'We need to balance the books'

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has called for a "grown-up" debate about public expenditure cuts.

Official borrowing figures out on Friday show public sector net borrowing reached £16.1bn in August taking net borrowing to £65.3bn for the five months of the financial year so far and Chancellor Alistair Darling has begun holding one-to-one meetings with cabinet members to look at possible spending cuts.