2013 is not officially happening, even tho everyone knows it is.

So here’s an appeal: send me any stories, rumours, hard data or gossip about SR2013 if you have any. I’ll try and flush out as much advance analysis and information as we can. After all, it’s our government.