Winter discontent

In addition to the major policy statements coming out on a weekly basis, promising radical change to avert a doomed debt-spiral, there are indications of the age of austerity closer to home.

Last week a pair of Jehovah's Witnesses handed me a leaflet about how Jesus can help you through unemployment. It contained an incongruous mixture of budgeting tips and bible quotes. My bank has ceased the barrage of letters begging me to take out a loan. I applaud the saving of paper, but assume that 25 year olds don't get loans anymore. My union dues have suddenly gone up. A recent update email from my alma mater dwelt at length on its financial position, relegating exam results and sports teams to short mentions at the end.

Students are protesting, rioting even, out of anger at the betrayal by the government of all that they held certain. I can well understand their rage. If tuition fees had been anything like £9,000 when I was a student, I would have been priced out of the better universities. Including the one I attended.

Conversations at work increasingly focus on what we plan to do after March 31st next year, when the funding for our jobs evaporates. We've been told that the redundancy 'consultation process' takes six months, and are therefore a little confused that it hasn't started yet. It's less than six months until the 31st March, after all. Be that as it may, we're all looking at our options. Some are considering teacher training, others opening a B&B, still others going over to the Dark Side (private sector consultancy). I am set on doing a Masters degree, and intend to bridge the gap between the end of my job and the start of a course with whatever work I can get, to keep me in rent and spaghetti. It seems clear that the longer I wait to go back to unversity, the more the cost will rise.

Everyone at work is reconsidering what they want from a career, what they enjoy, what they can afford, where they want their work-life balance to be. I'm very lucky to have no dependents or mortgage to support, and in any case would want to change jobs sooner or later in order to keep learning and climbing the ladder. It obviously concerns me how little work will be available before and after a Masters (during which I would rely on my savings, funding being non-existent). There just seems no point in worrying about it right now.

At the moment I'm young, well-educated, healthy, and living in an area of the country that's coped relatively well with the recession so far. Millions of people are going to be worse off when the cuts to tax credits, housing benefit, job seeker's allowance, and child benefit arrive. Never mind inflation on the rise, VAT rising to 20%, and public services being dismantled and sold off. When those millions start protesting, I'll be there too. Complete with a witty placard.