Two speeches at the CBI this morning from the two men who want to be in No 10 after the election with one message in common.
One of them stated:
"Dealing with this deficit is not an alternative to economic growth - the two go hand in hand."
The other insisted:
"our strategy for growth is not at the expense of necessary deficit reduction - it is absolutely central to that objective."
Both are clearly determined that by emphasising growth or deficit reduction they do not seem to have ignored the need for deficit reduction or growth.
As it happens, the first quote is from David Cameron whilst the second is from Gordon Brown.
The prime minister adjusted his rhetoric over the summer to move away from the crude "cuts versus investment" mantra he'd produced week after week with such relish. Now, David Cameron is changing his - ditching talk of an "era of austerity" to outline instead a route to an era of prosperity. Yesterday he even stole a Brown-ism by promising to "go for growth".
Just as with Brown before him, my sense with Cameron is that it is the words rather than the policies or values which have shifted. Both men are positioning themselves ahead of the chancellor's pre-Budget report which will define the economic and political debate between now and the election.
Both are also inclined to find third parties to endorse their approach.
This morning Dominique Strauss-Kahn, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, helped Gordon Brown (for once) by telling the CBI that he and his team were owed "a debt of gratitude" for their work in organising a global response to the financial crisis. In words which will, no doubt, be heard at this week's Prime Minister's Questions he also helped Gordon Brown's argument about the need to sustain the stimulus:
"Exit too soon and you kill the recovery. Exit too late and you sow the seeds for the next crisis... we recommend erring on the side of caution as exiting too early is costlier than exiting too late."
David Cameron will have ready three quotes of his own to use in reply which he deployed this morning:
• The OECD pronouncement that "by developing and announcing more ambitious fiscal consolidation plans early... the government would strengthen the recovery"
• The CBI's own director general Richard Lambert who said that the CBI's "strong instincts" are "that the risks of going too soon" on cutting the deficit "are less than the risks of waiting too long" (the opposite of what the man from the IMF said)
• President Obama himself who has said it is important "to recognise that if we keep on adding to the debt, even in the midst of this recovery, that at some point, people could lose confidence... in a way that could actually lead to a double-dip recession."
Rest assured. This one will run and run.