Matthew Parris explains why we’re in the state we’re in…
“We have been living beyond our means. We have been paying ourselves more than our efforts were earning. We sought political leaders who would assure us that the good times would never end and that the centuries of boom and bust were over; and we voted for those who offered that assurance. We sought credit for which we had no security and we gave our business to the banks that advertised it. We wanted higher exam grades for our children and were rewarded with politicians prepared to supply them by lowering exam standards. We wanted free and better health care and demanded chancellors who paid for it without putting up our taxes. We wanted salacious stories in our newspapers and bought the papers that broke the rules to provide them. And now we whimper and snarl at MPs, bankers and journalists. Fair enough, my friends, but, you know, we really are all in this together.”
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There’s a horrible story doing the rounds today after a man tried to set himself alight outside a Birmingham job centre. The man apparently tied himself to the railings outside the building before dousing himself with flammable liquid and setting his legs alight. 
The usual suspects, plus others who should know better, have been quick to scream that this is the consequence of “austerity”. A particularly unedifying spin. However there appears to be no reason to believe that this had anything to do with the lack of jobs available to this man. Instead, 
