Knifecrime Island's Embrace Of Fiscal Restraint

“’Vicious cuts.’ ‘Savage cuts.’ ‘Swingeing cuts.’ The language that the British use to describe their new government’s spending-reduction policy is apocalyptic in the extreme. The ministers in charge of the country’s finances are known as ‘axe-wielders’ who will be ‘hacking’ away at the budget. Articles about the nation’s finances are filled with talk of blood, knives, and amputation.

And the British love it.”
-Slate’s Anne Applebaum suggests that the British fondness severe budgetary slashing comes from a sense of nostalgia for the postwar austerity era, but come on: everybody knows if you want to get a Brit excited about anything you have to explain it in terms of knives.