The chancellor and the ConDem government have finally come out and shown what we have all suspected – the Conservatives haven’t changed and the Lib Dems have sold out. How can condemning half a million workers to a future of unemployment which will in turn condemn another half a million private sector workers to a future of unemployment in the process be good for Britain’s economy and its future? To make matters even worse, just in case they were not battered and bruised enough – unemployment support and funding for retraining is to be cut substantially.

So the ConDems have sent out a clear message – we’re putting you out of work, we’re not supporting you to retrain and we’re not going to support you for being unemployed and seeking alternative employment. It is the old Thatcherite YOYO policy – ‘You’re On Your Own’. In the 1980’s Thatcher decimated working class communities, put hundreds of thousands out of work and never supported them to seek alternative employment even through recession after recession. She and her supporters condemned thousands of families to over a decade of hardship which meant that by 1997 we had to begin implementing a raft of socially responsible measures at huge costs. The Decent Homes programme, increasing NHS spending and capital funding, and the Building Schools for the Future programme – were all measures just to bring valued services up to 21st Century standards, never mind improving them further.

Let’s be clear, there is an alternative and as a Labour Party we need to put meat on the bones of what we would do. First of all, we must dispel the myth that it was ‘our’ mess. The G20 leaders didn’t come to London in February 2009 to discuss Labour’s mess, they came to discuss a global recession brought on by casino banking practices, and unless I’m mistaken, we weren’t the world’s government we were the British government so we are not to blame for a world recession. The biggest recession in history has hit almost every country around the globe and its effects will be felt for the next decade.

Second, Alistair Darling’s March budget would have put Britain on the right path. It supported private sector growth, which would have increased job numbers and allowed us to reduce the public sector without the widespread hardship that now lies ahead. Overall, work should pay; benefits should be a hand-up not a hand-out, but you have to support people when the jobs aren’t out there. You have to support growth, support people into work and support families during difficult times.

We are all in this together – but the CSR has a funny way of showing it.

Photo: le Haricot