A couple of days ago I received a breathless missive from  my old comrades at compass. “Treasury Spending Review – Take Action”, it  boomed. “The public service cuts, benefit freezes and raising indirect taxes announced in the budget will increase inequality”, before adding helpfully, “but there is an alternative”. With  mounting excitement I scrolled down to learn more of this  bold fight back against the Lib/Con assault on the poor, the dispossessed and  the vulnerable.

Nothing. No thunderous denunciation. No elegant polemic eviscerating the injustice. Just a standard template inviting me to contribute to a treasury consultation.

There I was preparing to rage against the machine. Instead, I’d  run slap bang into the new pluralism. (more…)