We are not “All in this together”
So now the verdict is in, the speculation is over, and we now know in some detail what the ConDem plans are in respect of the financial and economic future of the Country under their stewardship.
And here is what we now know beyond all reasonable doubt, this is a regressive budget, it effects the poor more than the rich, the sick more than the able bodied, the weak more than the strong, women more than men. We are most certainly not “in this together”.
When the Financial Times and the IFS (The “Institute for Fiscal Studies” previously beloved of the Tories) agree that this is a regressive budget that effects the poor more we know this isn’t just an instinctive knee jerk by the left. Something really is up, this really is unfair and wrong.
What we are seeing is the Tories engaging in opportunistic “disaster capitalism” to try and as the Daily Mail is smugly proclaiming today; to Roll Back the State. This is an ideological attack on the very idea of the State being an actor trying to deliver a fairer and better world.
I really don’t want to sound like a shrill lefty, bleating on in language that suggests class war, but it is hard not to when the Tories are engaging in “class war with a calculator” (as the comedian Mark Thomas so brilliantly put it).
Seeing as I have started in that vein I ought to finish! The thing is these people doing this are not people who have any comprehension of the effects of what they are doing. Cameron, Osborne, Clegg, Huhne et al are not “normal people” from “normal backgrounds”. They are wealthy and privileged. People with public school educations, multi million pound trust funds, and the dodgy handshakes which mean none of them will ever be unemployed or in serious financial trouble.
These are people who don’t have to send their kids to the local state school because they can send them to Eton or Westminster. They don’t have to rely on the NHS because they can afford to go private. They are not that worried about “bobbies on the beat” because they don’t live in places where they might get mugged on the street by a crack addict.
In this sense it is no wonder they don’t like the idea of the state intervening to try and make our society fairer and better. They don’t believe in “equality of opportunity” because they benefit personally, and collectively as a group/class from the current inequity. Their life chances, and those of their ilk are enhanced by the maintenance of the status quo.
For the right state intervention to try and decrease inequity is in principle wrong, it represents the dreaded (to them) “Social engineering” and they have longed for decades to be able to reduce the role of the state as a “actor” in our society. The truth is Tories don’t believe in fairness; they see it as unnatural and undesirable.
But we know what happens in Lassiez Faire economies and political systems. The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. Our societies become divided, and things get worse for all of us. The reason why the welfare state was created during the 20th Century was as a reaction against the kind of small, unequal, unfair, non interventionist state the Tories and their Lib Dem lackies are now espousing.
The great irony in all this is the opportunity for them to perform this awful attack on the state is the financial crisis. Let’s remember that this crisis was not (as the ConDems keep claiming) caused by a bloated or inflated state (prior to the crash UK spending as a proportion of GDP was within normal levels) but by a financial catastrophe caused by deregulated markets. It was precisely the sort of small state, light touch, trust the market government that put us all in this mess and the Tory solution is “more of the same please”.
This is an attack on the poor, the weak, the sick, the old, the young. But most of all it is an attack on the very idea of fairness, of equality, of fair life chances. And more than anything this has to give the left a common purpose of unity to fight what is happening. We cannot allow the Tories to get away with couching what they are doing in the language of fairness; it needs to be ruthlessly exposed for what it is.
We are not all in this together. And we should all remember the sight of braying, millionaire Tory MPs cheering at devestating cuts that will destroy livelehoods, families and cummunities. Hold that thought and image; and remember it at the next election.
As usual a thought provoking blogg Ralph. At present the media is behind this coalition and they are churning out the lie that its all the last government’s fault and austerity for all is the answer. It’s also weird to note wealthy people re branding themselves as middle class. Pardon me but a joint income of £80,000 sound like wealthy to me.I wonder how many supporters the Liberal Democrats will have at the next election as it seems to me they abandoned every policy they stood for in their manifesto. Also they abandoned the one chance in 100 years to get perportional Representation a Liberal wish for over a century. At present the cuts are on paper and it will take a while to sink in but when the affects of the cuts touch more and more families one way or another the penny will drop. We may see the sort of collective action in this country that has exploded in Europe happening here when the realisation as you put it that we are not all in it together and that all the decent things done for people in the last 50 years are un picked and trashed.
Hi Jeff,
I think that there will be protest and action. Though I really doubt we will have scenes like those in France at the moment. I think there are lots of lessons the left needs to learn from what happened in the 80s and early 90s. Whatever we do has to be effective and not just cathartic. Will be interesting.
Very well put, and absolutely right, the tragedy is that these people could never get elected if they had to rely on their ‘natural’ supporters, and they get elected because of the ignorance or apathy of the very people they despise and work so hard to ‘keep in their place’.
Thatcher got elected by working-class people who were too ignorant to understand the basic truth of what the Tories stand for, and so has Cameron.
Thanks for commenting Shaun.
It is funny really that ever since Disraeli the “ten bob tory” factor has always been a big part of how they win elections. In America that have a similar thing where there is wide spread support for taxation measures that only effect the top 10% or so in terms of benefits. I guess the big question for the left is how can we have a language of aspiration that talks to these people in a way that is more resonant than just narrow definitions of pounds, shillings and pence.
Public services, schools, hospitals, communities, quality of life, work life balance. All these things matter to people a lot. Only the left can really help peoples lives have better quality measured in those terms. The right is unfailingly negative about the prospects of a better world.
Oh and one thing we should all remember Shaun the Tories didn’t win. There is no mandate for these savage and early cuts, most people voted against them. The Liberals just broke yet another promise on this one!
Ralph, this blog is brilliant! Thanks for blogging and articulating the thoughts we’ve all been thinking. I know yesterday I was too angry to have written anything as brilliant as this.
Merci Cat for your kind works.
Not written a blog for a while and the CSR really got my angry and creative juices flowing!
Excellent work Ralph, your best posting to date!
As a left-leaning yellow it does smart a little but certainly not as painful as the hurt caused by those on the green benches in recent weeks; I have an email from Danny Alexander in my inbox entitled “We Have Done The Right Thing” – I’m hoping the title’s a pun and the content a heartening, withering satire bu somehow I doubt it. I’ve been on;ine for four hours now and can’t face opening for fear of nausea or violence toward university property.
I’ve never understood working class Tory voters. I’m the only member of my immediate family who doesn’t go blue at the booths and have long been confused by that. Dispiritingly enough the buggers also seem to enjoy support among students – even hard-up, hard-working mature ones who grumble about lack of support and worry about what the future brings but who still fear the left.
Sadly, I don’t expect any big protests or feet on the streets. The UK has long been beaten into a bleating, catatonic apathy by a culture of Heat and X Factor. Don’t forget the national motto: Mustn’t grumble.
I’m off to kick something really hard.
Hah ha! Yeah the old Working Class Tory thing is odd. Some things in life are beyond understanding I reckon!
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