Total failure

One hundred days until the election means one hundred days left of this ConDem government. Back in 2010, they promised us the world. But just how well have they delivered?

To find out, we’ve drawn up a 10-point exam, covering all the issues that matter most to us, including housing, the economy, the NHS and more. Here’s their marked exam – let the facts speak for themselves.

1.Balanced books? Failed

The ConDems are always going on about reducing the deficit and balancing the nation’s books. Indeed, this was the very reasoning behind their austerity programme that’s ravaged the nation and hurt working people the most.

But perhaps the coalition government should have paid more attention in their economics course. After all, since they came to power in 2010, national debt has skyrocketed and now stands at ÂŁ1.4 trillion. Chancellor George Osborne borrowed more than Labour did in 13 years of government, and he overspent his plans by ÂŁ200bn.

The deficit is still at £80bn – an astonishing fact, given that a central Tory election pledge was to balance the books by this year.

2.Better standard of living? Failed

If we are to accurately judge how well the ConDems have performed, a basic question we’ve put to them in our exam is this – Are you better off than you were five years ago?

The answer is a resounding “no”.

Average households in Britain are now ÂŁ1,600-a-year worse off than they were in 2010. With living costs skyrocketing, this has been the first Parliament since the 1920s to preside over a drop, rather than a rise, in living standards.

Despite the Tories promising they had “no plans” for a tax rise, they pulled a fast one, hitting working families hardest with a surprise 20 per cent VAT hike.

3.Better off at work? Failed

One of prime minister Cameron’s favourite mantras is, “If you work hard, you will be rewarded.” Funny how those working hardest in the past five years are instead being punished.

The number of workers trapped in exploitative zero-hour contracts has soared since 2010, totalling about 1.4m. They earn ÂŁ300 a week on average less than permanent workers.

The national minimum wage, currently at £6.50 an hour, is still far below what Living Wage experts say is the minimum needed to maintain a basic standard of living. And like zero-hour contracts jobs, there’s been a decided rise in minimum wage jobs, a rise that began precisely as the ConDems came to power.

Anaemic wage growth of the sort we’ve experienced over the course of this government would not be as devastating if it weren’t for skyrocketing living costs. Energy bills have soared by a third since 2010, average rents have risen by 13 per cent and water bills have likewise increased by almost 13 per cent.

4.The NHS? Failed

The National Health Service is the crown jewel of the welfare state – the first and last public service we turn to over the course of our lifetimes.

But in the hands of the ConDem government, the NHS as we know it is quickly unravelling.

The health and social care act of 2012, a piece of legislation pushed through with absolutely no mandate from the public, turned into a ÂŁ3bn wasted top-down reorganisation that even the Tories themselves admit was a failure.

The act also threw open the floodgates for untrammelled privatisation – according to the BMA, a third of nearly 3,500 NHS contracts went to private firms after the act went through.

NHS services are stretched to breaking point – since 2010, ambulance response time is 25 per cent slower, staff suffering work-related stress is up 40 per cent and the proportion of people who are able to see a GP in 48 hours has plummeted from 80 per cent to 40 per cent.

5. Passing the education test? Failed

Education has suffered an indisputable assault under the ConDems, with university students pummelled by ÂŁ9,000-a-year tuition fees. The hike was imposed in 2012, despite the LibDems promising, as part of an election pledge, that they would not increase fees.

Younger students just beginning their education now face a system that would have been unrecognisable five years ago – the number of infants taught in classes of more than 30 pupils skyrocketed by 200 per cent, with more than 13,000 primary school children taught in classes with over 40 children.

Teachers, too, are struggling, as they’ve faced real-terms wages cuts year on year since 2010.

6.Benefits system? Failed

Under the ConDems, the benefits system has become a labyrinthine, costly mess.

The Bedroom Tax, introduced by the Tories in 2012, penalises the most vulnerable. Half a million households, a third of which are disabled, now pay an average of ÂŁ700 extra. More than a half are in rent arrears because of the cruel tax.

Benefits sanctions – another draconian measure intended to punish those for a failed economy that the ConDems themselves have wrought – end up starving jobless people and forcing them into food banks.

7.Families? Failed

Cameron says the Tory party is the party of family values. But exactly how family friendly is the current government when child poverty has soared by 300,000 under their watch, almost 1m people now turn to food banks, and Sure Start centres have shuttered by 500, despite promises to keep them open?

8.Big Society? Failed

Cameron’s flagship programme, the so-called Big Society, was supposed to infuse the country with a new-found spirit of volunteerism and community. And what happened? Well, nothing.

Nearly 500 public libraries have been closed since 2010, 350 youth centres have been shuttered and bus services, which the young, poor and elderly depend on, have been cut by 50 per cent in some areas.

Even Cameron’s own former adviser called the Big Society a failure.

9. Housing us? Failed

Housing isn’t a mere luxury – it’s a basic human need. And more people are in desperate need of housing now than ever before.

Millions flounder on council housing waiting lists as house-building slumps to its lowest peacetime level since the 1920s. More than 3m young people between the ages of 20 and 34 are forced to live with their parents – a dramatic 16 per cent increase since 2010.

10. End to sleazy politics? Failed

Following the expenses scandal, Cameron pledged he would put an “end to sleaze”, as noted in this 2008 Telegraph article.

But since his pledge, the sleaze has only proliferated – Cameron supported notorious expenses fraudster culture secretary Maria Miller shortly before she was forced to resign in 2014. Cameron made sleaze-ball newspaper editor Andy Coulson his head spin doctor before he, too, was forced to resign in 2011, following the phone-hacking scandal.

And the Tory party as a whole is a shameless club funded by City fat cats – all of whom benefit from underhanded deals that support the rich, while leaving the rest of us high and dry.

“It’s one hundred days until the election today,” Unite assistant general secretary Steve Turner said. “Let’s remember that this ConDem government has presided over the steepest drop in living standards for average people in centuries. Not since Victorian times have working people endured such repeated attacks.

“In their world, nothing is sacred – not housing, not our education system, not even the NHS, which today was revealed to be the issue that voters care about most,” he added.

“May’s election is more than just an election. We are at a crossroads – do we want five more years of a government that props up the rich at the expense of the rest of us, or do we want the hope of something better?”

Indeed, the stakes have never been higher as the election quickly approaches, which is why it is critical that everyone registers to vote. To find out more, visit Unite and the Mirror’s campaign, #NoVoteNoVoice here.