There is one criticism of austerity politics that is both true and, simultaneously, flatly false: that it is ideological. This claim is ambiguous and needs to be unpacked.

The soft opposition to the British government’s austerity package essentially holds that it is “an ideological mission to shrink government,” as Labour leader Ed Miliband put it. The parliamentary opposition has an interest in putting it this way. Labour has committed itself to significant government shrinkage, much of which will harm its own base while the Tories protect their own.

In such circumstances, it distinguishes its cuts as merely necessary pragmatism, as opposed to the Tories’ ambitious, ideologically-driven demolition job. Yet Labour’s cuts, though slower and a little less deep, would in any other circumstances be considered a scandal.