“Research and teaching at higher education are closely linked. It’s important for legitimate reasons of scholarship and credibility.”This proliferation is not a new phenomenon. The 1996 Harris report found “powerful evidence of widespread confusion, at home and overseas, about what the now hugely diverse postgraduate sector is offering”. Yet Howard Green of the UK Council of Graduate Education says that Martin Harris’s recommendations – a national directory of postgraduate programmes and the rationalisation of masters titles – have been ignored. The second – the golden rule – says that over an economic cycle he can only borrow to make long-term investment and can’t borrow to fund day-to-day spending.

Investment is fine as future generations will benefit from it so they can pay for it but current spending should be paid for now.Q: So is he meeting these rules?A: The first one, he’s meeting easily. But the Tories say that if you include the money needed to bail out Railtrack and the billions needed to pay for the pensions of government workers over the years, then he isn’t. Someone in the pub said last night that if you strip out government spending over the next couple of years there’s not a huge amount of growth in the economy. And it also gives those clever johnnies in the City of London a chance to see whether he has cut his growth forecasts and raised his numbers of the public deficits – as most of them expect.Q: Does that matter much? Most people I know are in work, the shops look full and there’s lots of news in the papers about takeover battles and juicy bonuses for bosses.A: That is true – we are enjoying a pretty solid economy at the moment but a lot is linked to government spending.

But it does matter, for another reason.Q: What’s that, then? Is that golden rule malarkey?A: Yes. Back in 1997 Gordon Brown – or, some say, his chief Svengali, Ed Balls (pictured) – drew up two rules that he said he would stick to and which would show he wasn’t like previous Labour Chancellors who spent like billy-o and then had to hike taxes or run to the IMF for a bail out.Q: I’m going to regret this but remind me of the rules.A: One says, basically, that he should keep the total stock of public debt below 40 per cent of the annual income in the economy. On following our own golden rules, success is guaranteed.
Q: I thought the Budget was in March, why do we need another one?A: This isn’t a Budget, where taxes and fuel and booze duties get set, this is a sort of dry run, just to keep the voters up to date on the state of the economy and perhaps warn them of one of two things that might come up in the Budget.Q: So what happened to the old autumn statement when the Government used to announce spending plans?A: Well, do you remember a man called Norman Lamont (pictured below)? Thought not He delivered the last autumn statement in 1992. After that Kenneth Clarke unified the tax and spend into one November statement. Then in 1997 Gordon Brown came in, switched the Budget to March-ish and invented the PBR.Q: So if it doesn’t change taxes or announce new spending, what is the point?A: The main point is for the Chancellor to update his forecasts on economic growth and the finances.Q: You mean this is when he goes on and on about how Britain has had the longest period of economic growth since the Industrial Revolution, weathered the downturn better than any other major economy, especially Europe’s, and there’ll be no more boom and bust like what we had under Mr Lamont?A: That’s a bit cynical, but yes there is an election round the corner, not forgetting all that talk that Brown might have a go for the leadership. Bored with House Prices? Fancy a new topic of conversation at the dinner-party, or down the pub? Then try Gordon Brown’s pre-election budget report.