Since 2005 we have been aware in this country that every day spending on benefits and services have far exceeded the income from taxes. During the election of 2010 the Labour party "outed" secret Tory plans to cut spending and raise taxes. When George Osborne not only admitted this but said there was no other way to avoid bankruptcy the Tories poll rating went up, not down. At this realization the Labour party quickly amended its manifesto to say they would cut the deficit by half in 5 years. Quite a turn around from a few days earlier when they were still saying that the deficit is fine and did not need cutting.
Since the election we are seeing what these cuts really mean. Libraries are being closed, meals on wheels are having there funding shut and halls and venues that play host to community groups are facing massive cost hikes. None of this is good and everyone below a certain threshold will suffer.
What i find offensive is now that we are going through what has to be a horrible time, the Labour party are now touting a new slogan, "too deep, too soon" Basically saying that we are cutting in the wrong places (does that mean we were spending on things we didn't need?) and too quickly. What this ignores is the fact that everyday that passes while we are in debt means we owe more interest, which means we owe more overall, which means the interest goes up and ad infinitum.
At present we are paying £180 million a day on interest repayments alone, if the debt was reduced then so would the interest payments and so the need for cuts would be reduced.
To use peoples misery to score political points is bad, but when the misery was caused by the very people who are trying to profit from it, that is just offensive.
When asked to explain what "nice" cuts they would make, or to explain what they would cut to achieve the 50% deficit reduction the Labour party were initially evasive. Now they are blatantly arrogant telling us that because they are not in charge they don't need to explain a thing.
But here's a warning for them from not far away. After the Irish government accepted a bailout from the EU and IMF, a massive cost cutting exercise was started by the ruling Fianna fail party. At every opportunity the opposition party Fine Gael opposed the cuts and said that if they were in charge they would not cut "So deep and so fast" (sound familiar?) and so Brian Cowen, the Taoiseach called their bluff. He held an election on the 25th of February this year which Fine Gael duly won.
And what changes did Fine Gael make the cuts already in place?
Absolutely nothing.
