AUSTERITY

©2020 Broadsheet newsprint posters

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'Austerity’ is a 2-part installation of 10 posters. Each poster is 50cm high x 35cm wide (Newspaper ‘broadsheet’ sized) and is printed on 55gsm newspaper print

9 of the posters carry an individual letter A-U-S-T-E-R-I-T-Y and the 10th poster carries the phrase “AUSTERITY IS CLASS WAR” 

 

They are all printed white lettering on a red background and carry the Crown of King George V.  The design is based on the famous Second World War "Keep Calm and Carry On" propaganda poster, which became a cultural phenomenon when it was rediscovered in the early 2000s and appropriated for ironic use on everything from mugs to tea-towels. 

 

In 2010, the then Prime Minister David Cameron introduced major cuts to public spending, particularly in benefits, welfare and social provision. The Conservative/Liberal Democrat Coalition Government called this policy 'Austerity' – the description given to the privations endured by civilians during and after the Second World War. Cameron tried to evoke nostalgic feelings of wartime camaraderie, claiming "We are all in this together". Cameron went on to set Brexit in motion, supporters of which used jingoistic comparisons to the Second World War. Ironically, the experience of the Second World War led to the creation of the Welfare State, which Cameron’s austerity seemed to dismantle. 

 

A 2017 report published in the British Medical Journal linked this policy of cuts to 120,000 extra deaths in England. 70,000 civilians were killed in Britain in World War 2 by enemy action. In 2020, the Coronavirus pandemic killed over 70,000 people in the UK – a death toll proportionately worse than almost any other Western country and was made worse by a decade of underfunding of the NHS and social care provision. The Prime Minister Boris Johnson, likened himself to war time leader Winston Churchill and for a time key workers were lauded as heroes. Rather than be rewarded, the return of austerity has been signalled, once the key workers have contained the pandemic. 

 

More cuts in public spending have been put forward by Rishi Sunak.