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Welfare state or warfare state?
From ‘moral duty’ to ‘military Keynesianism,’ Labour manipulates language to justify slashing welfare but pouring billions into warfare, condemning communities like Glasgow South West to deeper poverty, writes MATT KERR

THERE were two ways of dealing with the last fortnight. Hands over face, peeking out at the carnage unfolding, or step out into the world.

For the purposes of science, obviously, I tried both.

It began with Liz Kendall’s announcement on welfare reform. Literally millions of lives to — at best — be turned upside down to save a rounding error in the national budget. The language was that of tough love, the delivery was closer to that of the coked-up pal of the pub bully. Letters had been written by a collection of crawlers in advance to big up the “moral duty” of it all, to plant the seeds in our consciousness that this was a just fight.

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