30th September 2010.  

Parliament is now back in recess until Monday 11th October. During that period of time the three main political parties will hold their annual Conferences. But over the next few weeks the business of Government will go on at a very fast pace, as departments seek to agree their spending plans with the Treasury before the Chancellor’s big announcement on 20th October. The spending announcement on 20th October will set in place the amount of money to be spent in each area – police, the NHS, schools, defence and so on – from April 2011 right through until April 2015.   Cabinet Ministers who cannot agree their budget settlements with the Treasury will be obliged to go before the “Star Chamber” of senior Cabinet Ministers, who will then make decisions on what budget settlement should be put in place. Of course, the Prime Minister is the final “court of...