The price of dogmatism

In a briefing paper prepared for Unison and the TUC, Tim Horton and Howard Reed systematically threw aside Osborne’s last claim to imposing a progressive Budget on this country. In the report, the authors showed how the average annual cut in public spending on the poorest tenth of households is £1,344, equivalent to 20.5% of their household income, whereas the average annual cut in spending on the richest tenth is £1,135 or 1.6% of household income.

Now it doesn’t take a genius to look at these figures and soon realise how low-income households are going to be the ‘net losers’ over the next few months. This is something Labour was saying before the election and has consistently shouted from the rooftops since. It’s the typical Tory game – when the going gets tough – the working class will pay.

Remember all that talk about ‘we will protect front-line services’, well now that’s going down the tube too. Already the President of the Association of Chief Police Officers has acknowledged the cuts will impact on frontline services and although he felt 28,000 job losses amongst police officers was ‘alarmist’ he (and Nick Herbert, the policing minister) was forced to admit things would be harsh over the next few months.

Precisely how many grave diggers, Police support workers, hospital cleaners or social workers will lose their job remains uncertain, but with 750,000 jobs due to go, we can be certain a good number of frontline workers will lose their jobs.
Of course, the Tories would say I am being over the top and that many of these people will find jobs in the private sector. One has to wonder how they hope to attract private enterprise into each of the regions when today they announce the abolition of the Regional Development Agencies. Take for example Advantage West Midlands (one of those RDAs) – they generate £8.14 for every £1 we invest in them.

Now in an area where unemployment is running at 9.3% and unemployment in the 18 -25 year bracket is running at about 26%, that isn’t a bad return on your investment.
The West Midlands needs investment and the support of our RDA as there continue to be a number of areas where the recession has impacted badly on communities - Bridgnorth, Cannock Chase, Newcastle-under-Lyme, North Warwickshire, Staffordshire Moorlands, Tamworth and Wyre Forest, while urban areas (e.g. Birmingham, Stoke-on-Trent) have seen the largest total increases in unemployment; rural areas (e.g. Wychavon) and some market towns (e.g. Uttoxeter, Whitchurch) have experienced larger proportionate increases in unemployment. Some of the more rural wards are seen as vulnerable because of a reliance on one employer, or because of a large proportion of residents commuted to other areas and worked in vulnerable sectors (Source: Hansard, 2009).

And if the Government scrap the RDAs, how will they ensure there isn’t a mismatch within locality or region between work skills and job availability? Can we assume that private enterprise will self regulate in such a way as to ensure that throughout the country more jobs become available in equal measure across all regions?

There is no sense to these cuts. They are based on ideological whim rather than need and it will be people who will pay the price. It remains to be seen how many people Cameron will see thrown onto the scrapheap before he can sleep peacefully. To prevent this happening the government have consistently argued their flagship Work Programme will be the ‘cure all’ aimed at getting people back into work. From the outset they have insisted it will be adequately funded and in line with Cameron’s open government, we know it will cost the country between £0.3bn and £3bn. Now call me cynical if you must, but is it only me that can see a huge discrepancy between the two figures? Are they really saying they don’t know the real cost?

As the days turn into weeks this government and its right wing policies are almost laughable and would be if the strategies they intend to employ didn’t hurt people so badly. We can only hope they disappear into the wilderness very soon.