UK newspaper headlines 18 November 2022

Member-only story

You’ve Never Had It So Bad

Paul Mason
7 min readNov 18, 2022

Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement is set to plunge British living standards into a steep and sudden fall. Families will see their spending power drop by 7% in two years, as double-digit inflation combines with higher taxes to make them poorer.

That won’t just wipe out all the wage growth of the past decade: it will take the rest of the 2020s for the average family to get back to where it was in 2019, on the eve of the pandemic (see below, right). The Daily Record’s headline, reversing Harold Macmillan’s famous phrase in the 1950s, says it all: You’ve Never Had It So Bad.

The irony is, it could have been worse. The logic of freemarket economics says: when in trouble, shrink the state. And there are indeed real-terms spending cuts for all departments except health, social care and education in Hunt’s plans.

But the Sunak-Hunt government is realised the danger of the fiscal doom loop and stepped back. They might still achieve the dreaded rinse-repeat cycle of recession-deficit-spending cuts — but it’s clear they’re aware of the dangers. By borrowing more over the next two years, and by seriously…

Create an account to read the full story.

The author made this story available to Medium members only.
If you’re new to Medium, create a new account to read this story on us.

Or, continue in mobile web

Already have an account? Sign in

Paul Mason
Paul Mason

Written by Paul Mason

Journalist, writer and film-maker. Author of How To Stop Fascism.

Responses (5)

Write a response

Keir Starmer has achieved a lot. He’s got the Tories on the ropes

No he hasn't. The Tories' woes are entirely self inflicted. Labour has done nothing more that stand on the sidelines, wringing its hands, commissioning its focus groups, and saying they'll pretty much carry on with the Tories' plans.

--

In such a situation, a theory of transition and a theory of change are not nice-to-haves. You need to know where you are going and how the economy will work once you get there.

The only social theorist that comes close to an answer to these questions is Carlota Perez (www.carlotaperez.org). In brief, her premise is that after a period of intense financialization of the economy, society/government needs to rewrite the…

--

I would add reducing consumption through efficiency.

Public transport as a viable alternative. Few of my colleagues realised they can't afford a car per person in their household (even if they life in the countryside). One single person had to sale…

--