In the canteens of Westminster, political staffers, cleaners and journalists are munching their subsidised houmous wraps and quaffing red fruit smoothies as if they don’t know where their next meal is coming from: a Conservative government is hoving into view and nothing will be spared the axe.

Well, almost nothing. David Cameron, the Tory leader, has ruled that the National Health Service – the world’s third-biggest employer after the Chinese army and the Indian railways – is too politically sacred to be touched. Just about everything else is up for grabs.