I wept after hearing women's stories. A decade of austerity has wrecked lives Mary O'Hara
about 5 years in The guardian
Ten years of suffering has normalised hardship. As millions more are impoverished by coronavirus, we need an exit strategy
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My austerity journey, which took me to all four UK nations and numerous towns, cities and villages, to write a book, began in the months following George Osborne’s infamous budget statement 10 years ago today which let loose the beast of austerity. Unveiling £40bn worth of cuts from welfare to Whitehall, the then chancellor declared that austerity was “unavoidable” (it wasn’t) and ushered in a decade of unnecessary suffering by slashing public expenditure, even though the country was in recession following the 2008 financial crisis.
While ministers and pundits vilified people in need, framing them as “scroungers” and “skivers” to justify austerity in the minds of the wider public, real lives were being wrecked and parents were grappling with the unthinkable choice between eating or heating. Continue reading...
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