Skipper

The table on the left shows how the cuts will bite after April this year. So far it's been only a bit noisy- students, lecturers, a few trade unionists- but soon thousands of public sector jobs will go and unemployment will soar. Given the recent rapid rise in inflation and, (despite coalition promises to ringfence the NHS, £20bn cuts in its budget, child benefit frozen for three years and public sector salaries frozen for two years- I expect things to get much, much nastier.

The last quarter of 2010 registered a decline in GDP and the signs for this quarter are not good either. Usually revised figures reveal and upward direction but on this occasion the 0.5% shrinkage was increased to 0.6%. I notice that Gaddafi's awful ranting speech suggested the protest insurgency sweeping the Arab world, will spread north to European countries. It's hard to think what form this contagion might take as all these countries have democratic systems. The most that can happen, I would have thought, is that ordinary citizens, especially the young, might feel less inhibited from displaying discontent on the streets. Which would not please the Cameron-Clegg government overmuch.

The question those of us on the worried left of centre asks, however, is 'why is the Labour Party not making any impact with its critique? I will seek to address this topic in my next post.