Labour have signed up to George Osborne's new charter for budget responsibility, despite dismissing it as “a silly political stunt”.
Leaving aside the fact that Osborne has dismissed fiscal responsibility acts in similar terms as a "completely feeble stunt", the chancellor's new rule is to end the annual current structural deficit in three years and for debt to be falling as a percentage of GDP by 2016-2017.
In his Autumn Statement, Osborne laid out his "long term economic plan" to keep cutting spending until the budget was in surplus, set for around 2018-2019. But why are all these politicians falling over each other to talk tough on cuts?
A new poll by ComRes shows the public are fiercely against Osborne's intended level of austerity.
The ComRes survey for the Independent found that while 30% of voters backed cutting spending until the budget was in surplus, 66% disagreed with that approach.
The poll also found that a similar proportion of the public - 67% - do not trust David Cameron or Ed Miliband to cut spending without harming public services.
Meanwhile, the Bank of England has warned that the worsening state of the global economy could put Britain's economic recovery at risk.
"The global economic outlook has weakened since the June 2014 Report and market concerns over persistent weak nominal growth and geopolitical risk have increased," the Bank said in its latest Financial Stability Report released on Tuesday.
"These developments could affect the outlook for financial stability in the United Kingdom if concerns about persistent low growth lead to a sudden reappraisal of underlying vulnerabilities in highly indebted economies, or if a shift in global risk appetite triggers sharp adjustments in financial markets and undermines business and household confidence."