Challenges facing the new Government
BEN ANDRADI
pen to the United Kingdom economy in the next few years as the new Government deals with the budget deficit. This stands at a stag- gering 12 per cent of GDP, some £163 billion, pointing to the worst budget deficit in Europe. The mantra from the new Government is to reduce the deficit by cutting spending rather than tax increases. The age of austerity is upon us. Gone are simple platitudes from govern- ment that we can deal with the deficit by cutting waste and getting efficiency gains. Now it’s time for specifics and the new Chancellor, George Osborne, will give his emergency budget on 22 June. The money markets are eager for the new
Government to release its deficit-reduction plans, a step that is necessary to prevent a cut to the UK’s top-notch “triple-A” credit rating. Where will the cuts come and who will share most of the burden and how should the Churches respond?
One indicator of where the cuts will come from is to look at continental Europe, which has been forced by the financial markets to
AT A PUBLICmeeting three days before the general election the leaders of the three main parties pledged that children would no longer be locked up in immigration centres, writes
Austen Ivereigh.
The occasion was an assembly organised by Citizens UK, the national home of com- munity organising and the umbrella body for people’s organisations. The largest and oldest is London Citizens, made up principally of Christian congregations, of which the largest number are Catholic. The call to end the detention of children was one of the six “asks” in the Citizens UK “People’s Manifesto”, and the key reform urged for by its Citizens for Sanctuary campaign. Each year the United Kingdom Border
Agency detains around 1,000 children in immigration centres – principally Yarl’s Wood in Bedfordshire – because their parent or parents have been identified for forced removal from the UK. The children are on average 10 to 12 years old, most have spent many years in the UK, and many have been
4 | THE TABLET | 22 May 2010
Return of austerity
A
usterity comes from the Greek word (how appropriate) meaning harsh. This is an appropriate description of what is going to hap-
deal with painful deficit reduction. It has been a mixture of public-sector pay cuts, pay freezes and significant reduction in welfare benefits. In Spain, public-sector workers will have
a pay cut of 5 per cent and state investment slashed by 6 billion euros (£5.1bn). Spain wants to save 15bn euros in 2010/11. In Ireland again public-sector pay will be cut by anything from 5 per cent to 20 per cent and child ben- efits by about 8 per cent. In Portugal public-sector wages will be frozen for the next four years. In Greece civil servants’ wages will be cut by an astounding 12 per cent. In most European countries, most public-
sector workers will have to work until 65 to get a pension. There are cries of outrage and disbelief across Europe as these measures have been introduced. But the age of entitle- ments have come to an end, with such cuts being on a scale unseen before in Europe. All this is happening among high levels of unemployment across Europe, notably in Spain where it’s already at 20 per cent. Consequently the most vocal demonstrators have been public-sector unions, as in Greece, but the most impacted have been among the poor and vulnerable in society. These measures have been imposed to gain credibility from
The spectre of pay cuts and job losses in the public sector as well as tax rises loom, given the new coalition Government’s determination to cut the UK’s crippling budget deficit. The choices are stark but the Church’s teaching on the common good offers sure guidance
the financial markets, which exposed the vul- nerability of countries such as Greece, Spain and Portugal that in turn led to one of the largest rescue packages ever seen – 750bn euros. This Continental drama is still being played out as the markets are unclear if this is a liq- uidity or solvency issue. If it’s a liquidity issue, then the multi-billion-euro rescue package will help to restructure the debt. But the mar- kets are increasingly thinking that it’s a solvency issue, in that most of these southern European economies are bankrupt and can never afford to repay their debt. Similar drastic deficit-reduction measures
will have to be implemented in Britain. The immediate commitment of the new Government is to announce £6bn of savings this year, which will not impact “frontline services”. Much bigger savings will have to follow. The financial markets expect £60bn of public spending cuts in the next three years. The plan would be to get the deficit down as fast as possible over three rather than five years. Before the election, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), in an audit of the main parties’ economic plans, said all three had been “strik-
‘They have committed no crime, yet are arrested and imprisoned for weeks at a time’
The Liberal Democrats’ manifesto promise to give an “amnesty” to long-term undocumented migrants won’t be fulfilled, but one key change was agreed
born here while their parents’ case for asylum is heard. As I saw for myself when I visited Yarl’s
Wood with Citizens leaders – including two Anglican priests – at Easter, most children speak with British accents after being edu- cated at British schools. They have committed no crime, yet are arrested and imprisoned for weeks at a time, out of sight of the press and the courts. Some spend many weeks, or even months, living a purposeless existence which the children’s commissioner, Sir Al Aynsley-Green, described in a devastating 2009 report as “inherently damaging to children”. When the children are released, fewer than
half of them are put on a plane back to their parents’ country; most go back to where they were before they were detained. (The Ecuadorian family I spoke to there had lived at the same address for nine years; it was their third spell at Yarl’s Wood.) The justifi- cation – that they need to be locked up in case they abscond – conceals the uncomfort- able truth that their imprisonment facilitates deportation. It is for administrative conven- ience. From the negotiations with the party lead-
ers before 3 May, we knew that Lib Dem Nick Clegg was unequivocal, that Conservative David Cameron believed the practice was wrong and would promise to set up a working
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