In TS Eliot's famous line from Four Quartets, ‘human kind/Cannot bear very much reality.' In psychological terms, denial is accepted as one of humankind's best-known defence mechanisms for people who seem unwilling to face reality or admit an obvious truth.

But it would not seem out of place to accuse prime minister David Cameron of having caught a dose of deficit denial; not if we are to follow the response last week to the prime minister's reassertion that £100bn savings were made this Parliament, while income tax was cut £10.5bn, and a further £25bn savings and £7.2bn income tax cuts were planned after the next General Election.