George Osborne used his first speech of 2014 today to warn that a further £25bn of cuts in public spending is required after the 2015 general election. £12bn in Welfare cuts will be made in the first two years of the next government.
According to the Financial Times: “The chancellor’s comments are intended to frame the political debate leading into the 2015 election, as he tries to portray the Tories as the only party capable of taking tough decisions on the deficit.” Austerity isn’t necessary of temporary, it’s ideological and permanent so long as these people are in charge.
Austerity is Ideological
On arrival in government, the Conservative section of the Coalition government were keen to present austerity as temporary, necessary and purely practical. Back in 2010, Cameron claimed that he “didn’t come into politics to make cuts”[1], and that austerity was simply temporary spending restraint based on a necessary effort to cut the deficit, not “some ideological zeal”.[2]
What we can now see, is that ‘Austerity’ is delivering the half century long ambition of the Conservative party: to revoke the post-war social contract of the United Kingdom.
The modern welfare state: decent pensions, affordable and decent social housing, a publicly funded and managed healthcare system, a reliable and low cost transport system, the guarantee of a decent education regardless of circumstances of birth. This was the social contract the UK public signed up to in the post war period. Why? Because these generations had lived through the horrific consequences of unrestrained capitalism; enormous inequality, widespread poverty and destitution, starving and malnourished children, an entrenched class system, the benefits of the hard work of the many enjoyed by a privileged and undeserving few.
David Cameron is taking the country back to those dark days….
Scriptonite Daily
Kerry-anne Mendoza
Kerry-anne Mendoza
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