Conservative austerity needs to end and now!

At the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham, the Prime Minister announced that the austerity of the last decade is to end and “support for public services will go up.”

I have to admit that I am somewhat sceptical about what has been said, and Theresa May’s announcement has been widely derided as a “soundbite” or positioning for short-term political gain. Indeed, she has couched her pledge as a future action, linked to the outcome of next year’s spending review while also being dependent “on a good Brexit for Britain.”

It was followed within a few days by a cynical appeal by the PM to likely Labour voters, asking them to consider changing their allegiance to the Tories.

Quite rightly, journalists and commentators have been quick to critique the lack of detail behind the rhetoric and how it contradicts what the Conservatives have been saying in recent months, weeks and even days.

And they have not been afraid to point out how it does not reflect the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s financial plan which, while honouring the recent commitment to increase funding for the NHS, would still lead to what one newspaper has described as yet more “eye-watering” cuts in “every other department of state.”

Political opponents have also rubbished the pronouncements from the occupant of No. 10, especially when other leading Conservatives such as the Party Chairman Brandon Lewis have refused to consider rethinking planned reductions in funding to local councils and other public services.

Make no mistake, austerity has done great damage to public services across the United Kingdom, hurting individuals and families and communities in the process.

Senior Conservatives may be making shallow statements about some future cessation of austerity, but local councils such as the unitary authority in Cornwall are still having to grapple with the implications of dealing with savage, unjust and ongoing cuts in central government funding.

And it is to be welcomed that the planned merger of the “Devon and Cornwall” and Dorset police forces looks like it is not going to happen, but such a proposal would not even have been put forward if the promised levels of funding for the police had actually been delivered.

If Theresa May is serious about ending austerity, her Government needs to reverse the cuts to local government, the police and other public services right now; and deliver a whole new approach to government finance through enhanced and fair taxation with the wealthy and big business paying their fair share.

[This was my article in the Cornish Guardian on 10 October].