We are now moving from a phoney war into a major political battle for Britain's future. The Coalition's cuts so far are puny compared to what may be revealed when the Chancellor delivers the Comprehensive Spending Review next week.
Aggressive austerity will inflict lasting damage on our social fabric and could spark a double dip recession, especially in our region. Experts fear a million more on the dole with 500,000 lost public sector jobs and the same in the private sector, which depends on public orders. And the foundations of the welfare state are being undermined.
Ministers persistently rubbish Labour's legacy and claim that their cuts are both unavoidable. But they wilfully ignore the fact that we replaced our dilapidated schools and hospitals and that our emergency borrowing kept businesses afloat and averted a deep depression following the catastrophic failure of financial institutions. All other major countries faced the same problems and adopted similar solutions.
And there is a viable alternative. The deficit needs to be reduced but not on a recklessly fast timetable. Labour proposed halving the deficit in four years to nurture the fragile recovery and protect as many jobs and services as possible with a fairer balance of cuts, taxes and growth. A bigger bank levy and a Robin Hood Tax on financial transactions would raise many billions from those who caused the recession, as would tackling tackle tax avoidance and evasion. Such revenues mean fewer cuts for ordinary people and pay for the services that make for a decent society.
Labour has a constitutional role to oppose the government which lacks a moral mandate for its measures. The Tories did not win the election, after all, and their partners sang a very different tune beforehand. People also have the right to defend their jobs and services against often needless and crude actions based on sensationalism and smear. Concerted campaigning can change ministers' minds as we saw with their retreat on scrapping free school milk.
Labour should team up with unions, community groups and others to advocate an alternative strategy that builds broad-based support. We can also back fair and necessary government measures.
The cuts will hit women everywhere and regions such as the North East where, for historic reasons, we have a bigger public sector, a weak private sector and lower life expectancy. Smart state intervention can overcome the North-South gap and boost our new manufacturing and green industries, not least in the North East.
We should defend the welfare state and modernise it to take account of our ageing population. The planned cut in child benefit for some top tax payers will save £1 billion. Widespread consternation forced David Cameron to apologise because the measure was not in his manifesto but sorries don't put bread on the table and the cut will happen. Starting with the better off may be clever short-term politics but shouldn't distract us from the wider pain to be inflicted on many others.
But the case for universal child benefit remains sound. Society recognises that parents play a vital role in rearing new generations by contributing to the cost. The benefit goes to the mother and avoids the stigma as well as costly administration of means-testing. It also sustains social solidarity whereby everyone pays into the collective pot and receives some benefit. Universalism prevents the welfare state being a sink service safety net just for the poor but one that can benefit everyone.
It is also a Trojan Horse. Breaching the principle of universal benefits makes it easier to undermine others. Mr Cameron vowed at the election that benefits such as free bus passes and winter fuel payments for over 60s would remain. Will he stick to that promise?
We face a maelstrom of controversy and unfairness as the scope and scale of the cuts becomes clear. I will continue to work with others to defend working people and the North East.
Newcastle Chronicle and Journal
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