Policy Press

Austerity Bites

A Journey to the Sharp End of Cuts in the UK

By Mary O'Hara

Published

Apr 16, 2015

Page count

336 pages

ISBN

978-1447315704

Dimensions

216 x 138 mm

Imprint

Policy Press

Published

May 28, 2014

Page count

336 pages

ISBN

978-1447315605

Dimensions

216 x 138 mm

Imprint

Policy Press

Published

May 28, 2014

Page count

336 pages

ISBN

978-1447315629

Dimensions

Imprint

Policy Press

Published

May 28, 2014

Page count

336 pages

ISBN

978-1447315636

Dimensions

Imprint

Policy Press
Austerity Bites

Voted one of the Guardian best books of 2014 by Owen Jones. After coming to power in May 2010, the Coalition government in the United Kingdom embarked on a drastic programme of cuts to public spending and introduced a raft of austerity measures that had profoundly damaging effects on much of the population. This bestselling book by award-winning journalist Mary O’Hara chronicles the true impact of austerity on people at the sharp end, based on her ‘real-time’ 12-month journey around the country just as the most radical reforms were being rolled out in 2012 and 2013. Drawing on hundreds of hours of compelling first-person interviews, with a broad spectrum of people ranging from homeless teenagers, older job-seekers, pensioners, charity workers, employment advisers and youth workers, as well as an extensive body of research and reports, the book explores the grim reality of living under the biggest shakeup of the welfare state in 60 years. with a new Foreword by Mark Blyth, Professor of International Political economy and International Studies at Brown University, USA, Austerity Bites dispels any notion that “we are all in this together” and offers an alternative to the dominant and simplistic narrative that we inhabit a country of “skivers versus strivers".

Mary O’Hara is an award-winning journalist, author and producer. Her journalism appears in publications including The Guardian and Mosaic Science. She is the author of two books: The Shame Game: Overturning the toxic poverty narrative (2020) & Austerity Bites: A journey to the sharp end of cuts in the UK (2014) and is founder of the multi-platform anti-poverty initiative, Project Twist-It. Mary has directed/produced short films, run a comedy club, been a Fulbright Scholar at UC Berkeley and a producer and consultant on Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness. In 2020 she was named Best Foreign Columnist at the Southern California Journalism Awards.

Foreword by Mark Thomas;

Foreword by Mark Blyth;

Preface to the paperback edition;

Introduction;

Money’s too tight to mention;

The big squeeze;

Welcome to ‘Wongaland’;

Work maketh the person;

All work and no pay;

Bearing the brunt;

A life lived in fear is a life half lived;

Conclusion

Afterword to the paperback edition.

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