In recent weeks, senior Conservatives have stressed that the party will face extremely tough choices if it wins the next election given the state of public finances.
It's getting less clear by the day that the state of the public finances will be capable of big orders for the global combat ship as early as anticipated.
One common explanation - favoured by the coalition - is that Labour took a much too rosy view of the underlying state of the public finances in the years leading up to the crunch.
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First, that the state of the public finances demands voters pay more to maintain quality services.
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The Tories say the state of the public finances in the coming years in unknowable.
But setting out to spend significantly more or tax significantly less would be risky, even if the state of the public finances permitted it.
It reports on the state of the public finances and assesses whether the government is likely to achieve its goal of balancing the UK's budget within five years ('balancing the budget' is where spending matches the amount received from things like taxes).
The Autumn Statement was traditionally used for an update on the general state of public finances and the wider economy.
At the time, Mr Straw sought to blame the previous administration, saying that Labour had no choice but to stick to two years' worth of Conservative spending plans on taking office because of the allegedly parlous state of the public finances.
The state of French public finances only reinforces the division.
Moreover, low credit from the voters and the dire state of public finances mean that whoever wins the election will be constrained in what they can do.
The rickety state of the public finances also argues against a big fiscal fillip.
He also called for banks to continue lending and said that businesses expect the government to sort out "the appalling state of the public finances".
Fortunately for Mr Brown, the healthy state of the public finances means that he does not have to rely upon such temporary gains to finance any tax cuts.
The reality, underlined in this report, is that George Osborne has faced a big deterioration in the underlying state of the public finances since 2010, which he has decided to do almost nothing about this side of a general election.
Italy's competitiveness is an even more worrying long-term concern than the state of its public finances.
Even the Lib Dems have postponed their once-totemic plans to scrap fees altogether, citing the parlous state of public finances.
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And, given the perilous state of Japan's public finances, the next government will have precious little room for maneuver to boost public investment.
And there are increasingly disapproving noises being made in the markets about the state of France's public finances.
If you're the kind of person that likes a good fiscal horror story, you'll find plenty of scary sounding numbers in today's report from the OBR on the long-term state of Britain's public finances.
In that sense, the government has "delayed some of the planned adjustment" - though, it must be said, only because the worsened state of the economy means the same amount of spending cuts and tax rises will not do as much to help the public finances in this parliament than they previously hoped.
That matters because the structural reforms of public finances to which Mr Cardoso is committed require state governors not just to accept curbs on their own spending, but to back a tax reform meant to give the federal government more control over revenues (see article).
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