Given the recent arrival of severe Child Tax Credit cuts I expect it won't be long before we see growing civil unrest spilling over into violence. I was staggered to discover I'm losing the best part of three hundred quid off our total income per month. My colleagues at work are in a similar (or worse) position. Many are living way beyond their means paying the mortgage and little else (I don't know many who aren't either living off an overdraft, credit card or both) The wife and I discussed the possibility of her packing in her part-time job but after taking advice we'd only be £10 quid better off. So she is effectively working twenty hours a week for nothing.

I mean, things were bad in the eighties. Inflation was through the roof and it was a genuine struggle to pay the mortgage and such. But you could still fill up the car at a reasonable price, water, gas and electricity were comparatively cheap and you could usually look forward to periodic (even annual) pay rises!

Considering we were the "sick man of Europe" things weren't THAT bad. Right now they might as well turn off the country's life support. Worse still - there are bigger cuts on the way.

Child and Working Tax credits are virtually non-existant and certainly not claimable at all by the vast majority of employed people this year, the cuts to that service have certainly been massive, hopefully with a minute number of claimants remaining they might be able to sort the office out in Preston now.