Guardian: Environment secretary Owen Paterson had, I'm told, battled hard in the fight over which departments' budgets would fare the worst in Wednesday's spending review. He failed. One insider told me: "Paterson was lucky to escape with a department at all."
George Osborne inflicted the highest level of budget cuts 10% - on the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), alongside a few other unfortunates just as he did in the 2010 spending review.
The casualties will be flood defences...