The financial institutions that, following the 2008 crash, were (in terms of total sums) more dependent on state handouts than all “benefit scroungers” put together seem to exist in a different compartment of media and political debate; one not subject to austerity framing. After all, they are framed as respectable wealth-creators, job-creators (even if they don’t fulfil those roles) – which means they have the right kind of discipline; they don’t need the strict father moral discipline of austerity.
