The government should return the unions’ fire

The TUC is mustering in Manchester and its leaders are in bellicose mood. Brendan Barber has called for a general strike; Bob Crow, brimming with the satisfaction of having wrecked London’s transport earlier in the week, has called for his members to ‘stand and fight’ the government’s cuts.

These statements have a ‘Me and my executive’ air to them, so ludicrous as to be beyond parody. But the message is rousing and clear. Not so the government’s – as Fraser argues today in his News of the World column.

The government is caught in an intellectual cul-de-sac. Its sole refrain is that these cuts are Labour’s cuts and they are necessary. At the same time, the government defines the cuts debate in Labour’s terms. It is wedded to the term ‘progressive’ and a mindset that spending is an indication of good government – hence the fact that it became embroiled in a spat