Social cuts hit all Britons

The British government has announced cuts of up to 40 percent for social services and other sectors. While many welcome the plans as a way of fighting "social welfare scroungers", the cuts will also hit the middle classes, warns the left-liberal daily The Guardian: "For there is no 'they', no 'we'. Deep cuts in welfare will hit millions of people who read the papers and never connect 'scroungers' with themselves or their families. ... There is no easy free-loading 'them' in all this; there is only 'us'. Intelligent ministers understand it. They know that the optimism will vanish, as surely as the England flags and bunting did. As the hard reality kicks in, probably through the winter, the mood will change radically. If [trainer of the English national football team] Fabio Capello can go from national hero to villain in an afternoon or two, how much more so can [politicians like] Osborne, Cameron and the rest."

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