Ed Miliband will fail if he gives in to the sirens of austerity | Seumas Milne

Hollande's rout in the French local elections shows the price to be paid if Labour embraces cuts and corporate power

The Tory press are crowing that George Osborne is as good as home and dry. Now that wages have outstripped inflation for the first time in four years, the Sun claims Ed Miliband has "got nothing left to say". In fact, real wages are still falling, if you take out bonuses or include housing costs, following the longest drop in living standards since the 1870s.

Add to that the growing army of self-employed and part-time workers who want to work full-time for someone else, a zero-hours labour market slashing pay and security, and benefit cuts and sanctions that have driven over a million people to Britain's foodbanks and the idea that the chancellor is delivering the warm glow of recovery for the majority is just bizarre.

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