Prosperity – the road not taken

If you want a vision of the Tory future, imagine George Osborne with one foot on your neck, not forever, but at least through the next Parliament if they are re-elected.

Osborne set out a no-hope future with near permanent austerity measures alongside more severe pay restraint in the public sector.

The coalition five-year plan – the reason they existed – has failed. The deficit was meant to be paid off by next year – his own target – and it isn’t even close.

Government debt is rising. And so borrowing is up again, hitting ÂŁ219 billion in this Parliament because he has already been handing out tax cuts he can’t afford with money he doesn’t have.

Unite General secretary Len McCluskey warned of a phoney recovery, built on rising debt with a Government following policies which “have made people poorer, the rich richer and cut income to the Treasury.  Not only are the people worse off since he took office, but so is the nation.”

Osborne very enthusiastically set out his car crash of a plan showing – he claimed – the route to prosperity and security. He once thought that route was straightforward, but he has lost his way, veered off-course and then lost his way again.

The road to prosperity is the road not taken. Having got lost on that route he has taken the wrong path again and again and we’re long along the road to even more austerity.

As Ed Balls pointed out, the five-year plan is in tatters. So Tory George and the ConDems turned a failed five-year plan into a ten-year plan.

Osborne can’t hit any of his targets so he’s planning to pass an act of Parliament which says he will. Who believes that will sort the problem, George can’t hit a target.

In his Autumn Statement he wondered if there was life on Mars. He may as well also pass an Act saying there is, but the Government is putting a firm cap on migration to stop the flow of Martians into his fantasyland of prosperity.

Osborne was forced to admit that economic growth forecasts show falling growth from next year. The direction of travel is downwards, of course. It could be worse.

If it isn’t then the deficit won’t be cut and national debt could be pushed up. It’s still the path to austerity for the many, with pain for most.

Len McCluskey pushed home warnings that Osborne is on the wrong road.

“The vast majority of people listening to George Osborne talking about an economic recovery will think it’s a figment of his imagination,” he said. “Today we heard nothing that would reverse wage stagnation or end the curse of low paid work now the norm for millions and their families. We heard little concrete about the creation of decent jobs or building homes.”

“And the money to the NHS, while welcome, will struggle to undo the damage done to our health service by his party’s ruinous privatisation drive,” McCluskey added.

“People will shudder then when George Osborne talks of being given the opportunity to finish the job, because they know that means finishing off our public services and destroying slender hopes that work in this country will one day pay again.”

“The truth is that this government’s long term economic plan means long term economic pain for the ordinary, decent people of this country.  His threat of £48 billion more in cuts will force this country further and further into financial dark waters.

“People across the nation are crying out for action on wages, for security at work and the ability to put an affordable roof above their head. There was nothing in this autumn statement to offer any of this.”

Stay tuned on UNITElive.org for further analysis and reactions to Osborne’s statement.