UK Prime Minister David Cameron proclaims austerity cuts to be “permanent”
● Surrounded by the opulence of the Guildhall’s grandest room, Cameron addressed 900 rich and well-pampered guests enjoying a sumptuous banquet, courtesy of the City of London Corporation’s £12 million fund for ceremony and hospitality. Speaking from a gold throne and gilded lectern, Cameron said the government’s main priority was “an economy with a state we can afford”.
● While the right wing media hailed Cameron’s speech, the nominally liberal press declared they were taken back by Cameron’s stated aim that austerity should be permanent. The Guardian and the New Statesman both cited Cameron’s claim on coming to office in 2010 at the head of a coalition with the Liberal Democrats that “I didn’t come into politics to make cuts,” in order to claim that the prime minister had changed tack. This is nonsense, designed to chloroform their readers. In April 2009, more than a year before becoming prime minister, Cameron had declared that any government led by him would usher in an “age of austerity”. The media are well aware that this is the real agenda of the coalition—one that is shared by the Labour Party. If they are shocked it is only because Cameron has let the dirty secret of Britain’s ruling elite out of the bag.