Bad news for workers in towns like this

GOVERNMENT-IMPOSED austerity, which blighted the lives of millions, is over, Theresa May promised at the Tory Party conference.

Chancellor Philip Hammond has an opportunity to make good her pledge in his Budget on Monday.

It will not happen. In fact, worse is to come.

Mrs May quickly rebranded austerity as “fiscal responsibility”, and Spreadsheet Phil is set to announce the end of national pay bargaining in the public services.

In the name of “flexibility” the Chancellor wants to scrap existing wage scales, giving lower pay rises to workers outside the economically-flourishing SouthEast.

This is bad news for nurses, paramedics, police officers, civil servants and local government employees in places like Huddersfield. They may do the same job as the same workers in London, but they’ll be paid a lot less.

Union leaders yesterday signalled that they’ll fight this backward step, first mooted in 2012 but abandoned after opposition from the Tories’ then coalition allies the Lib Dems.

At the heart of this strategy is crushing the public service unions, as they did the miners more than 30 years ago. ■■IT’S too early to worry, but the cost of Christmas dinner will rise because carrots, potatoes, Brussels sprouts are soaring in price.

And wine will be more expensive after the Budget, warn retail experts.

On the other hand, pigs in blankets will be cheaper because pork prices are down, and a cranberry glut in the USA will make sauce for the turkey cheaper.

All these dire predictions may be true, but I wish they’d wait until December before voicing them. We haven’t even got the absurdity of Hallowe’en over yet.