Life’s not fair: the public’s perception of cuts is what matters in the end

摘要

Charlie Beckett discusses the public’s perception of this week’sudcuts announcement, and offers some advice to Cameron and Clegg.udThe idea of fairness has suddenly become the central concept in Britishudpolitics. The Big Question at the moment is whether the Coalition’s cuts areudbeing shared equally amongst us all.udThe debate reveals a lot about the difficulty of having a ‘rational’ politicaluddiscussion in today’s frantically over-managed political media world.udOf course, the cuts are not fair. Life’s not fair. If you are on, say £15,000 then a cut of 10%udwill be much more painful than someone on say £50,000 who loses 15%. Statistically, theudricher person is sacrificing more, but in the real world, the poorer person has less leeway.udOne person has to give up their only annual £500 holiday, the other has to give up theirud£2,000 second holiday - who suffers most?