If the Dreamliner starts rolling off the production line towards the end of this year, as Boeing promises, it will be billions over budget and three years behind schedule.

Education, by contrast, got off relatively lightly, with the budget for schools to rise every year until 2015, although funding for humanities and social-science subjects at universities will fall.

Cuts in the education budget will probably shorten the school year by a week, require teachers to be laid off and cause classes to get bigger.