Inflation at 10%? This is class war – and it was years in the making | Zoe Williams

Austerity, Brexit and the cost of living crisis have been built on nonsensical misinformation and meaningless division

If there is a class war - and there is - it is important that it should be handled with subtlety and skill," wrote Maurice Cowling, the influential rightwing historian, in the late 1970s. It is not freedom that Conservatives want; what they want is the sort of freedom that will maintain existing inequalities or restore lost ones." The nature of Conservatism has altered very little since, but the class on whose behalf the Tory party fights has changed dramatically: where once it was doctors and lawyers, businessmen, respectable people", it is now hedge fund managers and property developers, the filthy, the super, the Croesus rich. If you're less wealthy than Jacob Rees-Mogg, the party has fought a 12-year war against you, and - newsflash - it won.

Some statistics need animating, and some animate themselves. We do not need a human-interest case study to understand what a 40-year high of 10.1% inflation feels like. We don't need a pessimistic temperament to be terrified of what October will look like, when it's slated to reach 13% and the choice between heating and eating kicks in for so many people. We don't need an infographic to get to grips with the official figures that show a 4.1% drop in regular pay. But news that the Dogs Trust, for the first time in its history, has a waiting list for taking in people's pets still takes your breath away. I'm emphatically not saying that dogs are more important than people - I'm merely pointing out that this government has brought us to a point where we can't afford to feed our best friends. This isn't a belt-tightening moment; this is a wake-up moment.

Zoe Williams is a Guardian columnist