The madness of the Coalition government’s economic policy continues with a Christmas present to local councils of additional budget cuts on top of the millions they already have to find.

Yet, us mere mortals are beginning to see through the utterances of Chancellor Osborne, who maintains an economic ‘miracle’ is underway, that it was all the fault of the Labour Party, and a ‘bloated’ public sector.

As Brighton and Hove Council consider shutting family centres, increasing charges for services for the poorest, and privatising anything that moves (this one from the Tory Group), whatever happened to that ‘promise’ in 2010, that ‘we will not end front-line services’ (Cameron, Osborne, Clegg)?

This is the ‘economic miracle’ that has seen four local voluntary sector groups notify my office in the last few weeks of redundancies due to the ending of council/government grant funding.

Private sector businesses, dependent on public funded contracts, are also announcing cuts.

And nobody we deal with (over 100 employers) is giving their staff more than a 1% pay increase – effectively, a pay cut for the fifth year in a row!

The myth, that it was Labour, and not the real truth, that it was the financial sector, who caused the crisis, is in tatters.

The only true statement, but not in the sense the Chancellor meant it, is ‘we are all in it together’.

These are not only cuts to the public sector, but to everyone else as well.

For every job lost in the council, the result is less spending in the local economy.

For every million cut, less contract work for the private firms in the city.

And, if we measure our civilised society by how well we care for the most vulnerable, bluntly, we are failing.

‘All in it together’ needs to be more than just a slogan – all of us now need to get out there and do something. Even if you simply write or email your MP, and tell them ‘enough is enough’, because if you leave this madness to continue, any longer, it will be too late.

Alex Knutsen, UNISON, Town Hall, Brighton