WITH a scant week to go until polling day all the parties seem to have belatedly realised that it is time to bring out the big guns and, in at least one case, a stiletto.

Cameron announced yesterday that it was “time to throw caution to the wind.”

Which, ironically, is what got them into this mess in the first place.Someone who seems to have taken his advice to heart however was Lib Dem Treasury wonk Danny Alexander, known for his likeness to muppet Beaker.

Alexander is a curious beast. Having spent the last five years doing a highly convincing impression of a toadying lickspittle, in the last few weeks he seems to think he’s some kind of Rob Roy-Spartacus hybrid.

Now the more cynical among you may think that this is because he realises he’s a beaten docket and there’s no way he’s going to retain his seat, so he might as well take one for the team.

But more likely he’s just seen a chance to bite the hand that fed him and is trying to worm his way out of trouble.

Alexander accused the Tories of being hell-bent on “slashing support for families” as he went public with proposals for an additional £8 billion of welfare cuts that he claimed were vetoed by the Lib Dems.

He said his former coalition colleagues were “trying to con the British people by keeping their planned cuts secret until after the election” and being either incompetent or deceitful.

Let’s face it, it may well be a combination of the two.The previously shelved plans — including limiting child benefit and child tax credit to two children at a cost of £3,500 for a family of three — were a clear signal of where the axe would fall, he said.

Speaking of beaten dockets, Alexander received the full backing of Nick Clegg over his latest attempt at skulduggery.But then Nick Clegg got the backing of Nick Clegg this week too, with the Lib Dem leader putting £50 on himself to keep the deputy prime minister job.

This is the political equivalent of backing a three-legged donkey at Newmarket and could well be described as throwing good money after bad.

But then that has been coalition policy for the last five years, so why change now?