Life’s not fair: the public’s perception of cuts is what matters in the end

Abstract

Charlie Beckett discusses the public’s perception of this week’s cuts announcement, and offers some advice to Cameron and Clegg. The idea of fairness has suddenly become the central concept in British politics. The Big Question at the moment is whether the Coalition’s cuts are being shared equally amongst us all. The debate reveals a lot about the difficulty of having a ‘rational’ political discussion in today’s frantically over-managed political media world. Of course, the cuts are not fair. Life’s not fair. If you are on, say £15,000 then a cut of 10% will be much more painful than someone on say £50,000 who loses 15%. Statistically, the richer person is sacrificing more, but in the real world, the poorer person has less leeway. One person has to give up their only annual £500 holiday, the other has to give up their £2,000 second holiday - who suffers most