After seven years and hundreds of thousands of completely unnecessary deaths, the Conservative Party has apparently abandoned its ideological marriage to austerity.

Why? Because they no longer believe they can get away with it.

Austerity was forced on us in 2010 by David Cameron and George Osborne, both of whom claimed that “There Is No Alternative” if the nation was to reduce the national debt and restore living standards.

So wages were cut brutally. Benefits were cut, conditionality was turned up to the maximum level in order to deny claims from the most vulnerable people in society (who subsequently died), and sanctions also skyrocketed as ever-more-ridiculous reasons were found to penalise claimants (who subsequently died). The Bedroom Tax was introduced to penalise people who had been placed in social housing that had more rooms than they were deemed to need (they died too).

Meanwhile, taxes on the obscenely rich were cut, taxes on corporations were cut, tax avoidance was encouraged and the top one per cent of earners in UK society profited massively.

For Tories and their rich donor friends, the last seven years have been one long party – all because they had managed to convince a majority of voters that cuts were necessary in order to reduce the national debt. And what has happened to the national debt?

The national debt has more than doubled.

In fact, the economy needed investment, not cuts. To reduce the national debt, we needed more businesses, making more money and generating more tax for the Treasury. The Tory policy of shrinking the state was moronic. It was childish stupidity.

And now, further cuts are being abandoned – not because austerity’s ends have been achieved, but because the Tories have realised they will forfeit votes if they continue.

Everybody in the UK, who isn’t filthy rich, should be furious. We should be marching on Tory MPs’ homes and offices with blazing torches and pitchforks, shouting “Burn the monsters!”

The last thing we should do is tolerate this latest cynical reaction to prevailing trends. Tories represent greed and power. The only reason they abandon their pursuit of greed is when it may harm their hold on power.

And people are realising this at last. Here are some of the reactions on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/KeithCameron5/status/874577958089969664

https://twitter.com/Barkercartoons/status/874567143521755136

Even now, on the BBC’s Daily Politics, Tories Michael Howard and Dominic Grieve are talking about the need to live within our means. The fact is that it is entirely possible, if Tories are stopped from siphoning off our money into their bank accounts.

The end of austerity is to be welcomed.

The end of the UK’s problems will only come when the Conservatives are banished from Parliament forever.

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