There’s no light at the end of this tunnel. Just more pain | Polly Toynbee
Bravo! Well done, Britain! It's "a remarkable national effort," gloats chief architect George Osborne, "we got there in the end". Making his spring statement, chancellor Philip Hammond may allow himself a funereal glimmer of an almost smile. The current account deficit has been starved down to its 2% target. So easy! Any dieter determined to lose weight can just lop off their legs and, hey presto, the scales will say they made it. Swallowing tape-worms or emetic poisons will do it too. Easy if you ignore collateral damage, human suffering, irrecoverable losses and economic paralysis. Easy if your aim is ideological state-shrinkage.
Wherever you look, you see the harm. Some can be fixed: leaking school buildings, closed libraries, neglected parks and playgrounds. But too much is beyond repair. You can't summon up the skills and deep experience of all the teachers, nurses, doctors, administrators and technicians who have not been trained and hired to fill the gaps. Hard to replace those who have burned out under unbearable pressure. What of the million public servants gone, as Whitehall frantically tries to hire lost expertise to cope with Brexit?
Child poverty will rise quickly, as benefit freezes, cuts and rising prices far outweigh minimum wage increases
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