The cuts get personal

A letter to Nick Clegg from 'alarm clock Britain'

We set our alarm clocks, we work, we pay taxes – now Nick Clegg must keep his side of the bargain
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Nick Clegg
Nick Clegg has been campaigning for 'alarm clock Britain' – people on middle and low incomes who are anxious about their standard of living. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian

Dear Nick,

On Saturday, my alarm clock went off at 4am so I could get on a train to London for a conference. On Sunday, it went off at 7am so I could get on a plane to the US for a series of meetings. Most days, my alarm gets me out of bed at 6.30am. I read the Guardian, not the Sun, which probably disqualifies me from being part of alarm clock Britain, but let me tell you anyway what life on this side is like.

The average person in alarm clock Britain, with unpaid overtime, doesn't actually start getting paid in 2011 until 27 February. That is two months' worth of our time we give for free to our employers. And because that is not enough, we are now part of the big society too. I give my time to four projects, including as a charity trustee and a campaigner for electoral reform (a topic dear to your own heart).

So apart from my unorthodox newspaper choice, I feel I fulfil this government's expectations of me. But in return, I have some expectations of said government, too. I set my alarm clock, I work, I pay taxes. This is where you come in.

I and the rest of alarm clock Britain pay our taxes so the state can provide decent education and healthcare, not privatise schools and the NHS. Free schools, shown to be divisive in Sweden and with no democratic control, will be financed by the taxpayer. The pupil premium, according to your manifesto commitment to be financed from outside the existing education budget, will now be funded from within – redirecting much-needed money from other areas. Private companies will compete to run GP commissioning consortia, replacing the "bureaucracy" your government so loathes with the drive for profit at taxpayers' expense and destroying economies of scale.

We pay taxes so society can support its most vulnerable members, not abandon them while cutting taxes for the relatively well-off. You say you are cutting income tax so anyone earning under £42,000 will pay £200 less – yet the average family will have to pay another £400 a year in regressive VAT. At the same time, support for disabled people is being slashed and made conditional on humiliating tests to discourage applicants. Is this how a progressive society treats the vulnerable?

We pay taxes so common goods remain common for all to enjoy – not so the state can sell off our forests for short-term gain. Selling off national assets is a measure both desperate and unnecessary. It will not address the deficit or make a dent in the national debt, while leaving the British public – "alarm clock Britain" – truly impoverished.

We pay taxes so our government can invest in our economy and the future of our children, not cut funding for higher education and scientific research. In a world where China aims to produce hundreds of thousands of additional researchers by 2020, we are cutting spending on science and abandoning world-leading research. Do not be surprised if British scientists – a key part of alarm clock Britain – move somewhere where they are actually valued. We are cutting the education maintenance allowance and privatising higher education, treating it as an expense, not the investment in our economy that it is.

We pay taxes so we as a society continue to strive towards something better, such as equal pay, rather than making it easier to sack people. This government has abandoned the Equality Act requirement for pay audits and is eroding hard-won employment rights. These are not measures that boost employment. If you want to know what those look like, look at Germany, where the government subsidised employment through the economic downturn. The result? Germany's unemployment is the lowest since reunification, the economy growing. Here, we are likely to end up with higher structural unemployment and lose skills vital to our economy.

And Nick? We don't buy the "Labour left no money" mantra. In a historical context, the national debt is relatively low. You have a choice, there is an alternative. You are making that choice based on ideology, not the national interest. The social damage you are causing will also translate into longterm economic damage, which will be much harder to repair than the deficit.

I will continue setting my alarm every day. So will the rest of us. Will you hold up your end of the bargain?


Alarm clock Britain

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