Austerity Bites: A Journey to the Sharp End of Cuts in the UK

Austerity Bites: A Journey to the Sharp End of Cuts in the UK

by Mary O ' Hara (Author)

Synopsis

Since taking power in 2010, the Coalition Government has pushed through a drastic programme of cuts to public spending in the name of austerity. This timely book by journalist Mary O'Hara chronicles the real-world effects of austerity, showing just what it means to ordinary lives. With an updated Afterword by the author, the book offers a compelling corrective to narratives of shared sacrifice.

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 336
Edition: Reprint
Publisher: Policy Press
Published: 16 Apr 2015

ISBN 10: 1447315707
ISBN 13: 9781447315704

Media Reviews
A fine record of how it feels to be among those who have been selected to pay the highest price for a crisis they had no part in producing. Sociology
Voted one of the Guardian best books of 2014 by Owen Jones Strips bare the reality of what Osbornomics means for human beings and, crucially, gives a platform to voices that are otherwise unheard and deliberately ignored. The Guardian
Should be required reading for every MP, peer, councillor, civil servant and commentator. The fury and sense of powerlessness that so many people feel at government policy beam out of every page. Melissa Benn, Guardian
One of the best critiques I have ever read of how 'WongaLand', the profiteering by money lenders and pawn shops, has caused massive financial burdens and hardships for the poorest families whilst making massive profits for the businesses. Sociology
O'Hara's book is a welcome addition to our understanding of the real meaning of austerity in contemporary Britain ---Community Development Journal
Mary O'Hara's book strips away the rhetoric to reveal the truth. The United Kingdom is not the land of fairness, it's a fearful place, where the heaviest burdens fall on the weakest. Simon Duffy, Director of the Centre for Welfare Reform
A welcome addition to our understanding of the real meaning of austerity in comtemporary Britain. Community Development Journal
Both the immediate injustice and the waste of human potential leap from the pages of this book. Kitty Stewart, LSE
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. Disability & Society
Travelling around the country interviewing people allowed Mary O'Hara to harness first-hand accounts of the fallout of cuts in the UK. Austerity Bites brings together many poignant stories of people affected by the first impact of the coalition government's choice to impose social austerity on Britain. Danny Dorling, University of Oxford
? A thoroughly authentic, fair but passionate account of a Britain that we at Community Links know only too well. It's a powerful story, too little heard and understood, but brilliantly told. I hope you will send a copy to the Prime Minister. David Robinson, OBE, Founder of Community Links
An uncomfortable but necessary read Robin Ince
Mary O'Hara's mission is to give voice to those experiencing hardship or injustice who are rarely heard. She travelled the UK for a year to bear witness to the effects of Austerity Britain and we should all pay attention to the result. Janine Gibson, Editor in Chief, Guardian US
Mary O'Hara 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. Professor the Baroness (Ruth) Lister of Burtersett
This book is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand the great human cost of austerity. Read it, get angry and get active. Josie Long, writer, activist and comedian
Author Bio
Mary O'Hara is an award-winning social affairs journalist (Including Mind Journalist of the Year and Highly Commended European Diversity Journalist of the Year 2013). She writes about health, poverty and social justice for publications including The Guardian and The Observer. Mary was educated at St. Louise's Comprehensive on the Falls Road in Belfast and at Magdalene College Cambridge where she read social and political science. In 2010 she was an Alistair Cooke Fulbright Scholar at UC Berkeley, California where she conducted research on press coverage of mental illness and suicide. She is a fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts and trustee of the charity, Arts Emergency.