Liberal Vision

The rise of the Cabbies

Every era throws up its acronyms. The eighties produces the Yuppie; the nineties the Dinky and the era of our obsession with home-ownership the Nimby. I wonder what the era of austerity will bring.

One group that seems to be emerging from the current financial constraint are a group that I might christen the Cabbies, after their apparent cry of “Cut anything but…” These are the people who are extremely riled about the particular cut that affects their pet project.

So, for example, I have a friend who works in the film industry who is bewailing the loss of the UK Film Council. The local cycling enthusiast is appalled at the loss of Cycling England. High-income parents are in shock that they might lose the child benefit that is partly responsible for their paying higher taxes in the first place. Would-be students are furious that they will have to pay for a greater proportion of their own education if and only if they begin to earn wages well above the national average.

What I want to ask these people is, what exactly do you think is going on, here? When you were told that the Government would cut £113 billion out of government expenditure, did you think that these cuts would not affect you? Did you think that they’d only fall on the other people; or only on those things that you didn’t really like, or use, anyway?

The government is broke. One pound in every four that it spends is borrowed. We spend more servicing debt interest than we do on schooling our children. We are all going to have to make sacrifices. We are all going to have to suck it up; to take one for the team. There simply isn’t the option of exempting the Zoos Forum or The Theatres Trust. This is no time to be a Cabbie.

Nostalgia for the Labour years of Government largesse