It was a shocking but everyday story. A young mum forced to sleep on the sofa year in and year out in a cramped council flat while her children were crammed into a single room. Appeals to local government officials and councillors had gone nowhere. So, there was only one thing to do – to tell her story to the prime minister.

On a bright Birmingham day in August, this mother asked the PM what he would do to help her get out of this problem. It said everything any of us would need to know about this government that David Cameron used this agony to declare that council tenants’ security of tenure – being secure in your own home – should end.

This and the 60% cut in social housing combined with construction workers wondering when the next job will come from could become this Tory-Lib Dem government’s poll tax. For if ministers persist in this cruel and economically illiterate policy, the time these cuts will be felt will be in 2014 – the eve of the next general election. (more…)