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Austerity vision is of a 1930s Britain
Zoe Hennessy explores how an ideological war against the welfare state is turning the clock back on hard-won gains in employment and housing

In case you hadn’t noticed, 2015 is general election year — which means another round of vandalised Tory election billboards. But hopefully it also means that we are coming to the end of the current Conservative government — a government which has used the pursuit of so-called debt reduction to wage a war against working people and shore up profits for the super-rich.

They have been successful. The wealthiest 1,000 men and women in British society have doubled their wealth in the last five years, and are now worth a combined fortune of £519 billion.

The cost for working people has been huge, and has fallen particularly heavily on the young, people with disabilities and women. In his Autumn Statement Chancellor George Osborne announced a further round of cuts beyond 2015, which will take public spending down to levels not seen since the 1930s.

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