These cuts are not necessary; they are not fair. What's more they are disastrously mistaken.

The cuts to public service funding proposed by the government will devastate many areas of the UK.

The cuts will affect education, housing, healthcare, pensions, policing: every aspect of life in Britain.

These cuts are unnecessary because the deficit can be reduced by a crackdown on tax avoiders like Vodafone, and a fairer tax system. The deficit itself is an artifact of our economic system; all the politicians want is to get that system staggering on again, when it never worked anyway (see below).

They are not fair because they affect the richest least.

And even if you don't share my view that punishing the poor for the mistakes, and greed, of the rich, they will do more damage to the economy than has been done already (see for instance "The £100 billion gamble: on growth without the state" at http://www.compassonline.org.uk/publications/).

"At the end of the Second World War, Britain was officially bankrupt yet the Labour government created some of the country’s greatest public institutions, such as the National Health Service." John Pilger (http://www.newint.org/features/2010/12/01/john-pilger-interview/)

Our grandparents (if you're of my generation) saw off Fascists & Nazis and then built us a welfare state; how about this for a NY resolution: we see off the neo-cons & neo-libs and build a better society on that foundation for our grandchildren...

Compared to winning World War Two and then building an entirely new society we have it easy; but we shouldn't underestimate how hard it could be nevertheless. The only way to find out just how much we can do is to try.