There's no doubt about it, there's been a change in language and tone in the last two weeks.
After Nick first going onto the front foot on the Pupil Premium last week and then later that day calling certain Tories 'infantile', we now have Simon Hughes and Vince Cable going on the attack on the benefits issue - and telling George Osborne enough is enough.
Here's Simon speaking for the backbenchers...
“We are coming to the crucial period as to where we go now. If more money has to be found there are many in our party and beyond who would say it ought not to be people at the bottom of the heap," he said.
"It would be unacceptable to me that we ask people on the lowest incomes to take more of a hit when we have the biggest disparity in wealth and income that we have had in all of your lifetime and mine."
And here's Vince parking his tanks on Osborne's lawn
“We’ve used the phrase not a penny more, not a penny less,” he says. “I’m implementing spending cuts and it’s very tough. We are not agreeing anything over and above the cuts that have already been agreed in the spending review.”
I think that's pretty clear.....
Yup, that's pretty clear. As was the tuition fees pledge. I look forward to your excuses when we get more benefit cuts in a few months time.
ReplyDeleteWell the Clegg /Alexander narrative has moved on again - no more cuts in this spending round, only cuts in the next (2105/6) if its in exchange for some pretty hefty policy in return, probably Mansion tax and /or no income tax for anyone on the minimum wage. and the cuts look like being around removing further Universal benefits 9eg no winter fule allowance for rich pensioners)
ReplyDeleteThis of course doesn't chime with the Vince view of the world, as stated above. But I suspect he does have the wiggle room - he'll say he was talking about the current spending round