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What does an 'unveiling' suggest to you?

A polite public gathering munching vol au vents as a plaque is revealed? A sharp intake of breath as a villain is unmasked? A provocative dance? How about the opposition outlining their spending plans?

If you were hoping for the Dance of the Seven Veils I'm sorry to disappoint. The 'unveiling' I'm talking about is "today's very rare publication of an opposition party's public spending priorities", the figures the Conservatives say prove it is possible, justified and right to ring-fence spending on health.

In effect, it's a shadow budget without the frills. A shadow budget with very little, in fact, other than headline figures. And no fanfare either, no press conference, no media briefing on a day when most eyes will be trained on Westminster and the vote on tuition fees.

When the party went for it, the policy of ring-fencing health spending must have felt like a real winner. In fact I'm quite sure that those who came up with it and championed it were convinced it would be a real winner. It's straightforward, easy to grasp, attractive - all in all a headache for a government planning to cut health spending while in England and in Scotland, governments are pledging to defend it til the last.

A home run, thought some Conservatives, leading all the way to votes won in May.

Labour and Plaid thought so too - or feared it. Show us the money they said. Show us the figures. Show us what you would cut in order to save the millions needed to protect health spending. And what exactly do you mean by protecting health spending? The party leader and then Health spokesman didn't always seem to be singing from the same hymn sheet. When we asked how the pledge would be paid for, the leader sounded as if he'd been caught off guard.

So today, the Conservatives show the headlines if not the maths. Every department - other than health - takes a deeper cut than already inflicted by Labour and Plaid.

WAG's plans Conservative
alternative

Health and Social Services -7.6% NIL

Social Justice and Local Government -7.4% -12.5%

Education, Children & Lifelong Learning -8% -12%

Economy and Transport -21.3% -30%

Environment, Sustainability and Housing -21% -25%

Rural Affairs -12.7% -15%

Heritage -13% -20%

Public Services and Performance -24.4% -30%

Central Services and Administration -19.1% -25%

A few more veils come off too.

In government the party would introduce a public sector pay freeze for salaries over £21,000, postpone a number of road building projects, make a further reduction of 1.5% in the local government settlement, replace Communities First with a voluntary sector "Big Society" programme and reverse the Assembly Government's plan for Welsh students to pay lower fees than their counterparts in England.

There would also be a "continued war on waste." In other words 'bloated WAG departments" watch out and bye bye free breakfasts and universal free prescriptions.

Labour, Plaid and the Liberal Democrat response? To laugh at the lack of detail, put inverted commas around the word shadow "budget" and accuse the Conservatives of slipping their list of savage cuts out when they think no-one is watching.

The Conservative plan? To hope, perhaps, that they've revealed just enough leg to bat off future questions about how practical the health spending pledge is but not reveal so much that they've disclosed too many wobbly bits.

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