Along with the rest of the country, people in Oxford face radical cuts to public services. Studies show the poorest 10% will lose the equivalent of 21% of their income. An Oxford University study calculated that the cuts could lead to 38,000 deaths a year.
 
The cuts are, of course, ideologically driven. Nobel Prize winning economists have pointed out that you don’t solve an economic downturn by cutting jobs and taking money out of the economy. While President Obama is arguing that we need to invest to build our way out of the credit crunch, David Cameron is pushing through some of the most radical cuts in history – anywhere in the world. His party has always opposed proper public services. Now it is using the recession as a smokescreen to get rid of them. 
 
And if the government really wanted to cut the deficit, why has it reduced corporation tax for the banks which caused the problem? Why isn’t it cracking down on billionaire tax evaders like Philip Green, rather than asking him what to cut?
 
And these ideological cuts will hit people in Oxford hard. The County Council leader tells us we are seeing the biggest reduction in services since WW2. The cancelling of promised refurbishment of Bayards Hill School in Barton, threats to the cuts to the numbers of school pupils receiving free school meals, and massive cuts to benefits and tax credits are just the beginning. Our universities will see some of the biggest reductions in funds in their history, and already indebted students may well be asked to shoulder the cost of maintaining these institutions on which the future of our economy – and society - depends.
 
But no one knows exactly how the people of Oxford will be hit. And that’s why Oxford Save Our Services is organising an event “mapping Oxford’s cuts” on the Monday the 13th of September – to find out what’s happening, and work out what we can do with the growing network across the country working to defend the services we depend on. For more info, see www.oxfordsos.org.uk.