'There may be trouble ahead' @ No 10

One week back and already there is dissension surrounding No 10. Those Libdems who have remained true to their principles look as though they may start rocking the Coalition boat. Arturo told me he noticed many more yellow ties coming in through the doors of Nos 10 and 11! He is, of course, something of a sartorial guru.

Now, however, there are more substantial problems heading the Coalition's way. Large grey clouds are forming on the horizon for 'Boy David' Cameron and his band of men. The trouble looming comes in the form of the Trades Union Congress (TUC). Brendan Barber, General Secretary of the TUC, is fighting for not only his members' rights but to force the Coalition to "put the brake on austerity". He wants a re-think of the plans which have hit the poorest families so hard.

Mr Barber does not mince his words. He thinks that the government needs to come up with "an economic alternative" and that it was beginning to "lose its central arguments on the economy". His worry is that the way things are going - there will be a double-dip recession.

Next week - the TUC will hold its major congress. In anticipation of this, it has released details of a report, it commissioned, into how the cuts will impact ordinary families:

a two-earner family with two children living in the East Midlands will experience a living standards gap of £2,000 this year, with that divide widening to £4,600 by 2013.

It seems that the figures were derived from combining the impact of inflation on wages, how changes to tax and benefits will hit income, and the value of services that will be removed by cuts.

Mr Barber told a press conference:

Trying to eliminate the deficit in just four years can now be seen as nothing more than a national programme of self-harm. It has killed both consumer and business confidence. With the cuts already putting the brake on government investment, the net result is that almost no one is investing. Yet without growth, there is no prospect of closing the deficit gap in the short, medium or long term. The desperate position that the government now finds itself in is shown by the sheer irrelevance of its ideas for growth. Scrapping the 50p tax rate as many Conservatives want, or tearing up a planning system that has not stopped growth when the economy was functioning well shows just how far away from the real economy and real people they are.

Arturo became very excited when he learned about all this: "It spells trouble for Georgy in No 11 - he'll just go plain potty when he hears about this. He thinks he's God's gift to economic revival!"

As usual, Sage Arturo - as I call him, is right - the sh** will hit the fan - when Georgy finally realises that not everyone thinks he's as brilliant as he thinks he is.

Mr Barber is not exactly threatening the government - you understand - he's just saying that the unions will build alliances with communities opposed to local cuts.

He said:

We will potentially have industrial battles that we will be fighting over this next period, but we have a battle of ideas – we've got an intellectual battle to win too.

He trusted that ministers would start to think

pretty carefully before they reach a position where we do have a much broader conflict, where I think they have a lot at risk.

Now - as you know - I'm no great political thinker or economist - I'm the under stairs cat. Along with my pal, Sage Arturo, we see it all at Nos 10 and 11 Downing Street. What we see is trouble brewing in the coming months. In fact, it caused Arturo to break into song - in his fine feline tenor:

.... Before the fiddlers have fled
Before they ask us to pay the bill
....Soon
We'll be without the moon
Humming a diff'rent tune
...There may be teardrops to shed
....

I just hope it ain't us who have to pay the bill or shed the teardrops!

'Ciao' from Arturo:

'Bye' from me