Skip Navigation | Sheffield IMC | UK IMC | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Support Us

UK Indymedia UK Indymedia Sheffield Indymedia Sheffield Indymedia

Spending cuts in Britain worst since World War II

Chris Talbot | 28.06.2010 07:38 | Other Press | Social Struggles | Workers' Movements | Sheffield

After detailed examination of the UK coalition budget measures, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said the country faces the “longest, deepest, sustained period of cuts to public services spending at least since World War II”. It is the first time that a British government has proposed six consecutive years of spending cuts.

The IFS refuted the Conservative-Liberal Democrat government’s rhetoric that the rich would “feel more pain” than the poor, stating, “If you look at reforms due to be introduced in 2013 and 2014, they hit the poorest hardest and indeed keep on hitting them more and more every year”.

Furthermore, IFS states, “looming cuts to public services...are likely to hit poorer households significantly harder than richer households”.

As experts worked through the implications of the fine print contained in the Treasury Red Book that sets out the details of the budget, it became clear that more than one million people face eviction from their homes. Some 900,000 people in private rented accommodation will lose their housing benefit under Chancellor George Osborne’s plan to cut housing allowance by 40 percent. Hundreds of thousands of people who rent homes from local authorities and housing associations will be forced out of family-sized properties under the benefit changes. A total of three million people will be affected by the housing benefit changes.

Conservative estimates suggest that 725,000 jobs will be lost in the public sector over the next five years. Another 200,000 people are likely to lose their jobs as a result of the rise in VAT. The current official jobless total stands at 2.51 million, or 8 percent of the workforce. The government’s measures will add at least another million to that figure.

The real total of unemployed and underemployed is considerably higher. More than one million are currently in part-time employment because they are unable to find full-time work.

Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal-Democrat leader Nick Clegg told the BBC’s Today programme that the government had been forced to take tough decisions because of the international economic situation. “We’ve got this sort of economic fire-storm on our doorstep in Europe, where the markets are putting huge pressure on one country after the next, knocking on the door in Greece, in Spain, in Portugal, and so on. There’s a real worry that if we don’t take action now we will be the next victim, if you like, of that kind of market panic”.

Shadow Chancellor Alistair Darling has criticised the coalition’s budget, warning that it risks pushing the UK into a double-dip recession and claiming Labour would not have made such drastic cuts. The truth is that many of the cuts were already in train when the coalition came to power. Labour planned a 20 percent across-the-board cut. Some 70 percent of the fiscal consolidation measures had already been identified by Labour. Had they been returned to power, Labour would have extended their proposed cuts to satisfy the financial elite.

Markets responded favourably, as the full impact of the coalition’s budget measures were grasped. Moody’s, the rating agency, confirmed the government’s AAA status and declared that the budget was a “key step towards reversing the significant deterioration in the Government’s financial position that occurred over the past two years”.

The bond markets were pleased with the budget. The yield on 10-year gilts fell two basis points to 3.43 percent. The reason for the markets’ confidence is the sheer scale of the cuts. While Osborne spoke of a 25 percent cut for every government department, the real level of cuts is likely to be 33 percent, according to the IFS.

“Margaret Thatcher, famous, or infamous, for her eagerness to take an axe to the big state, never dared to cut so deep”, Philip Stephens commented in the Financial Times.

As Martin Wolf points out, also in the Financial Times, that means one third from higher education, the home office, justice, transport and housing. It is, he writes, “unlikely to prove politically sustainable…. It is also evident that further cuts to benefits will be needed. According to the IFS, the cuts for the other departments would ‘only’ be 25 percent, in real terms, if the government could identify another £13bn in cuts to benefits”.

These will come in the autumn spending review and in the reviews of public sector pensions and public sector jobs that are under way.

The Bagehot column in the Economist sounded a warning note about the cuts still to come and the reaction they will elicit:

“Behind Mr Osborne’s lofty ratio between spending cuts and tax rises, there are human beings. Lots now know they will have to pay up, but many of those who will pay the most—i.e., with their jobs—do not, yet. When, in an authoritarian country, swathes of the population are given up to invaders or sacrificed in battle, there isn’t much the victims can do to trouble the commissars. In Britain, there is: they can vote, of course, but also march through London, cripple the country with strikes, even riot”.

Chris Talbot
- Homepage: http://wsws.org/articles/2010/jun2010/budg-j28.shtml

Comments

Hide the following 3 comments

boot in

28.06.2010 08:20

The Tories have 15 years of hatred bottled up, they will stick the boot in and let all that hatred go on the poor people.
that is to be expected..
However the Actions of the Liberal Democrats in supporting this just so they can sit at the top table for once can not be forgiven.
They have betrayed every voter who trusted in them.
Next Election = OUT

Me


No use waiting until the next election

28.06.2010 12:10

"However the Actions of the Liberal Democrats in supporting this just so they can sit at the top table for once can not be forgiven.
They have betrayed every voter who trusted in them.
Next Election = OUT"

New Labour. Lib Dem, no bloody difference, they dont represent the interests of ordinary people. Nor are they likely to change. They spin a load of bull shit to get into power and then do as they please. Treading over the poor and the vunerable so as to provide a framework of maximum profit for the rich elite.

Its no use waiting until the next election because there will be fuck all worth saving. The Socialist Party, Trade Unions, SWP, Anarchists and the rest need to get their act together, put their differences to one side and start building a movement to oppose these bastards. If they do and I believe they can this government will go the same way as Margaret and her poll tax.

If not the consequences will be felt for generations to come.

Its up to all of us...!!!!

Jimmypagespants


anyone but labour

28.06.2010 19:11

"Next Election = OUT "

Yeah bring back New Labour. After all, what did they do wrong apart from direct involvement in the deaths of 600-800,000 civilians in Iraq? (Lancet magazine). Far less important than our precious public services.
Sometimes the term 'racism' doesn't even come close.

timmy bufton-tufton


Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

Sheffield Topics

Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista

Sheffield [navigation.actions2016]

Sheffield [navigation.actions2015]

Sheffield [navigation.actions2014]

NATO 2014

Sheffield Actions 2013

G8 2013

Sheffield Actions 2012

Workfare

Sheffield Actions 2011

2011 Census Resistance
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Occupy Everywhere

Sheffield Actions 2010

Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands

Sheffield Actions 2009

COP15 Climate Summit 2009
G20 London Summit
Guantánamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
University Occupations for Gaza

Sheffield Actions 2008

2008 Days Of Action For Autonomous Spaces
Campaign against Carmel-Agrexco
Climate Camp 2008
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Smash EDO
Stop Sequani Animal Testing
Stop the BNP's Red White and Blue festival

Sheffield Actions 2007

Climate Camp 2007
DSEi 2007
G8 Germany 2007
Mayday 2007
No Border Camp 2007

Sheffield Actions 2006

April 2006 No Borders Days of Action
Art and Activism Caravan 2006
Climate Camp 2006
Faslane
French CPE uprising 2006
G8 Russia 2006
Lebanon War 2006
March 18 Anti War Protest
Mayday 2006
Oaxaca Uprising
Refugee Week 2006
Rossport Solidarity
SOCPA
Transnational Day of Action Against Migration Controls
WSF 2006

Sheffield Actions 2005

DSEi 2005
G8 2005
WTO Hong Kong 2005

Sheffield Actions 2004

European Social Forum
FBI Server Seizure
May Day 2004
Venezuela

Sheffield Actions 2003

Bush 2003
DSEi 2003
Evian G8
May Day 2003
No War F15
Saloniki Prisoner Support
Thessaloniki EU
WSIS 2003

Server Appeal Radio Page Video Page Indymedia Cinema Offline Newsheet

secure Encrypted Page

You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.

If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech