Mark’s words on LinkedIn – Government messaging on austerity
In some ways the return to austerity is being messaged cleverly. The level of cost-cutting being trailed will have a human toll and a political cost, earning the ire of both the anti-tax right and the anti-cuts left. However, not so long ago Cameron and Osborne won a majority from a similar platform, and this programme also positions the government as fiscally responsible grown-ups, a badly needed break from the previous two regimes.
The reason the government so urgently needs to distance itself from its predecessors is partly that they were deeply unpopular and their perceived incompetence, corruption and content for public service has handed Labour a hefty poll lead. But the other reason is to gaslight the country into forgetting that one of the major reasons for the impending recession and debt crisis is then-Chancellor, now-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s COVID spending. It would be harsh to judge Rishi on necessary spending increases to prevent spiralling poverty, health service collapse and economic ruin, but this spending also includes super-spreading boondoggles like ‘Eat out to help out’.
Positioning impending austerity as a grim necessity in response to global economic conditions beyond their control is a deliberate act of cognitive dissonance by the government to make people forget that many of them played significant individual roles in visiting the current crisis upon us. Whether it works depends how long a memory the public has.
Mark’s words on LinkedIn – Government messaging on austerity