I had an interesting exchange on Twitter with a person called Giles Wilkes this morning:

It's worth knowing a bit of Giles' background. He now works for the Institute of Government, but as they say of him:

Giles is a senior fellow at the Institute for Government. Before joining the Institute, Giles spent two and a half years as special adviser to Theresa May on industrial and economic policy, and four years in a similar role to Vince Cable in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

He has also been a writer of editorials for the Financial Times, Chief Economist at the think tank CentreForum, and spent 10 years in the financial markets.

He is a LibDem. You'll be unsurprised to hear that he is from the Orange Book, neoliberal wing of that party. We have, I admit, crossed swords before. And I am unashamed of pointing out the hollowness of his party's agenda, about which I have previously written:

The LibDems are promoting the most hard-right, neoliberal, callously indifferent economic agenda of any mainstream party in this election

I stand by that assertion. In that post I said:

This [LibDem policy of running a government surplus] is hard-core, right-wing neoliberal economic illiteracy. It manages to make George Osborne look left-wing. And it shows not the slightest understanding of economics, the role of government in society or the nature of money and its relationship to tax. It's also callously indifferent to society, the role of government, all who work in it and all who are dependent upon it.

To claim that it would help those in social care, when it would deny them funding by forcing the government to cut spending to run a surplus, is quite absurd.

And I have to say, I think the Institute of Government might be a little concerned about a senior adviser who is quote so rude when the falseness of his argument is exposed.