The manifesto was even more averse than Mr Koizumi has been to public-works spending, pledging to slash the budget for such projects by 30%.
Cameron has pledged to use some of Major's campaign ideas – posters vilifying Kinnock's tax and spend pledges, and so on.
Labour attributed its defeat in the 1992 election to its tax and spend pledges - memorably described by one of its own party members as "the longest suicide note in history".
Particularly when it comes to spending pledges.
We make no specific spending pledges at this stage".
The party of austerity has sprayed around spending pledges, while ridiculing Labour as incompetent spendthrifts.
The Tories have zigzagged through the financial crisis to an alarming degree, austerity here, spending pledges there.
This figure refers to spending pledges, while Cameron opted to focus on the lower figure of €908.4bn, agreed as the supposed ceiling on what may be spent.
His grasp of economics (he made his millions selling economic research in the City) is valuable to a party that has tripped up on the detail of spending pledges before.
As the Institute of Fiscal Studies points out, there is little difference between the SNP's "anti-austerity" spending pledges and Labour's "triple lock budget responsibility" plans, which in fact would allow Miliband to avoid almost all cuts.
