YOU think they would have learned, but the current spat over public finances shows our political leaders remain unrepentant and, well, just about unteachable.

Just who do they think they are kidding?

We want a grown-up debate about how the recession will affect spending on schools, hospitals and essential services. Instead, we get the usual name-calling and points-scoring.

It isn’t good enough.

A few facts. Public borrowing has risen to £775bn. By 2014, debt will have doubled as a proportion of national income. There will have to be a reckoning, which will hit public services. Capital spending – building new roads, schools, hospitals – could be cut by £22bn, and day-to-day spending by £12bn. The £217bn payback on PFI – the Private Finance Initiative – through which most school and hospital building is funded will also kick in.

We need to add in other factors. Our working age population is declining. The numbers of elderly are rising. We’re going to have unprecedented pressure on public services, whichever party is in power. Every sensible person in the public sector knows this, so why don’t our politicians just tell it like it is?

They need to do so because at times of crisis people need to feel confident that their government is being honest. It is also important as councils, health trusts, police forces and regeneration agencies need to plan now for the difficult times ahead. Central government should be showing a lead.

It is going to be tough. The bodies I have mentioned have all sharpened their acts in recent years. They have broken down the old public sector silo mentality that bred duplication and waste. Partnership working, ensuring that resources and knowledge are pooled and targeted where they’ll do most good, has never been stronger.

But we will all have to raise our game; pressures on services and the needs and expectations of our citizens will be higher than we have ever seen. If things aren’t done differently, it’s likely they won’t get done at all.

People will be looking for solutions and leadership at local level. Quite frankly, they aren’t getting it from a government that’s economical with the truth, but profligate with public money. We will have to do better.

IWAS delighted to see The Northern Echo support the North-East Big Drink Debate organised by Balance, the North-East alcohol office – a long-needed discussion.

The reason is simple. Though most people, I suppose, enjoy a drink without harming themselves or anyone else, alcohol is the fuel for most of the public disorder and domestic breakdown and a big chunk of the illhealth that we experience in the region.

Alcohol abuse costs the North-East £1bn a year – some drinks bill and we all know the money could be better spent. As the Echo remarked, we’ve seen unprecedented changes in public attitudes to smoking in the past few years. Now’s the time to have the same kind of honest, open debate on booze.

ETERNAL optimism comes as standard when you are a Middlesbrough supporter.

So at season’s end a lot of fans cheered themselves up with the prospect of agreeable away-days, and no doubt a few easy points, at grounds they hadn’t frequented for more than a decade.

The words a “weekend in Blackpool” came up – so imagine the reaction when the fixture list revealed the seaside trip takes place on Tuesday, February 16. Some people’s luck is further out than the tide at Blackpool.