Author Juliet Gardiner and Robin Archer, of London School of Economics, discuss how easy it will be to shape public opinion in advance of the spending cuts decisions.

Drawing on the lessons from 1930s, Juliet Gardiner says "the government can have a great deal to say about the public services, it's very much harder for them to do anything about the private industry".

Robin Archer points out that "when people are talking about more democracy in the work place and they start shifting to talking about consultation, it means that they don't really want participation in the decision making process."

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