Austerity Bites: A Journey To The Sharp End Of Cuts In The Uk

After coming to power in May 2010, the Coalition government in the United Kingdom embarked on a drastic programme of cuts to public spending and introduced a raft of austerity measures that had profoundly damaging effects on much of the population. V... Read more

After coming to power in May 2010, the Coalition government in the United Kingdom embarked on a drastic programme of cuts to public spending and introduced a raft of austerity measures that had profoundly damaging effects on much of the population. Voted one of The Guardian best books of 2014 by Owen Jones, this bestselling book by award-winning journalist Mary O'Hara chronicles the true impact of austerity on people at the sharp end, based on her 'real-time' 12-month journey around the country just as the most radical reforms were being rolled out in 2012 and 2013. Drawing on hundreds of hours of compelling first-person interviews, as well as an extensive body of research and reports, the book explores the grim reality of living under the biggest shake-up of the UK welfare state in 60 years. A new Preface and Afterword reveal more shocking developments since the book's initial publication and a new Foreword by Mark Blyth, Professor of International Political Economy and International Studies at Brown University, USA offers a transatlantic view of the current situation. Austerity Bites dispels any notion that 'we are all in this together' and offers an alternative to the dominant and simplistic narrative that we inhabit a country of 'skivers versus strivers'. Book jacket. Less