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It really was the sort of day when trade union leaders should have been threatening class war, MPs  pledging to protect workers’ rights and, maybe, angry demonstration should have filled the streets. The Tories and Labour both held out cuts in pay for millions of public sector workers next year. The Tories will freeze wages for all but the worst paid public sector workers and Labour will increase them by a below inflation 1%. As if that were not bad enough the Tories, when they get into government next year, will bring forward Labour’s existing plans to raise the retirement age for men to 66 in 2016. That is £5000 straight out of the pocket of hundreds of thousands of people currently aged 58. Women will retire at 66 from 2020

Both parties have said lots about savings by using the silver bullet with “efficiency” engraved on it. The Tories are saying that they will reduce “the size of Whitehall by a third”. This most likely means sacking several thousand civil servants rather than redrawing the district’s boundaries.

British Airways is getting a slice of the action too. It intends to axe 1,700 cabin crew jobs and impose a two-year pay freeze. Industry unions reacted with strong words. “Sources said that the airline’s move meant that both sides were on a “collision course”, even though there are no immediate plans for a strike ballot.” That ought to make Willie Walsh think again.

A quick search for an outraged reaction from the Trades Union Congress, the, er, leadership of the British working class, has nothing to say on the subject, preferring to carry a couple of Labour boosting statements on its site. By contrast cuddly Ken Clarke, the human face of Toryism, is explicitly resurrecting Thatcher. In his speech to the Tories about the economic situation he told them “But this is far, far worse. It’s worse even than Margaret was confronted with in 1979. So yet again it is our duty to repair the damage after those years of recklessness, and prepare the UK for a better future.”

It has been left to Mark Serwotka to say some of the things that a union leader should be saying in these circumstances. He has said that his union will strike against Labour’s proposed cuts and has at least issued a statement defending the public sector and condemning the Tory plans.

There may be some way of parsing the Labour and Tory statements over the past week which reveals some deep chasm between the two parties’ plans for the coming years and it is undeniable that a 1% pay rise is better than a pay freeze. The essential problem is that it is really hard to work out what the difference between their approaches will look like in the real world and Cameron’s robust Thatcherism will win him the same mandate for his programme that she had for hers. Labour is working hard to demoralise its own voters and is enthusiastically digging its own grave.

George Osborne’s refrain in his speech reminded me of a song I’ve not heard in a very long time and should cheer even the gloomiest soul.