That is one vision of the future but I also spoke to my brother in Ireland yesterday who told me what things were like there at present. The budgetary cuts introduced there are along the lines of what the Tories would like to try out here if elected, and indeed they have lauded the Irish model. My brother told me that things had never been so bad and that most people he knew were now unemployed. There are empty properties everywhere and nobody can afford to buy or rent - indeed rents in Dublin have fallen by 30%. Emigration, especially among the young, has taken off again and many are heading for Australia or Canada. He said that it was worse than it was in the 80s, and I remember what it was like then, with 25% unemployment and real poverty. Public sector workers have been forced to take a cut in salary of something like 10 to 15% and there is a national go slow at the moment. Benefits have also been severely slashed. This is the fantasy world of the Daily Mail and the Tories, but for real people living real lives it is causing untold misery. There have been reports of increasing suicides in the Irish press by those unable to pay their mortages and repossessions are rising. James Purnell, the former rising star of the Blairite Labour Party, said on This Week last Thursday that this could never happen in the UK. However, Portillo, who understands much better what the Tories have planned for UK Plc, contradicted him and pointed out that there is no golden rule excluding the UK from this fate. A Tory government after May 6th will introduce such a regime post haste but a Labour regime will introduce it slightly later. The economic policies of the Green Party are the only sane route to escaping from this mess without a decade of misery and a period which even Alistair Darling has admitted will make the 80s seem mild.
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