BBC doom-mongers and the truth on austerity

JUSTIFIABLY enraged, George Osborne yesterday tore into the BBC’s ‘totally hyperbolic’ coverage of the future spending cuts required following the Autumn Statement. In particular, the Chancellor was seething at one senior (and supposedly impartial) correspondent whose report portrayed the squeeze on spending anticipated in the next Parliament as so severe that it would send Britain back to the land of Orwell’s The Road to Wigan

Pier, in which malnutrition was rife and work and housing conditions appalling.

Of course, no one should be surprised by the Corporation equating spending reductions with ‘doom’ – it has been wailing about savage, blood- curdling welfare cuts for four years. Week in, week out the BBC’s TV and radio reports have painted a bleak picture of the Tories spreading misery and devastation up and down the land.

All this in a Britain in which, despite a degree of austerity, there’s still plenty of money to splash on holidays, TVs, cars and gadgets, according to recent figures – a fact underlined by the extraordinary orgy of consumerism on Black Friday.

In reality, as the Mail has long argued, the welfare budget has barely been touched since 2010 and public spending is down by as little as one per cent in real terms. What is true, however, is that – by delaying swinging the axe – Mr Osborne now has a massive task if, as promised, he is to balance the books by 2019.

Indeed, the Institute for Fiscal Studies yesterday predicted ‘ colossal’ postelection cuts of £55billion will be required, which involve a ‘fundamental reimagining of the role of the state’.

There is no question of a return to the penury of the 1930s, however much the BBC disgracefully pretends otherwise.

But – if the Chancellor is to continue to ring-fence spending on the NHS, pensions and education – his choices are stark. He can make further sharp savings in the Tory priority areas of defence, prisons, police and borders – potentially alienating countless traditional supporters.

Or he can take the imaginative, radical approach which the Mail wishes he had adopted back in 2010 by abolishing entire needless departments and quangos. For instance, do we really need a Department for Business – which under Vince Cable has served only to hinder enterprise – or the luxury of a Department for Culture, Media and Sport?

Even more glaringly, how can the Tories possibly justify sticking to the posturing, politically-correct commitment to spend £12billion (and rising) on overseas aid, when resources are so scarce at home? Mr Osborne delivered a well-judged Autumn Statement, built on solid Tory principles, which – by providing much-needed help to the aspirational middle-classes – offers a realistic hope of electoral success next May.

Just imagine how much better his party’s prospects would be if – finally – he convinced the Prime Minister to see sense on foreign aid… and put Britain first.