Synopses & Reviews
Since taking power in 2010, the Coalition Government in the United Kingdom has pushed through a drastic program of cuts to public spending, all in the name of austerity. The effects on large segments of the population, dependent on programs whose funding was slashed, have been devastating and will continue to be felt for generations.
This timely book by journalist Mary O’Hara chronicles the real-world effects of austerity, removing it from the bland, technocratic language of politics and showing just what austerity means to ordinary lives. Drawing on hundreds of hours of first-person interviews with a wide range of people and, in the paperback edition, featuring an updated afterword by the author, the book explores the grim reality of living amid the biggest reduction of the welfare state in the postwar era and offers a compelling corrective to narratives of shared sacrifice.
Review
“OHaras book strips away the rhetoric to reveal the truth. The United Kingdom is not the land of fairness; its a fearful place, where the heaviest burdens fall on the weakest.”
Review
“OHara has written a powerful and vivid account of the regressive and harmful impact of public spending cuts, which gives voice to those who are suffering. Read it and be angry. Pass it on. Send a copy to your MP. To echo one of her interviewees: those in power need to listen.”
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“Traveling around the country interviewing people allowed OHara to harness firsthand accounts of the fallout of cuts in the United Kingdom. Austerity Bites brings together many poignant stories of people affected by the first impact of the coalition governments choice to impose social austerity on Britain.”
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“OHaras mission is to give voice to those experiencing hardship or injustice who are rarely heard. She travelled the United Kingdom for a year to bear witness to the effects of Austerity Britain, and we should all pay attention to the result.”
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“An uncomfortable but necessary read.” Janine Gibson - Editor-in-Chief, Guardian US
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and#8220;This book is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the great human cost of austerity. Read it, get angry, and get active.and#8221;
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and#8220;An uncomfortable but necessary read.and#8221;
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"The sense of desperation is palpable, as is the helplessness of job centre advisers under pressure to increase sanctions, and the anger and despair of community and public-sector workers. Both the immediate injustice and the waste of human potential leap from the pages of this book."
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“The subject matter of OHaras first book is not merely bleeding-heart-liberal-soapbox stuff; she is the embodiment of how a welfare system in the UK can lift people out of poverty. She comes from a proud working-class family in Belfast, Northern Ireland, earning a scholarship to Cambridge, and, later, a Fulbright scholarship. Political moods and wonk-ish social policy are her lifeblood. This is her beat, and she owns it with facts and figures, not blustering talk. Austerity Bites, not surprisingly then, is a work of scholarship and extensive reporting. OHara conveys the lives of everyday people throughout England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland—through their own words—who have been adversely affected by the tough austerity measures. She spent years on the ground in various parts of the UK talking to working people, taking their temperature on the recent cuts to social and welfare programs . . . and championing their everyday lives (and opinions) over the din of politicians and pundit-class puffery.”
Review
“Best book of 2014 . . . . In a determined effort to win public acquiescence, if not active support, for austerity, both the government and its media apologists have tried to hide the human impact of slash-and-burn economics. Mary O’Hara’s superb Austerity Bites strips bare the reality of what Osbornomics means for human beings and, crucially, she gives a platform to voices that are otherwise unheard and deliberately ignored.”
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“Austerity Bites is a book brimming with anger at the multiple injustices in the United Kingdom and how the current austerity programme is underpinning and exacerbating these inequalities.”
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andldquo;A thoroughly authentic, fair but passionate account of a Britain that we at Community Links know only too well.and#160;Itandrsquo;s a powerful story, too little heard and understood, but brilliantly told. I hope you will send a copy to the Prime Minister.andrdquo;
Synopsis
Voted one of the Guardian best books of 2014 by Owen Jones. 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. 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, with a broad spectrum of people ranging from homeless teenagers, older job-seekers, pensioners, charity workers, employment advisers and youth workers, as well as an extensive body of research and reports, the book explores the grim reality of living under the biggest shakeup of the welfare state in 60 years. with a new Foreword by Mark Blyth, Professor of International Political economy and International Studies at Brown University, USA, 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.
Synopsis
This timely book by award-winning journalist Mary O'Hara chronicles the true impact of austerity on people at the sharp end of the cuts, based on her 12-month journey around the country in 2012 and 2013 and fully updated for the paperback edition
About the Author
Mary O’Hara is an award-winning journalist who writes about health, poverty, and social justice for the Guardian, Observer, New Statesman, and other publications.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Mark Thomas
Foreword by Mark Blyth
Preface to the paperback edition
Introduction
Moneys too tight to mention
The big squeeze
Welcome to ‘Wongaland
Work maketh the person
All work and no pay
Bearing the brunt
A life lived in fear is a life half lived
Conclusion
Afterword to the paperback edition