As journalist Paul Waugh tweeted shortly after the event: "Sight of Cable and Balls getting cosy on Marr sofa will infuriate several Tory MPs". The meeting of the two politicians was timely after the Shadow Chancellor's overtures to the Lib Dems, and Vince Cable in particular. In a column in the Sunday Mirror today, Ed Balls has written:

The country cannot afford to wait until the next election before we get a change of course. Because the longer ministers refuse to act, the more long-term damage will be done to our economy. That's why I want to work with other parties - including sensible people in the Government - on a new economic plan.

In his heart of hearts, Lib Dem Business Secretary Vince Cable must know that Plan A is not working. After all, before the last election, he warned - with Labour - that David Cameron and George Osborne's policies would backfire. And sadly our warnings came true.

As well as confirming that a third runway with Heathrow "isn't going to happen", Cable, in his interview with Marr, chimed with Balls's rhetoric, saying that he was a man of "the centre left" who believes in "fairness and redistribution". Balls's response? "Sounds good to me".