Today’s budget is not about deficit reduction. It is about right wing ideology. A deficit reduction strategy would pay heed to numerous economists, notably Blanchflower, who warn that the measures proposed will see the UK plunge into a double–dip recession.
Clegg, sounding increasingly like Cameron, defends the deficit as a necessary piece of the jigsaw in ‘re balancing the economy’. This pseudo-economic drivel is an excuse put about by the right wing to argue that by slashing the public sector there will a growth stimulated in the private sector, unemployment will not be an issue they argue because as the public sector is depleted jobs will be created in the private sector, allowing public sector staff to migrate into new private sector jobs.
There is a glaring hole in the argument.
Private sector growth is stunted, banks are not lending and our main export market Europe is bumping along rather than growing. Comparison to Canada’s supposed ‘success’ in deficit reduction are deeply flawed. Canada’s main export market was a buoyant USA and they coupled some of the pain with infrastructure investment whilst here the Con Dems have made it clear BSF, Transport and even hospitals investment projects will be cancelled.
Of course rather than the Con Dems being persuaded by valid economic argument the truth is that they don’t give stuff.
The Tories are ideological driven by a small state model and are so obsessed with the private or third sector that it is hard to see how they would defend any state ownership or provision.
The Lib Dems are so obsessed by self preservation that Clegg would sell his Granny to keep a hold on his new found status.
This budget is a serious attempt to do to the public sector what Thatcher did to the Miners. They have no mandate. They are de facto a minority administration. If the Lib Dems fail to bring balance to this macho cuts fest then they deserve to be annihilated. This will be a case of Apocalypse now; not just for state provision but for the Liberal Democrat party itself.
Anna Rose
