{"id":3382,"date":"2015-03-18T16:26:46","date_gmt":"2015-03-18T16:26:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=3382"},"modified":"2015-03-19T11:00:59","modified_gmt":"2015-03-19T11:00:59","slug":"dont-mention-the-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=3382","title":{"rendered":"Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mention the cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s budget showed the two faces of George Osborne. Within three months he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s come up with two different sets of figures for public spending plans over the next five years.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe autumn statement in December showed a true Tory Chancellor wanting to force through colossal cuts. It was a bleak future of near-permanent austerity with the loss of another 1m public sector jobs.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe budget Chancellor, now only 12 days away from the start of the general election, tried to put on a different election gloss. But not a very convincing one.<\/p>\n

 
\nHis political GPS has steered him away from taking us down the Road to Wigan pier \u00e2\u20ac\u201c taking us back to pre-welfare state spending levels. But the new final destination and the road leading to it are also very bleak.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe cuts remain unprecedented. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s scorched earth public services with massive cuts to come across the public sector, even in the so-called ring-fenced areas. The cuts remain colossal, even worse over the next three years than planned last December. They are so bad that Osborne did not mention them.<\/p>\n

 
\nNot a single word about the NHS or any other public service. The silence was deafening but the message clear: more cuts at a level not seen before.<\/p>\n

 
\nOsborne packaged this as one more \u00e2\u20ac\u015bbig step\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 on the road from austerity to prosperity. For public services it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a step over the edge and into the void. His version of what is happening to working people will not go down well in the real world. They have suffered a dramatic drop in the spending power of the money they earn. Jobs remain precarious. Many of those created have been low paid, zero hours or fake self-employed.<\/p>\n

 
\nRoad to nowhere<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so bad even Cameron has pleaded for bosses to give pay rises. Except when he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in charge and your public sector pay rise is frozen or limited. The Road to Wigan Pier has become the road to nowhere in particular beyond more pain with no gain.<\/p>\n

 
\nThe budget had nothing on house building to address the growing housing crisis. But subsidies for house buying with a new house deposit savings scheme which will cost at least \u00c2\u0141800m a year. And the new \u00e2\u20ac\u015bpension\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s freedoms\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 appear to be a wheeze to secure over \u00c2\u0141500 million a year in new tax when people cash in annuities.<\/p>\n

 
\nThere was the part reversal of taxes on North Sea oil production hit by falling oil prices. And some increases in individual tax thresholds, but not yet. A penny off a pint, cuts in taxes on cider and spirits. A freeze on fuel duty. Some more taxes on banks, offset against tax cuts for them in the form of yet another cut in corporation tax to 20 per cent.<\/p>\n

 
\nSpin-driven<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nDespite promising no gimmicks or giveaways, Osborne could not resist. They were just not very good gimmicks, but what there were driven by spin. It was a list of bits and pieces aimed at the Tory-backing media. Penny off a pint and freeze on fuel duty? Cheers George says the Sun headline.<\/p>\n

 
\nMoney for homebuyers, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s for the Telegraph and the Mail. And bits and pieces of spending (not much) ticked off the main regional media centres from the south west up to Wales and Scotland.<\/p>\n

 
\nIt was a flat and smug budget. It did not impress Unite. Len McCluskey Unite general secretary said in reaction. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bGeorge Osborne’s smugness today is utterly out of place for someone who missed every target he set himself.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHe cannot hide the long term economic pain he caused to the decent people of this country with his senseless austerity, run away from the living standards that he levelled back to 2007, or hide from the record levels of personal debt swamping the people of this country.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bPeople simply aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feeling the economic growth. And the sun which the chancellor says is beginning to shine is clouded by insecurity and low wages for millions of families. Behind the short-term sweeteners and budget bluster, the reality for millions is that their wages won’t last the month. Millions more are trapped in ghost jobs with pay so pathetic they need benefits to make ends meet.<\/p>\n

 
\n“Osborne\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s is not an economy where the gains are shared fairly, and people know this all too well. Take away today’s gimmicks and this budget is a window onto five more years of Tory rule – more savage cuts to essential public services and the deepening spread of inequality.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf you’re a hedge fund, wealthy retiree, or a business shy of providing fairly paid, secure employment, Osborne’s Britain is the place for you. If you’re looking for decent job, a home in which to raise your kids or a safe NHS, then it is not.”<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite assistant general secretary Steve Turner was also scathing. He said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere was nothing to boost wages, nothing to tackle the crisis in social housing, nothing to address growing workplace insecurity and nothing to stem growing personal debt or the collapse of public services. A budget without hope, a failed opportunity by a failed government.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhile the poorest gain little from the explosion in precarious work or reliance on foodbanks, corporate Britain remains free to avoid tax while subsidising low pay and propping up profits via \u00e2\u20ac\u0098corporate welfare\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 handouts that keep millions in misery.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWith 60 per cent of the cuts still to come, the only promise the Tory\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s will keep is one of more ideological austerity, a continued growth in insecure, precarious work, of cuts in living standards and continued attacks on the most vulnerable alongside the services that support them.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

This year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s budget showed the two faces of George Osborne. Within three months he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s come up with two different sets of figures for public spending plans over the next five years.   The autumn statement in December showed a true Tory Chancellor wanting to force through colossal cuts. It was a bleak future of near-permanent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[177,178],"wps_subtitle":"Osborne mentioned them once in his autumn statement \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but thinks he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s got away with it this time","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3382"}],"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=3382"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3383,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3382\/revisions\/3383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}