{"id":2389,"date":"2014-12-03T16:08:45","date_gmt":"2014-12-03T16:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=2389"},"modified":"2014-12-04T18:03:22","modified_gmt":"2014-12-04T18:03:22","slug":"prosperity-road-taken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=2389","title":{"rendered":"Prosperity – the road not taken"},"content":{"rendered":"
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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.<\/p>\n

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Osborne set out a no-hope future with near permanent austerity measures alongside more severe pay restraint in the public sector.<\/p>\n

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The coalition five-year plan \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the reason they existed \u00e2\u20ac\u201c has failed. The deficit was meant to be paid off by next year \u00e2\u20ac\u201c his own target – and it isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even close.<\/p>\n

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Government debt is rising. And so borrowing is up again, hitting \u00c2\u0141219 billion in this Parliament because he has already been handing out tax cuts he can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford with money he doesn’t have.<\/p>\n

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Unite General secretary Len McCluskey warned of a\u00c2\u00a0phoney recovery, built on rising debt with a Government following policies which \u00e2\u20ac\u015bhave made people poorer, the rich richer and cut income to the Treasury.\u00c2\u00a0 Not only are the people worse off since he took office, but so is the nation.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Osborne very enthusiastically set out his car crash of a plan showing \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 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.<\/p>\n

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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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re long along the road to even more austerity.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

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Osborne can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hit any of his targets so he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s planning to pass an act of Parliament which says he will. Who believes that will sort the problem, George can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t hit a target.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

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If it isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t then the deficit won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be cut and national debt could be pushed up. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still the path to austerity for the many, with pain for most.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Len McCluskey pushed home warnings that Osborne is on the wrong road.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe vast majority of people listening to George Osborne talking about an economic recovery will think it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a figment of his imagination,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u015bToday 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.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd the money to the NHS, while welcome, will struggle to undo the damage done to our health service by his party\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ruinous privatisation drive,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 McCluskey added.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bPeople 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.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe truth is that this government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s long term economic plan means long term economic pain for the ordinary, decent people of this country.\u00c2\u00a0 His threat of \u00c2\u014148 billion more in cuts will force this country further and further into financial dark waters.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bPeople 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.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Stay tuned on UNITElive.org for further analysis and reactions to Osborne\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s statement.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[76,168,177,178,44],"wps_subtitle":"Osborne sets out his vision - the only way is austerity and pain","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2389"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2389"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2402,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2389\/revisions\/2402"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}