Who Needs More Cuts?

First Edition Shortlisted for the Bread and Roses Award

Twelve years on from its original publication—shortlisted for the Bread and Roses Award—The Cuts: 2nd Edition finds the UK in a hauntingly familiar position. Despite promises of renewal and reform, the same language still dominates public discourse: deficits, debt, austerity, and now inflation. Once again, the public is told there is no alternative—that economic necessity demands cuts to public services, stagnant wages, and a shrinking welfare state.

Writers Barry and Saville Kushner revisit their powerful critique of this narrative—and find, disturbingly, how little has changed. What was once dismissed as a fringe perspective now reads as foresight. The myths of debt and deficit continue to shape policy, while the alternative story—one that sees political choice, not economic inevitability—remains sidelined.

This new edition includes a foreword by John McDonnell MP, former Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, and expands on the original argument with updated analysis and evidence from the past decade. It exposes how the same flawed logic continues to dominate economic thinking—and why we need a radically different conversation about public spending, democracy, and the kind of society we want to build.