After an extended period of rhetoric to soften up public opinion about the supposed inevitability of deep spending cuts reality is coming home with a vengeance.
The so-called Misery Index, which combines unemployment and inflation rates, is at its highest since 1992 when the UK Government blundered out of the European Rate Mechanism on Black Wednesday and interest rates and mortgages went through the roof.
David Cameron will remember this because he was a Special Adviser at the Treasury to the then Chancellor Norman Lamont.
Sadly, it doesn't seem as if the PM has a keen sense of history because he is repeating polices that devastated people's lives in the North East in the 30s, 80s and 90s.
I have written here before that action is needed to reduce the deficit and the debt which in my view is mainly due to the greed of the bankers who have got off scot-free.
But such action needs to be done much more sensitively or people will suffer needlessly. The government's theory that they can hack back the public sector and that new jobs will pop up in the private sector is simply not working.
In these circumstances, I stand shoulder to shoulder with unions and others who alert public opinion to the real and long-term damage being done.
For instance, I ally myself with the shopworkers' Union, Usdaw which has launched a campaign against police cuts.
They are urging shoppers to sign a petition against the cuts during the annual Respect for Shopworkers Week, which takes place between 7-11 November
High profile policing keeps workers, shoppers and everyone safe and that can only be achieved through proper Government support and investment.
You can sign Usdaw's petition against police cuts at www.usdaw.org.uk/FreedomFromFear
The cuts are bad enough but we also have huge increases in the cost of basic utilities such as energy which means thousands more people dying from the cold because they cannot afford to heat their homes. I am for strong action to rein in the big six energy companies which are fleecing us.
I am incensed by the deterioration in the conditions of most people and I am sure than many others are too.
Newcastle Chronicle and Journal
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