Well, we all knew it was coming - the constant spending of the previous government had to be reigned in. Sadly, there are those who still think that it's all a bad dream, that will go away once the current government caves in, and just borrows it's way out of this crisis. Sadly, that borrowing tactic was already played out, with the public insulated from the wider effects of the credit crunch by a vast overdraft that now has to be paid off. Ironically, it could just be repaid as we say good bye to ConDem in 10-11 years time, only to be replaced by the financially illiterate re-vamp New New Lab/Green coalition, who go and blow it all again like some deranged scaled up equivalent of the Duchess of York. Sadly, we are all going to pay the price - in terms of employment, financial security, and happiness. But, we can't blame the bankers - controversial as that may sound, we were all happy when they were making billions for our pension pots, and claiming relatively generous bonuses in the process. Their risky behaviour was just a reflection of our generally care free attitude towards finance and borrowing, where hair dressers were making more money by "flipping" flats and houses then by doing perms and conditioner infused head massages. Everyone became a property magnate, seduced by the lure of easy profit and even easier finance, so we are all complicit in this rather shabby affair.
The last lot to really not get it at all seem to be the more militant and less pragmatic trade unions. Seemingly, they do not fully comprehend that when the money dries up, there really is no more to be had and shared around. All their rantings that somehow the honest hard workers are paying the price for the bankers profligacy seem quite antiquated and from a different era. Rather than be grateful that at least most of their members seem to be protected from the most swingeing of cuts, and the market forces that affect the majority of the non-unionised private sector, they seem hell bent on causing massive unrest, coupled with bringing us back to some kind of communist/socialist workers utopia. Well, it was never equal or fair even at the height of the Soviet Union - some comrades were always a bit more equal than others, so how the unions can claim that the egalitarian socialist utopian way is the alternative to unbridled capitalism and the systemic exploitation of poor(?) workers is beyond me. The true path lies somewhere in between, where the tension between the two systems remains in balance. For the time being, the ConDem coalition seem to be winning the moral argument - we must pay the price for the excesses of the 90s and the noughties. However, it is only a matter of time before the spirit of collegiate austerity gets pushed aside in favour of outright selfishness and un-civic behaviour.
