Gordon Brown’s £40 billion welfare illusion
Now you see it … Now you don’t!
LABOUR MINISTERS know how it’s done: many of them spent almost 20 years exposing Tory claims to be "spending more than ever" on health, education and social security. Now, like a tired old Paul Daniels routine, they are using the same tedious tricks themselves in government.
They know that the real spending figures can be inflated to create a popular public image one day, and then business can revert to the normal routine of cuts and conflict.
Gordon Brown’s claim to be pumping extra billions into health and education in the long-awaited Comprehensive Spending Review centred on two key deceptions:
The "increases" over the next three years include every pound spent above the current budgets – effectively counting each increase twice. (See page 5)
The "real terms growth" rests on the assumption that nurses, doctors, teachers and others will effectively subsidise public services for another three years through a further pay freeze.
Labour hopes to have ended debate on resources for three years. But as the media headlines subside and the rave reviews are overtaken by the harsh reality in the classrooms and on the wards, it will take more than Brown’s conjuring prowess to prevent an angry backlash.