Callous cuts

AS the cuts begin to bite, so the rhetoric begins to soar. Sheffield academic Professor Danny Dorling has fired up the political heat with his depiction of the vast funding cuts inflicted upon Yorkshire's local authorities as "callous", and designed simply to send out tough signals to worried financial markets.

The reality, of course, is that spending cuts are essential to reduce the deficit and maintain Britain's credibility on the global economic stage. There remains, however, more than a grain of truth to his assertion that the cuts have been deepest in the areas of greatest need.

Study after study has concluded it is the north of England which will suffer most from spending cuts and public sector job losses.

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Government promises to protect the needy have been made repeatedly – most recently by Communities Secretary Eric Pickles – but the mechanisms by which this will happen still lack real substance or clarity.

In the meantime, council after council make huge lay-offs and slash services vital to the neediest in their communities. Whatever Mr Pickles and his colleagues in Westminster may say, it is inevitably the poor who will be hardest-hit.