A quiet revolution is underway in Britain.

Over the past 20 years, I have observed the systematic dismantling of the welfare state. On March 16 British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announced the government’s budget for the coming financial year which champions protecting private wealth while destroying social services.

Osborne’s budget contains blue sky economic growth forecasts requiring exercises in “magical thinking,” a “health washing” tax on sugary drinks designed to deflect attention away from the government’s failures to meet their own (imprudent) targets, a continuing attack on the most vulnerable combined with a program to deepen wealth protection for the most privileged.

In 1992 my sister – Gurleen – was born with Wolf Hirschhorn Syndrome. A quick Google search will reveal that this is caused by a shortened fourth chromosome and results in delayed growth and development, intellectual disability and seizures. It will not tell you the incredible strength of character that many people born with Wolf Hirschhorn Syndrome – or any other genetic abnormality – are born with. Gurleen has a whimsical (often slapstick) sense of humor and a deep passion for rock and roll.

My first experience of holding Gurleen through a seizure was on my way to a piano exam. My mum (a cashier at a local pharmacy) calmly drove to the examining room while my sister’s body convulsed on my lap (I passed the exam, just). Given her complex needs, social workers and carers would visit our home. I know that they were employed by the local authority. Sometimes physiotherapists also visited, Gurleen was born with her right foot curved inwards.

Years later, Tony Blair’s New Labour government made significant changes to the way in which care was provided. Private companies were now recruiting and placing carers, not local authorities. Vulnerable adults, some newly settled in the U.K. from conflict areas, and cheap – were suddenly recruited to care for other vulnerable people, disabled children, and adults. We hardly ever saw social workers anymore.

Fast forward to today.

Britain’s government, led by David Cameron’s Conservative Party, has accelerated the privatization of care, education, health and housing services – successfully rolling out a quiet revolution. In Osborne’s budget, cuts to social services and payments for disabled people fund tax cuts that benefit the wealthiest 5 percent of earners. Corporation and income tax changes line the pockets of the wealthy.

State provided services are cut. Responding to Osborne’s plans, leader of the Labour Party in opposition said, “This budget has unfairness and its very core, paid for by those who can least afford it.” At the same time, revenue from taxation is also cut. Vanessa Houlder at the Financial Times noted that this signals a “stealthy revolution in the U.K. tax system” which will result in the U.K. losing almost US$28.8 billion in revenue each year.

The US$1.8 billion a year cuts to funds for disabled people juxtaposed with the US$28.8 billion tax cuts for corporations and higher earners also seemed too much for Conservative Party MP Iain Duncan Smith to bare. As Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Smith has been at the vanguard of dismantling the welfare state. During his tenure as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 2,380 disabled people died after they stopped receiving a financial support allowance, having been found fit for work and so no longer qualifying for disability benefits. In an astonishing reversal, last week’s budget announcement caused Smith to resign from his post in protest. His resignation letter surprisingly echoed many of Corbyn’s concerns.

Despite Nobel Prize winning economists deriding the “austerity gospel” as delusion and pointing to the necessity of sovereign debt, Osborne has consistently promised to:

1. reduce the national debt as a share of the nation’s output

2. impose a cap on welfare spending

3. achieve a surplus by the end of the parliament.

Yet, debt has risen from 53.5 percent to more than 80 percent of GDP under Osborne. Attempts to reduce welfare spending have not resulted in the savings promised, and have resulted in the poorest paying disproportionately for this government’s policies. Local authority budgets have been cut, but they have been forced to take out loans with high interests rate to already affluent banks. Economic growth has been revised down for last year, this year, and every year that is forecast in the Chancellor’s budget. Corbyn, commented that the budget the Chancellor delivered was “the culmination of six years of his failures.” Indeed, if judged according to his own objectives, Osborne receives nil points.

But, worse, the Government’s objectives – and the measures being taken to try and meet them – threaten the security of more than 50 percent of the population, and the welfare of the most vulnerable people in our communities. Attempts to impose a cap on welfare funding have resulted in children’s social care staffing being cut by more than US$211.6 million despite the number of children requiring contact by social workers increasing by 10 percent. Almost a third of local authorities have been forced to shut services for adults with learning disabilities. Nearly 500 libraries have closed. The fire and rescue service has been squeezed. Refuges for women have closed. Nearly a third of women who seek help have been turned away from refuges because of a lack of space. More than 350 youth centers have been closed and 41,000 youth service places for young people cut. Legal aid solicitors are increasingly unable to represent those in need. Schools have had their budgets frozen while teaching requirements increase. Junior doctors are being expected to work for longer and longer hours.

Cuts in public spending have not yet produced the debt deficit reductions that Osborne claims to want. This was predicted by prominent and vocal economists such as Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman. Yet, Osborne’s response is to initiate more cuts. This year’s budget first target is the Personal Independence Payment which helps disabled people live dignified lives that most of us might take for granted.

The austerity delusion continues to hold. Austerity and deficit reduction are being used as a cover-story for conducting class war against the poor. The revolution by the wealthy for the wealthy gains pace. Activists from Disabled People against the Cuts are the minority raising their voices against the ongoing war. They are currently holding an emergency lobby of parliament to increase pressure on the Conservative Party and demand a reversal to all cuts.

There is an alternative to austerity. Deficit reduction is not a necessary priority. Yet, some of the most impacted do not believe it. I recently spoke to social workers mandated to protect vulnerable children. They are looking for ways in which to continue to provide services on increasingly limited budgets, but are increasingly having to make decisions about which care schemes will disappear. Some local authorities do not have the funds to provide permanent work spaces for them to carry out their work. A social worker explains her predicament to me as “just necessary to help reduce the deficit.” It is not necessary. The choice to cut spending in these areas, while lining the pockets is a political one, an ideological one. Iain Duncan Smith went as far as to say that his party’s choices in cuts were based on targeting constituents not typically Conservative Party supporters. If you’re poor, an immigrant, and or working class, watch out.

Corbyn’s Labour leadership is helping to communicate that there is an alternative, as are campaign groups like Disabled People against the Cuts. We need to shout it louder and the make the alternatives known, believable, and attractive. Conservative Party policies have resulted in furthering extreme disparities between rich and poor. Thousands of people in Britain are now reliant on the charity sector to help them meet their basic needs. Rising inequality contributed to the 2008 financial crisis, and this government’s policies are leading to the inevitability of another impending crash.

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