Cuts: prepare for the fight after 6 May!

Submitted by martin on 26 March, 2010 - 10:51 Author: Colin Foster

The Financial Times coverage of the 24 March Budget included two key points.


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First, the long-term spending plans announced by Alistair Darling are calculated by the Institute of Fiscal Studies to be "tougher than anything Margaret Thatcher imposed... cuts of about 10 per cent in real terms over the three years after April 2011".

Darling, interviewed on the BBC, did not challenge the calculation.

However, Darling proposed only reduced growth in public spending in 2010-11, and little specific after 2011 other than capping public sector pay rises at one per cent a year. The major cuts are not already set in place. The battle is yet to be fought out.

Secondly, the Financial Times gave an acute answer to the question: "what will happen after the election?"

The Tories have already committed themselves to cuts in the coming year, and to beating down the unions if we resist.

"If the Tories win, they will hold another Budget within 50 days. They are likely to open the books, recoil in horror and set out lower growth forecasts, swingeing cuts and tax rises.

"If Labour were to win, they would also raise taxes and cut spending. They would have a summer honeymoon, before Labour voters felt betrayed in an austerity autumn spending review".

Socialists need both to stop a Tory victory - which would be an immediate signal and mandate for big immediate cuts - and to mobilise activists within the labour movement to beat back the "betrayal in an austerity autumn spending review" which New Labour leaders will surely go for if they scrape back to office.

We should demand that the union leaders start speaking out against the cuts projections now.

Most of the cuts mentioned by Darling were unspecified "efficiency savings" in the civil service and the planned pay limit.

Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, said: "Today’s budget of so called efficiency savings, makes it clear that the reason the government is ripping up the contracts of loyal civil servants is to make it easier and cheaper for whoever wins the election to cut them.

"It is ludicrous to think that efficiency savings can be somehow pulled out from down the back of the sofa and have no effect on services. Those on strike today know that efficiency savings are cuts which will damage frontline service delivery. The strong support for today’s budget day strike demonstrates that civil and public servants are willing to stand up for the services they are proud to deliver."

On pay, he commented: "Holding down the pay of low paid public servants will result in real term pay cuts for the people who keep this country running. They shouldn’t be made to pay for a financial crisis not of their making. Pay cuts in real terms will take money out of the economy and potentially undermine the recovery."

On the relocation of civil servants, he said: “The government needs to recognise that they can’t force civil servants out of a job if they unable to relocate. Relocation needs to be done with the consent of the workforce, not forced through and with proper equality impact assessments carried out".

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