saying you'll do something less harshly and painfully doesn't mean you didn't say you'd do it https://twitter.com/HarrietHarman/status/1246511061764841475

eg 'I think you should be sacked with a redundancy payoff' and 'I think you should be sacked and immediately made homeless' are both forms of sacking; 'too far, too fast' was still austerity, just saying we'll do it nicer and 100% accepting that austerity was necessary

which is funny because now the literal Prime Minister says that austerity wasn't necessary, and presumably was all just a big old jape

Harriet Harman, meanwhile, is so anti-austerity that she made her first move as minister, during an economic boom, the cutting of lone parents' benefits, then as caretaker leader abstained on the dismantlement of New Labour's own deeply conditional and mild welfare policies

short version of this thread: a load of people are going to lie their socks off in the next few months, don't let them do it