Recovery position

When top bank of England brass Andy Haldane worries that there’s too much ‘agony’ in our economy with precious little ‘ecstasy’, what does the Chancellor do? He goes to a party.

Over in George Osborne’s la-la land, he’s convinced everything is rosy in his phoney recovery. So rosy that he instead of addressing falling wages and rising job insecurity, he’ll swig vino at a Downton-themed Halloween party.

For ÂŁ145 a head, Tory revellers will toast the time when workers knew their place and the map was pink.

Now, it may surprise you to learn that I am a fan of the show myself.  Maggie Smith’s Countess is the greatest comic turn on the telly.

With public-school prime minster Earl Baldwin thrown out of office and Ramsay Macdonald’s first Labour government in, change is in the air.

Even cossetted Lord Grantham senses the writing’s on the wall for privilege.  Below stairs, Daisy the cook is bubbling furiously with dreams of social justice.

Back in the today’s world, the reality is not such a good story.  People are suffering – Osborne’s craven austerity and savage cuts have dragged living standards back by more than a century.

This is why this government cannot win another term next May. Because while the Tories bay for more cuts – on top of the hefty axe still to swing down on our services from 2010’s budget – out there in the real economy people are cutting corners on their spending, and borrowing to get by.

Nine thousand more people were pointed towards the dole queue this week, thrown out of work by Lloyds.  Some thanks for the help we taxpayers gave the bank when it messed up our economy, yet barely a word of objection passed ministers’ lips.

Next time this government is tempted to set off a salvo against benefit help, they should spare a thought for those Lloyds workers and the countless like them; the low waged millions carrying the can for the bankers’ recklessness.

Even those in jobs face an almighty struggle.  The stark fact is that work in this country is ceasing to pay.

Unicef has found that one in four kids in this country today lives in poverty.  The numbers are going up even though other recession-hit countries like Germany and Poland have managed to protect their children.

When we read about our kids turning up at school with empty bellies, we are not in 2014 but right back in the dark days.

Unless Mr Osborne wakes up to the fact that his policies are turning Britain into a distinctly dark and unfair place, Baron Gideon (sorry, George) will find that he and his ilk in the cabinet are merely the latest members of an out of touch aristocracy to feel the wrath of the people.

This comment piece also appears in today’s (October 31) edition of the Daily Mirror