The Violence of Austerity The Violence of Austerity Edited by Vickie Cooper and David Whyte First published 2017 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA www.plutobooks.com Copyright © Vickie Cooper and David Whyte 2017 The right of the individual authors to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN ISBN ISBN ISBN ISBN 978 7453 9948 978 7453 3746 978 7868 0062 978 7868 0064 978 7868 0063 Paperback Hardback PDF eBook Kindle eBook EPUB eBook This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin Typeset by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England Simultaneously printed in the United Kingdom and United States of America Contents Acknowledgementsvii Introduction: The Violence of Austerity Vickie Cooper and David Whyte PART I DEADLY WELFARE Mental Health and Suicide Mary O’Hara 35 Austerity and Mortality Danny Dorling 44 Welfare Reforms and the Attack on Disabled People John Pring 51 The Violence of Workfare Jon Burnett and David Whyte 59 The Multiple Forms of Violence in the Asylum System Victoria Canning 67 The Degradation and Humiliation of Young People Emma Bond and Simon Hallsworth 75 PART II POVERTY AMPLIFICATION Child Maltreatment and Child Mortality Joanna Mack 85 Hunger and Food Poverty Rebecca O’Connell and Laura Hamilton 94 The Deadly Impact of Fuel Poverty Ruth London 101 10 The Violence of the Debtfare State David Ellis 11 Women of Colour’s Anti-Austerity Activism Akwugo Emejulu and Leah Bassel 110 117 the violence of austerity 12 Dismantling the Irish Peace Process Daniel Holder 123 PART III STATE REGULATION 13 Undoing Social Protection Steve Tombs 133 14 Health and Safety at the Frontline of Austerity Hilda Palmer and David Whyte 141 15 Environmental Degradation Charlotte Burns and Paul Tobin 149 16 Fracking and State Violence Will Jackson, Helen Monk and Joanna Gilmore 156 17 Domicide, Eviction and Repossession Kirsteen Paton and Vickie Cooper 164 18 Austerity’s Impact on Rough Sleeping and Violence Daniel McCulloch 171 PART IV STATE CONTROL 19 Legalising the Violence of Austerity Robert Knox 181 20 The Failure to Protect Women in the Criminal Justice System 188 Maureen Mansfield and Vickie Cooper 21 Austerity, Violence and Prisons Joe Sim 195 22 Evicting Manchester’s Street Homeless Steven Speed 203 23 Policing Anti-Austerity through the ‘War on Terror’ Rizwaan Sabir 211 24 Austerity and the Production of Hate Jon Burnett 217 Notes on Contributors225 Index230 vi Acknowledgements The origins of this book are a panel discussion on the ‘violence of austerity’ that was part of the conference, How Violent is Britain?, hosted by the University of Liverpool and the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies in May 2014 The conference brought together many of the authors in this book Our first debt of gratitude is to Will McMahon, co-organiser of the conference, and who has supported us throughout this project We are also grateful to others involved in organising the conference, especially Rachel Barrett, Rebecca Roberts and Arianna Silvestri We would like to acknowledge those who participated in the conference and the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Foundation who supported it Thanks also to the people at Criminal Justice Matters and Open Democracy who first published some of the ideas developed in the book The support from our friends and colleagues at the Open University Harm and Evidence Research Collaborative and the University of Liverpool at different stages in the book’s development is greatly appreciated We want to acknowledge the warmth and generosity of the people at the International Institute for the Sociology of Law (IISL), Onati – especially Ainhoa Baños-Antigua, Susana Arrese, Rakel Lizarralde, Ainhoa Markuleta and Elvira Muñoz – for their support during our visits and in the use of its remarkable library The IISL is a special place that should be protected and treasured We are so grateful to our friends and family for their support throughout the long process of putting this book together, and especially thank Davey Blackie and Kirstie Wallace for sharing their home comforts and allowing us to complete the project in its final stages There are a number of people who, although their names not appear as authors, made important contributions to the development of the book Thanks especially go to Joe Halewood and Rory O’Neill for their unacknowledged contributions David Castle has been a consistent source of encouragement, and a model of professionalism in seeing the project through from its beginning to the end In particular, we thank the contributors to this book for sharing their hugely valuable insights and experiences, and also for putting up with what must have sometimes seemed like unreasonable requests and demands from us We hope that it has all been worth it in the end vii Introduction: The Violence of Austerity Vickie Cooper and David Whyte This book is about the devastatingly violent consequences of government policy conducted in the name of ‘austerity’ It is about the toll of death and illness and injury that so-called austerity policies have caused It is about the life-shattering violence caused by decisions that are made in parliamentary chambers and government offices This book is about the violence of politics One decade after the Global Financial Crisis (GFC) and seven years since the Coalition government first rolled out a suite of public sector cuts it described as austerity measures, the cuts continue to devastate communities Despite a widely reported softening of political rhetoric, as this book goes to press in early 2017, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, Phillip Hammond has just signalled a further deepening of the cuts in setting out his plans to implement a further 18 per cent reduction of government spending The ‘Brexit’ vote to leave Europe is directly connected to ongoing austerity policies and their devastating impact on communities The claim that we cannot afford the European Union has helped to construct a political solitude and severance from other countries that involves, first and foremost, the closing down of borders and ending of free movement (or at least the qualified right to free movement) This agenda has been amplified by the politics of austerity Although it may come as a surprise to politicians like David Cameron and George Osborne, the chief architects of the austerity package who then conveniently resigned when people voted to leave Europe, austerity has fanned the flames of a xenophobic politics, permitting powerful elites to reconfigure political alliances and forge new ones What we describe in this Introduction as an attempt to permanently dissemble the protection state has been consolidated by post-Brexit political rhetoric as we see the devastating effects of ‘austerity’ materialise the violence of austerity cost of 19, 113 debt and 112–13, 165–6 environmental policy and 152–3 health and 69, 89 homelessness 171–6, 203–9, 220 social housing 12–13, 14, 105, 164–5, 167 UN on 8–9 Housing Associations 167, 168 housing benefit 114, 164–5 Jamaica, detention centres in 70 job insecurity see precarious workers job-seekers 77–80 see also unemployed people JobCentres 37, 61, 78–9 Juncker, Jean-Claude 150, 181 justice system 71–2, 188–93, 204–6 Iceland 9, 25, 36 IMF 16, 182 incapacity benefit (IB) 52 income declining wages 11, 12, 95–6, 110–11 inequality of 11, 12, 13, 86, 114 inequality austerity and 10–16, 85 budget cuts and 11–15, 22–3, 85, 118, 127–8 debt and 110, 112, 114–15 externalities and 2–3 health inequalities 45–9, 89–90, 97, 101 income and 11, 12, 13, 86, 114 in Northern Ireland 123–9 power distribution and 104, 110, 112, 114–15 regional 21, 46–7 taxation and 11 wealth and 11, 114 women and 14, 117–21 inflation 11, 95–6, 102–3, 113 influenza, narratives about 44–5, 47–8 informal economy 80 INQUEST 197–8 Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) 54, 95 institutional violence 23–6 institutions, role of insulation schemes 104, 153 interest rates 113 Jackson, Stewart 9, 27n23 Kane, Alan 207 Kerr, Will 128 Kingsnorth power station 214–15 Krugman, Paul 20 Labour Party see Blair/Brown government laws, to entrench austerity 181–7 legal aid cuts 71–2, 204–5 LGBTQ people, violence against 67, 72, 221 Liberal Democrats see Coalition government life expectancy 89–90 see also mortality and premature deaths local government, as target of cuts 21, 22, 86, 114, 135–8, 185, 186 London, gentrification in 167, 188, 191 Long, Naomi 129 Loopstra, Rachel 96 Maastricht Treaty 182–3 Macmillan, Harold 44–5, 49 Major/Thatcher governments 5, 59, 112 malnutrition 96–7 see also food in prisons; food poverty Manchester anti-fracking protests in 161–2 evictions of homeless in 203–9 marketisation see privatisation Marx, Karl 157 Maximus 18 May government budget cuts by 1, 10, 51–2, 91 234 index environmental policies 153, 158 fiscal rules and 185 homelessness policies 174–6 narratives vs reality 10, 65, 91 workfare and 65 working conditions, lowering of 141–2 McArdle, John 55–6 McCormack, Frances 168 McKee, Martin 48 McMurtry, John 17 McNally, David media, victim blaming by 217 Mendoza, Kerry-Anne 14 mental health 35–41, 52–4 benefits cuts/sanctions and 37, 38–41, 52–6, 88, 104, 167–8 debt and 112 evictions and 167–8 food poverty and 97–8 fuel poverty and 102 homelessness and 172 poverty and 35–6, 38–9, 88 unemployment and 35, 36, 39–40, 80 working conditions and 142, 144 see also suicides migrants, targeting of 217–22 Mind (charity) 38 modern slavery see workfare mortality and premature deaths among children 89–90 among disabled people 40, 52–4, 221 among elderly 45–9 fuel poverty and 101, 103–4, 106n1 homelessness and 172 narratives on 44–5, 47–8 in prisons 188, 196–7 social murder 133 suicides 2, 35–41; among prisoners 188, 196–7; benefits cuts and 37, 38–41, 52–6, 65, 167–8; debt and 112; energy companies and 102; working conditions and 65, 142 work-related 133, 142–4 MP expenses 27n23 Mundin, Justin 205–6 national debt 9–10, 17, 184, 185 NEETs 75–80 neoliberalism austerity as strategy for 16, 20, 22, 144 deregulation and 134, 139 dispossession in 17–18, 157–8 law, entrenchment of in 182 state intervention in 160 Neville, Angela 37 New Labour see Blair/Brown governments Newman, Janet 6–7 North Tyneside Council 138 Northern Ireland 123–9 nuclear power 105 occupational health and safety see health and safety laws Occupy movement 12, 211, 212–13 Offender Rehabilitation Act 189–91 O’Hara, Mary 19 online job searching 79 Osborne, George 2010 budget of 51 austerity narratives of 7, 8, 10, 208–9 fiscal rules and 184–5 fracking promotion by 158 see also Coalition government O’Sullivan, Michael 40 outsourcing 138 see also privatisation Pat’s Petition campaign 55 payday lenders 19, 112 Peck, Jamie 12, 144 Pendleton, Andrew 19 Perotti, Roberto 4–5 235 the violence of austerity personal income tax allowance 86 Personal Independence Payments (PIP) 52 petitions 55 Pickard, David 102 Pickering, Sharon 71 police as agents of state repression 160–2, 167, 168, 211–15 budget cuts to 21, 22 Pollard, John 112 pollution 44–5, 133, 135, 156 poverty among asylum seekers 68 among children 13, 85–91, 94–5, 96–7, 101, 126 among ethnic minorities 118 homelessness and 171 mental health and 35–6, 38–9, 88 in Northern Ireland 126, 128 Poverty and Social Exclusion studies (PSE) 86, 94, 96, 97, 128 power asymmetries 104, 110, 112, 114–15 precarious workers/work 12, 78, 95, 118–19, 144, 219, 221–2 prepayment meters (PPM) 103 Primary Authority (PA) scheme 137–8 Prison Reform Trust 189 prisons 188, 191–3, 195–201 privatisation as dispossession 17–18, 158, 159 of prisons 188, 191–3 of public transport 77 of regulations 138 of social housing 112, 164–5 probation services 188–91 property prices 112–13 protests 161–2, 205–6, 211–15 see also activism Psychologists Against Austerity 39 Public Health England report 45–6 public sector workers 14, 20, 118–19, 127 race and inequality 117–21 racist attacks 15, 128–9, 220 recession 113–14 redistribution austerity as means of 10–15 bank bailouts 5, 7, 113, 183 debt as means of 114 dispossession as means of 17–20, 157–63 Remploy 18 renewable energy 104, 105, 106 rented housing 19, 105, 164–9 Robinson, Peter 129 Rolnik, Raquel 8–9 rough sleepers 171–6, 203–9 Royal Mail privatisation 18 sanctions deaths from 40, 54, 104 against EU countries 183 exploitation of workers and 61, 62, 63, 65 food poverty, link to 96, 104 homelessness resulting from 173 against Northern Ireland 125–6 privatised probation and 190 as punitive regime 37, 53, 75–6, 78–80, 88 Sane (charity) 37 Sayer, Andrew 16 Scotland, rising mortality rates in 46 Scott, David 198 SDLP 125 security sector 19 self-employed workers 146 shale gas producers 19 share values 20 single parents 86–7, 88 Sinn Féin 125 slavery see workfare smog crisis (1952–53) 44–5 social care 45 social cleansing 167, 203–9 social exclusion 97 236 index social housing bedroom tax 13, 14, 165, 166, 168 communal heating on 105 evictions from 167 privatisation of 164–5 racism on 128–9 social murder 133 social protection 133–9, 141–7 Sowell, Thomas 16 Sparham-Price, Kane 112 Spartacus 55 Spearhead areas 46 spending cuts see budget cuts St Andrews Agreement 125 state intervention and neoliberalism 160–3 state violence 160–3, 167, 195–201, 206–9, 221–2 stock market 20 Stormont House Agreement 123, 125–7 Structural Adjustment Program (SAP) 125–8 Stuckler, David 2, 36, 48 suicides 35–41 among prisoners 188, 196–7 benefits cuts/sanctions and 37, 38–41, 52–6, 65, 167–8 debt and 112 energy companies and 102 evictions and 167–8 rise in since financial crash working conditions and 65, 142 Sun newspaper 217 supply-side economics 15–16 Syriza 181, 183 taxes bedroom tax 13, 14, 165, 166, 168 HMRC errors 115 personal allowance 86 reductions in 95; for corporations 18–19; for rich individuals 11 VAT increase 11, 86 Taylor, Ben 204 temporary work see precarious work Tepe-Belfrage, Daniela 14 terrorists, treatment of activists as 211–15 Thatcher/Major governments 5, 59, 112 Thomas, Carita 204 Tomlinson, Ian 214 Trade Union Act (2016) 141 trickle-down economics 15–16 Trussell Trust 94, 96 UK-UNCUT 211, 212–13 unemployed people degradation of 39–40, 59–65, 75–80, 218–19, 220 job types and 118–19 mental health and 35, 36 narratives on 75–6, 78–80, 218–19 workfare and 59–65 United Nations (UN) 8–9, 55, 85 urban redevelopment 167, 188, 191 utility prices 11 see also fuel poverty VAT increase 11, 86 violence asylum seekers and 67–73 austerity as 3–4, 23–4, 49, 85, 173 debt and 110 deregulation as 142 environmental 149–50, 159–60 epistemic 117–21 evictions as 164–9 food poverty as 94 hate crimes 15, 128–9, 217–22 homelessness and 171–6, 206–9 of the law 181–2, 185–7 normalisation of 3–4, 24, 217–22 in prisons 188–9, 190, 195–201 by the state 160–3, 167, 195–201, 206–9, 221–2 welfare reforms as 80, 88 wages (real), decline in 11, 12, 95–6, 110–11 237 the violence of austerity Walby, Sylvia 220–1 War on Terror, extension of to activism 211–15 water bills 11 water pollution 156 Waters, Anthony 102 wealth 11 Weber, Leanne 71 Webster, David 62 welfare-to-work policies 18 see also sanctions; Work Capability Assessments; workfare women asylum seekers 68, 72, 73 austerity’s double-impact on 14 of colour 117–21 crimes against 221 criminal justice system and 188–93 pregnancy and poverty 89 targeting of 14 Wonga 19, 112 Wood, Mark 38 Work Capability Assessments 37, 38–40, 51, 52–3, 55, 221 workers exploitation of 18, 59–65, 76, 219, 221 job searching 77–80 precarious work 12, 78, 95, 118–19, 144, 219, 221–2 rights and conditions of 60–5, 141–7 wages (real), decline in 11, 12, 95–6, 110–11 see also unemployed people workfare 18, 59–65, 76, 221 working class 11, 12 World Bank 16 WOW (War On Welfare) campaign 55 young people 75–80 Younger Review 145 zero-hours contracts 12, 95, 144 238 ... together; we have all experienced austerity very differently The real politics of austerity 1: fortress austerity Ultimately, the purpose of the violence of austerity is not simply to stabilise the. .. been the selling off of Royal Mail, and the re-sale of the public shares of banks that the taxpayer bailed out Other privatisations central to the austerity drive have been the privatisation of. .. in the end vii Introduction: The Violence of Austerity Vickie Cooper and David Whyte This book is about the devastatingly violent consequences of government policy conducted in the name of austerity