The main issue debated in 2012 was the level of public spending by which the government would commit itself for the next 4 years.
This was a critical issue because the government had spent unprecedented amounts of economic resources in order to stop the economic downturn that occurred in 2008 as a product of the stock market crash and the housing bubble. A lot of money was given to companies who were labeled as "Too Big to Fail" in order for them to stabilize their operations during this period of economic hardship.