Embracing Victorian values with a vengeance

By Chris Williamson MP

January is a month when we usually look forward to the year ahead with a sense of hope and anticipation but the austerity measures being implemented by this Conservative-led government have replaced hope for millions of British citizens with fear and anxiety.

A survey by Ipsos/MORI of 24 countries published on New Year’s Day found people in Britain were among the most pessimistic. One of the reasons was that three-quarters of our workers said they felt less secure in their job today than six months ago. This pessimism is fuelled by the slash and burn policy being pursued by the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

There are clear parallels with the 1930s, which was the last time UK had the misfortune to be governed by a Conservative-Liberal coalition. Then, as now, the US used the power of the state to drag the country out of recession while Britain indulged in swingeing spending cuts that resulted in unprecedented unemployment and deprivation.

The experience of the 1930s, together with Barack Obama’s tax cuts and fiscal stimulus, are proof that the ruthless spending cuts favoured by Cameron, Clegg and Osborne are unwarranted. The truth is they are making the same blunders as their 1930s counterparts.

What I find so infuriating is the brazen misinformation being peddled by the governing parties. They claim that under Labour, the country was living beyond its means but that is simply not true. The country’s pre-eminent economist, David Blanchflower, says the UK was hit by a once-in-a hundred-year financial crisis. That is why the UK’s deficit rose from 2.5% of GDP to 11.4% and why government borrowing increased from 40% of GDP to 71%.

But Cameron, Clegg and Osborne are trying rewrite history and con the public into believing the size of Britain’s deficit was caused by gvernment spending when they know it was caused by a worldwide financial meltdown. They know the resultant global recession caused a collapse in tax revenues, including a massive drop in corporation tax. It was this that exacerbated the deficit, as well as an increase in welfare spending brought about by rising unemployment. Ironically, they actually supported Labour’s public spending plans until late 2008.

Now the Conservative-Liberal coalition is in power and the impact of their policies is starting to be felt. Police numbers are set to fall to a 10-year low. At least half a million public sector jobs are being axed and a similar number will go in the private sector too. Surestart Centres are being closed. Libraries are under threat. Care homes for elderly people are being axed. Tuition fees are being tripled and education maintenance allowance has been abolished.

This government is embracing Victorian values with a vengeance. Its talk about localism is a sham and its ‘Big Society’ is little better than a 21st century poor law, where charities deliver services once provided by democratically accountable public bodies.

But there is a better way where government invests in the future to support jobs and services to protect and enhance the quality of life for ordinary working people. So my plea to everyone who is sickened by the malicious policies of the Conservative-Liberal Government is to help Labour build a progressive coalition to counter these regressive policies, and keep hope alive with Labour.