For once, not wearing his Hi Viz jacket and hard hat (“I am a friend of the worker, not the shirker”), today will see the sleight of hand for which George Osborne is infamous. He will take away with one hand and take away more with the other, at the same time leaving with you the impression he’s given you something. The Osborne sneer will be in evidence throughout, so do remember to accept your lot, especially if you are not rich.
It’s the budget today, dressed up as the autumn statement. The Chancer of the Exchequer will explain how you will be safer with vastly reduced police and fire service numbers, how your health will improve with fewer doctors and nurses, how your children will be taught better with fewer and less qualified teachers. It’s win, win for everyone, as you will be supposed to think as his near hysterical colleagues wave their order papers. The small print will tell a different story, but don’t worry: you won’t see the small print until you open a future wage packet, wonder why there is no bobby on the beat, watch your house burn down, drown as your boat sinks because of cuts to the coastguard. An exaggeration? Only if you close your eyes and ignore the evidence.
Listen out for “long term economic plan”, “we’re all in it together” and numerous other meaningless soundbites that will cheer the back benchers behind Osborne, whose pitch this is for the Tory leadership. Today is about politics, it is about ideology, it is about paring back the state and the things we most value. It is the next step in breaking up the NHS, it is a substantial nail in the coffin of the welfare state, it is kicking away the crutch of the disabled who will be expected to stand on their own two feet, even if they don’t have two feet.
So not too big a day, then. There will be lies, damned lies and statistics, the very substance of a classic Osborne performance. The red tops will be cheering his very name tomorrow, confirmation if ever it were needed that this will be a very black day for ordinary working people.
