Tories declare war on the poor

No rowing back on the housing benefit cut, says David Cameron. No rowing back on pricing the poor out of university either, I'll bet.

And no rowing back on any of the other tax and benefit changes in the comprehensive spending review, which the Institute for Fiscal Studies said were "regressive rather than progressive across most of the income distribution."

For those who said there was no difference between New Labour and a Tory administration, this is a harsh lesson in political ideology. These policies, when taken as a whole, represent nothing less than a war on the poor.

Depending on which Conservative you speak to, barring the poor from universities and causing a mass migration of working class families from our cities are either necessary evils, or positively desirable.

And however bad it is, they say, it simply has to be done to tackle the deficit.

So where are the 'painful but necessary' tax rises? Why are the CBI, the Insitute of Directors and the British Bankers' Association not up in arms at being asked to make their contribution?

Because they know they are getting off lightly. They are keeping busy keeping their heads down.

Standing up to vested interests is hard work, and this government simply does not have the political will to do it. Instead, they have declared war on the poorest and most vulnerable in our society in the laziest most despicable way imaginable.

First thoughts on the CSR

As analysts start number-crunching the Comprehensive Spending Review to see who really suffers, it is worth noting which departments the coalition has chosen to target for cuts - and which have been spared the worst.

Osborne gave road building schemes the go-ahead, but revealed that the cap on rail fares is to rise by 3% above inflation. Good news for the motoring lobby, bad for the rest of us.

Following terse negotiations with Liam Fox, defence spending is to be cut by a comparatively low 8%. If only Iain Duncan-Smith had fought as hard. The welfare budget, on which thousands of poor families depend, is to be cut by a huge £7bn.

And social housing rents will rise to 80-90% of the market rate, which comes very close to defeating the object of social housing entirely.

The Conservatives simply do not have the political will to conduct these difficult cuts in a fair way, and the Lib Dems simply do not have the clout to put the brakes on. These are Tory economic plans pure and simple.