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Osborne’s democracy cuts shows true Tory colours

by Ian Shires on 1 December, 2015

 British Chancellor and Conservative MP George Osborne addresses party supporters and workers during a visit to Britvic Soft Drinks Ltd on April 1, 2015 in Leeds, United Kingdom. One hundred business leaders have written to a newspaper to express support for the Conservative party's policies including backing cuts in corporation tax and it's handling of the economy.

This week the Chancellor unveiled a petty attack on our democracy.

There were just three good parts to the Spending Review.  First, there was the long-overdue boost to mental health funding as championed by Norman Lamb. Then there was the welcome U-turn over tax credits, and finally the absence of significant police cuts.

However, there were swathes of ideological, unnecessary cuts: cuts to the pupil premium in real terms, cuts to green energy which will harm our environment and our economy, cuts to universal credit orders for councils to sell off much-needed property to stay afloat financially and a whole lot more.

Hidden beneath this bad news though was something a lot more sinister. Osborne proposed a seventeen percent cut to opposition party funding because – wait for it – opposition parties have done nothing to cut the deficit so they should take the hit! Has the Chancellor forgotten the last five years? Even if the Chancellor somehow thinks opposition parties routinely voted against every bill proposing spending reductions, we Lib Dems spent five years sacrificing our party for the good of the country.

Even worse this policy is an attack on democracy. The opposition is the cornerstone of our democracy and the cornerstone of our society. If this was just about deficit reduction, the Chancellor would surely have reduced government party funding as well. This policy is not only petty revenge for us opposing tax credit cuts, it reveals something much deeper about the Chancellor.

Namely, when it comes to politics as far as he’s concerned it’s a case of ‘my way or the highway’. I seriously wonder whether he is able to grasp the position of most of the opposition that most of his cuts are unnecessary. We need to ‘live within our means’, as the Chancellor likes to bark incessantly at us, but we also need to invest in the future at a time of historic low interest rates. We need to safeguard the needs and rights of every member of our society, including the very poorest. Yes, we need to reduce the deficit gradually, but the Tories have been incredibly successful at scaremongering and putting it about that borrowing caused the recession – a downright lie.

The truth about this policy is that it strips bare Tory ideals and reveals scaremongering over debt to create a small state. But the state has a responsibility for its citizens. Under the Tories these responsibilities won’t be met. The responsibility for fair democracy may well be exploited with both this bill and the boundary changes. In fact the very refusal to consider proportional representation in 2010 is itself an attack on fair democracy. Worst of all, though, I fear we’re going to see increases in poverty and a failure to invest to educate kids from the poorest schools – as Tim always says ‘the very schools Tories don’t send their kids to’.

What does this mean for us though? Well it’s clear that we’ve got a long fight ahead in this parliament. We have to work together as MPs, councillors, peers and members to fight tooth and nail to oppose the Tory policies which damage our society. This is the only way forward. Luckily though, we can go back to doing what we do best – doing right by our country and doing right by the party.

* Thomas is a 15 year old Lib Dem member who joined a few weeks before the election.

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