AUSTERITY has covered acres of newspaper space since 2010. There has been excellent coverage by journalists who have penned millions of words on austerity from every conceivable angle.

Yet by virtue of their job, not many actually “live” austerity. They don’t spend day-in and day-out experiencing it on the front line, sleep, eat and breathe austerity as a way of life. They can only record the details — the struggles of the poor.

Since 2010 being “poor” has taken on a whole new meaning. We now have our own subsections — the unemployed poor, the disabled poor, the carer poor, the student poor and whole battalions of working poor, of which I am a member.

An austerity-driven Tory government, once in coalition and now masters of their own universe until 2020, has created more poor people than Thatcher could ever dream of.

You could argue we have always had the unemployed poor, the vast majority of whom move back into work within six months. No government has ever got to grips with being a compassionate government for disabled people and carers. They, including myself, have remained bottom of the “to do” list since we are the unseen, invisible, 11 million votes that political parties have refused to court.

The young student poor are now having every dream of a good career, decent house, decent standard of living ripped away while they carry thousands of pounds of student loan debt into their adult lives.

Students have been encouraged to believe university was, and is, the only option of a good job, while no emphasis has been placed on technical apprenticeships to provide the next generation of skilled workers on our shop floors.

And the working poor. A phrase that would have been thought comedic 20, 30 years ago when going to work actually paid. Having a job, whether you were a factory production line worker, a hairdresser, a bricklayer or a teacher meant permanency, renting a flat or house with friends when young, then your own home either in the social or private sector, usually by your 25th birthday.

Work paid to get that car, to pay your bills, save for a new cooker or carpet, a summer holiday and a few pints down the pub. And while you were toasting the fruits of your labour, parents knew their kids were well clothed and fed, birthdays enjoyed and pocket money given for a trip to the cinema on a Saturday. It wasn’t utopia, but wages covered what they needed to.

So what has gone wrong? Why is austerity being borne on the shoulders of the poor? And don’t forget the “in word” at the moment among politicians — aspiration. What has happened to the hopes and aspirations of the poor?

First of all, us poor are our own worse enemies. The Tory/Lib Dem government peddled the lie that austerity is needed and we are all “in it together” and judging by the result of the recent general election, far too many believed it.

Those at the top, the Tory MPs, the bankers, the right-wing media are definitely all in it together. They decided the poor must suffer and should the poor dare to aspire to a better

way of life, such as — heaven forbid — a permanent job on a decent wage, then that ladder of opportunity should be denied with the mass introduction of zero-hours contract jobs.

Employers who treat the minimum wage as a wage ceiling proliferate, both partners in a couple are expected to work and once their kids are five, both full time. The message is to let the childminder bring your kids up.

The right-wing media finds poor people with little or no education to exploit as scroungers in a never-ending diet of poverty porn TV, which many now believe is the norm of society among the poor.

Foodbank programmes rarely show struggling families, but always the chancer or people we are told are beyond pity, like alcoholics and drug addicts. And sadly as the programmes are screened endlessly the right-wing media works its magic and us poor turn against each other.

Austerity is a daily struggle for us. The aspirations that our politicians talk about are a pipe dream for many — our aspiration is survival.

Having a decent home free from the threat of having to constantly move is to be aspired to, as a house with a garden for families has been replaced with having a roof over your head in the short term. This form of housing is often poor quality, owned by buy-to-let landlords not interested in providing decent accommodation, viewing you as an easy way to make a fast buck through housing benefit.

The working poor, once able to pay rent on a council house, now need housing benefit to subsidise sky-high rents in the private sector for basic accommodation. This is often where both partners work too, and is not confined to lone parents the pariahs of this capitalist Tory government.

Austerity for the poor is a grinding daily struggle to keep a roof over your head, feed yourself and your family and pay the bills and, in the winter months particularly, choose to eat or heat your home. These are the choices forced on people the government says are undeserving of support.

While we used to tell our children a good education, studying hard and perhaps a chance at university is the way out of poverty, this is sadly no longer the case. Many university graduates are in zero-hours minimum wage jobs too.

A whole new generation of young adults is being told low pay is an aspiration, that zero-hours contracts is the norm to aspire to, that belonging to a union is a thing of the past.

This new generation was only a little over nine years old when the Tories came into power in 2010. They know no different. They have been indoctrinated with TV and newspaper articles insisting they must despise the poor and those less fortunate, avoid compassion for the unemployed and understand that “hard work” is the correct and only thing to do now, from nursery age to 70.

If you are poor then your education will be poor too, with schools full of teachers who teach to a set, targets-centric curriculum, who are not there to answer the questions of enquiring youngsters.

Today thousands of people from across unions and communities will march in the People’s Assembly national demonstration against austerity. Demonstrating and protesting is what we have left to tell this Tory government that we won’t let the poor take this burden for another five years.

Osborne is planning another £12 billion of welfare cuts to fall on our shoulders and we cannot tolerate any more cuts to tax credits, working tax credit, disability benefits or carers allowance. Our kids need to be able to go to university or take a technical apprenticeship without fear of lifelong debt.

Aspiration should not be the preserve of the middle classes. Working hard with noses to the grindstone on a low-paid, unstable zero hours contract should not be the aspiration of the poor.

If you cannot make the demonstration in London, take to social media as your protest weapon. Take compassion on your neighbour made redundant and seeking a new job, open your eyes to the carer down the road getting £63 a week to look after a disabled person, note how many in your community are suffering due to the bedroom tax and job centre sanctions and stop living in a selfish bubble of I’m alright Jack.

It’s only by standing together that us poor will defeat the dark forces of Toryism that seek to destroy us.