Steve Richards: Just as in the Eighties, ideology is driving the spending cuts

Steve Richards, chief political commentator at The Independent and presenter of Radio 4'sWeek in Westminster makes the case in his newspaper today that we are experiencing a return to ideology-driven political choices, reminiscent of Thatcher's Britain of the 1980s:

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/steve-richards/steve-richards-just-as-in-the-eighties-ideology-is-driving-the-spending-cuts-2116277.html

Choices are being made on the basis of how politicians view the state - as an instrument that can be benevolent, or stifling

It's a lengthy piece of commentary—definitely worth reading... One highlight:

In the 1990s Tony Blair attempted to de-politicise politics by arguing that what works is all that matters. What works is what matters, but the debate about how that comes about is based unavoidably on conflicting values. The Coalition's wariness of admitting it is an ideological administration rooted on the right and shaped by the 1980s shows how Blairite de-politicisation has made its mark.

But the values are deeply held. Cameron/Osborne/Clegg laid out their beliefs very clearly in advance of the election. In several speeches Clegg declared that the state was necessary to fund public services such as health and education, but after that government should "back off". Privately he told colleagues that the social democratic experiment had failed. He even told some of the social democrats in his party, who now realise he meant it. Cameron's position was clear from the start of his leadership when he said that there was such a thing as society, but it is not the same as the state.