With Corbyn successfully painted as a “Loony Lefty” by the media, we seem to be back to a comfortable consensus among the political classes and the media that “Austerity” is a necessary evil. The Green Party thinks otherwise – as do the vast majority of expert economists. A recent survey found that only 15% of academic economists agreed that the austerity policies of the coalition government have had a positive effect on aggregate economic activity, while 66% disagreed.
The truth is that “Austerity” has been shown, time and time again, to be self-defeating: cutting public services takes money and jobs from those who would otherwise be contributing most directly and immediately to the economy. It reduces tax take for the government, increases (not decreases) spending on unemployment benefit, and chokes off economic growth while fuelling crime and other social ills. Nationally, austerity has abjectly failed to reduce the deficit as we were promised by George Osborne.
Locally, our Tory-dominated County Coucil has the same ideological attachment to austerity that we see from the national government. Responding to GCC’s Medium Term Financial Strategy outlined in cabinet papers, our Green County Councillor Sarah Lunnon said “The failed Austerity programme of Cameron and Osbourne continues haunt our local services, services which protect our families and keep us safe. The cuts forecast in this strategy will result in the people of Gloucestershire feeling poorer, feeling less safe and being less secure.
We need a new Marshall Plan, funded by Government, to invest in clean energy security and public services – to protect us, our families and provide long-term employment”.