Vox Political has been devoid of Autumn Statement coverage today (Wednesday) as Yr Obdt Srvt has been working on business involving Mrs Mike. Here’s some coverage from Scriptonite Daily to keep readers frothing while Vox Towers catches up with the times:

George Osborne’s Autumn Statement today has deftly underscored a point we have been making at Scriptonite Daily since 2010 – Austerity is not a temporary measure to balance the books, but an ideological commitment to remove the NHS and the rest of the post World War II welfare state. According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, Osborne’s latest round of planned cuts will reduce public spending to the levels of the 1930’s.

On arrival in government, the Conservative section of the Coalition government were keen to present austerity as temporary, necessary and purely practical.  Back in 2010, Cameron claimed that he “didn’t come into politics to make cuts”, and that austerity was simply temporary spending restraint based on a necessary effort to cut the deficit, not “some ideological zeal”.

In 2014, ‘Austerity’ is delivering the half century long ambition of the Conservative party:  to revoke the post-war social contract of the United Kingdom.

The modern welfare state: decent pensions, affordable and decent social housing, a publicly funded and managed healthcare system, a reliable and low cost transport system, the guarantee of a decent education regardless of circumstances of birth.  This was the social contract the UK public signed up to in the post war period.  Why? Because these generations had lived through the horrific consequences of unrestrained capitalism; enormous inequality, widespread poverty and destitution, starving and malnourished children, an entrenched class system, the benefits of the hard work of the many enjoyed by a privileged and undeserving few.

Osborne’s Autumn Statement has revealed that this mission will be complete by the budget of 2019/20 if their current budget plans remain unchallenged.

Read the rest on Scriptonite Daily.

Follow me on Twitter: @MidWalesMike

Join the Vox Political Facebook page.

Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:

Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
bringing you the best of the blogs!
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:

The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here: