So the Tories have declared war on the people by planning to slash government departments’ budgets by up to 40 per cent, and my MP, Robin Walker, tells me that ‘it is the case that costs need to be reduced across the public services in order to allow us to deal with the fiscal deficit we have inherited’. I disagree with him and agree with Caroline Lucas MP, who says:
’Cuts are not an economic inevitability. They are an ideological choice. Politicians of all parties are now sharpening their axes to slash public spending, forcing those on lower incomes, who depend on public services the most, to pay the highest price for the recent excesses of the bankers.
’There is a choice. We should ask those best able to pay to foot the bill through fairer taxation. That’s the challenge I’m issuing: for that political choice to be made. It must be clearly asserted that we are not all in this together: that some had more responsibility for this crisis than others, and some benefited more from the boom that preceded it. Those who enjoyed the largest benefits must pay up now. For that to happen, fair taxes, not cuts, must become the new big idea to replace today’s callous and uncaring cuts fanaticism.’
George Osborne plans to cut £11 billion from the budget for welfare services – that is the funding to support the unemployed, disabled, homeless, very young and elderly – the services for the poorest and most vulnerable in society. £11 billion is the official figure released recently for the cost, over the last nine years, of the futile and unwinnable war in Afghanistan. But the Tories don’t want to bring the troops home or scrap Trident or make those responsible for the deficit pay for it. Surely things are going to get very ugly very soon…