An Unfriended Government

Perhaps it’s because it’s a coalition and this novelty is too subtle a thing to be grasped by Fleet Street, but it’s still strange how unpopular this government has become. Not with the public; that was to be expected given the decision to stress nothing but deficits and cuts during the Camerlegg ministry’s first few months in office. But you might have thought its inky friends might have stuck around a little longer. Then again, they can feel the wind shifting too.

One consequence of the decision to stress fiscal austerity – perfectly reasonable and even, you may say, necessary – was to confirm, or seem to confirm, one of Labour’s election campaign charges: the Tories are mainly interested in cutting public (that is, government) services. The Big Society, whatever its merits, is going the same way: it’s cuts by a different name. This too, once the notion becomes common currency, is easily taken as confirmation that the Tories, despite all the talk, haven’t really changed at all.