We are all in this together

If there is anything that is set to make my blood boil – almost literally, in this instance – it is when a senior Conservative politician says that in terms of the government’s current austerity policy, “we are all in it together.” The unmistakable suggestion is that we all have to make sacrifices for the greater good. The reality is rather different.

Don’t worry: this is not going to turn into an anti-Tory rant. I am well aware that David Cameron’s Conservatives have a mandate to do what they promised to do. Even though they were not specific, enough voters decided that they were in favour of huge cuts to welfare as well as to vital frontline public services. As least Cameron had some kind of admittedly unstated vision, which was to pare back the state. Under Ed Miliband, who I liked greatly, Labour was unable to provide any meaningful kind of vision at all. But it’s that phrase that gets me: “We’re all in it together.”

Cameron said it again yesterday. When it comes down to paying off the national debt, we are all in it together. That’s how the BBC faithfully reported his comments, but wait a minute. This was not what Cameron was referring to. He was on about the deficit, not the national debt. The latter has effectively doubled on his watch, the former has come down but by less than half, despite his promises to eliminate it completely by the end of the last parliament. Our national public service broadcaster which has, in its shameful pro Tory coverage of the election campaign all but given up on impartiality fails us again by its unquestioning reporting of Cameron’s latest snippets of misinformation.

Of course, we are not “all in it together”. Cameron announced today that the pay of cabinet ministers, most of whom are already multimillionaires, that their measly annual salaries of £134,565 will be frozen for the next five years. Says Cameron: “That’s why, for example, I’ve decided to freeze the pay of the ministers in the government. For me, that’s just one step which sends out a clear signal: that as we continue knuckling down as a country, we will all play our part.”

The only signal that sends out to me is that the government’s “example” of freezing pay will also be extended to all other public sector workers – well, the ones who won’t soon be sacked, that is. That’s how politics works.

I am not knocking people who have wealth, especially those who have worked hard to acquire it. That’s A Good Thing in my book. Champagne and Caviar should not be confined to the upper classes: they are good enough for the workers too. And if the better off pay a little extra in tax, that’s surely a good thing too, isn’t it?

But we’re not all in it together if a million people are using food banks. We are not all in it together if the sick and disabled are targeted first in the next round of cuts, which will be brutal. Let’s be honest: for the upper middle classes, a slight increase in tax might mean one less weekend away in the Cotswolds. A cut in the living standards for the worse off may mean they can’t afford to eat. How on earth can we all be in it together if there are millions more struggling by on the minimum wage and working zero hour contracts?

Maybe it’s just me, but Cameron sounds ridiculous when he utters that tedious soundbite. He is not the only politician that does not have the first notion of how ordinary people live their lives and how difficult a struggle it is for many to just get by.

Instead of soundbites, why not be honest, Dave? What you are going to do is cut tax for the very richest, you are going to cut and tax benefits for the very poorest. You are going to sack scores of thousands of public sector workers, you are going to slash spending in many departments right back to the bone. You are going to keep the bedroom tax and you are probably going to further increase student tuition fees. You are going to do all these things because a) you really do believe in them and, more importantly, b) you were elected because enough people voted for your policies.

Now I hate the Tory policies. They will hurt the poorest and benefit the richest. I will sign petitions, I will write about them, I will try to persuade people of why the policies are wrong and how they will hurt the very poorest, but I know that for five years, and I fear for many years beyond, the Tories will stay in power to the detriment of many and the benefit of a few.

The kindest thing I can say is that we are all in it together, but some are more in it than others. The new austerity will make last government’s austerity seem like a cakewalk. What we really need from politicians of all colours, but especially Tories because they are in charge, is honesty and not spin, but we know that is going to happen. They treat us as fools and quite possibly with good reason.