At the time of Freedom going to press and the time of its actual publication the results of the UK general election with have been decided and a new government will have been formed. Without wishing to pre-empt the voting intentions of the electorate we can safely say it will either be a clear Tory or Labour victory, which for generations has been the familiar, and never positive, result. Alternatively and certainly more intriguingly, at least in terms of future legislation is concerned, there could be a hung Parliament where neither of the two leading parties has an overall majority in the House of Commons.

This is a rare occurrence for a country whose political system based on ‘first passed the post’ and as such defines very differently how Parliament will conduct its business. For the political commentators and professional government watchers, party hacks and civil servant bureaucrats there will be a certain degree of interest and trepidation as unfamiliar territory is explored, for the rest of us it will be four more years of general social hostility and economic hardship as power formations seek to establish a governing ideology with which to tax us more, cut jobs, wages and benefits in order to repay the national debt that has been accumulating over the years.

As the Financial Times warned just prior the election “The next government will have to cut public sector pay, freeze benefits, slash jobs, abolish a range of welfare entitlements and take the axe to programmes such as school building and road maintenance” and adding “Packages of measures such as these are already under consideration in the Treasury and will be needed if further big tax rises are to be avoided as the next chancellor seeks, at a minimum, to halve the deficit by 2014 – a goal to which all the main parties are signed up”.

This then becomes the clear path the next government, of whatever hue, in whatever percentage share of the seats, will seek to push through. The choices that the next chancellor will face show that almost the whole population would be hit as the new government makes £30bn-£40bn of cuts in real terms to halve the deficit.

It is a cliché, but one that remains as true as ever; whichever party we vote for the government always wins, and so does capitalism, which will ultimately dictates the terms of and conditions of our economic future. The role of government is to provide a secure environment for capitalism to continue to flourish. The stock markets may stutter the day after the election results but the business of business remains resolutely tied to governments stated aims.

As a nation wakes on Friday morning to the news of unfolding results and new names and faces are brought forward to speak about the hard task ahead, the only clear winner will be capitalism and the privileged and wealthy minority who benefit from such a system. The rest of us have another four year long hang-over to look forward to.