Mike Marqusee on cuts to come

Make the spending cuts--or else
Greece is only the first place in Europe where politicians will push cuts in spending as a way to bail business out of the financial crisis, writes Mike Marqusee.
May 20, 2010 Socialist Worker (US - paper of the International Socialist Organization)

IN THE wake of Britain's inconclusive general election, there is much talk of the "national interest." It's said that politicians of all parties have to pull together to address the crisis caused by the country's enlarged fiscal deficit. Specifically, they must agree to a package of deep cuts in public spending. Nothing, it is said, is more urgent, more unavoidable.

In contrast, climate change, it seems, can be left perpetually on the back burner, though there is a far greater expert consensus about the dangers of the latter than the former.

It's simply not the case that all Britons have the same economic interests, and this was plain on Election Day. The poor and working class in the cities turned out in unexpected numbers to vote Labour in order to stop a Tory government making them pay for the crisis in service and job cuts. In the shires and suburbs, middle-class and rich voters turned out to vote Tory to make sure they didn't have to pay for it in higher taxes.

The media is full of dire warnings of the disaster that will befall the country should it fail to make the severe cuts "the markets" demand.

Greece is held up as a dark mirror of our future.

The rest is here.