At the risk of sounding flippant, “things will be different this time” is a refrain often heard in abusive relationships.

Yet this was essentially what the UK Government was telling the sector recently as it outlined its new ‘covenant’ with charities.

‘Outlined’ is probably the wrong word, as if something has an outline you’d expect it to have form.

The UK Government’s offering has all the form and depth of a puddle.

Anyway, the message, such as it was, amounted to ‘let’s give it another go. I know you’ve been hurt in the past, but things have changed’.

And you really, really want to believe it. And maybe for a minute you let hope rather than experience guide you.

Then reality hits.

A week after sector leaders gathered at Number 10 in good faith to hear about this ‘covenant’, promising to establish “trust and mutual respect” between civil society and the new(ish) Labour government, the leaks began about a hike in employer National Insurance contributions which was to be contained in the autumn budget.

Before, we go on, let’s get something clear. While tinkering with NI is weak fiscal sauce, something like this was to be expected from a government which had made it clear that actual and necessary means of revenue-raising through taxation (a pip-squeezing raid on the rich and big business) was off the table.

Its milquetoast redistributive intent is welcome, as far as it goes. Big private sector employers should pay more, and should be barred from passing this on to their workers, who make their profits for them in the first place.

But not all employers are equal, and not all deserve to have their pips-squeezed. When it comes to the public and the third sector it’s a false economy. Unlike the private sector, where obscene profits daily flow to shareholders, a raid here ultimately leads to a diminution of public services, which costs us all more.

This, the pre-budget leaks suggested (and pre-budget, governments only communicate in leaks), has been recognised in the case of the public sector, whereby there should be some form of off-setting.

But what of the third sector? Surely they had just forgotten about us. After all, aren’t things going to be different this time? We’ve even got an, er, sort of covenant thing saying as much.

But then you look in their eyes. The same cold, dead eyes as the last time. The same cycle. The same behaviour.

So far, it looks like the employer NI hike is something we’re just going to have to suck up, even as staff are lost and services are cut. File this along with the broken promises on funding, all the while doing more and more with less and less, soaking up the societal sick spewed by governments drunk on their own self-regard, who are too cowardly to tackle the wealthy, or who nakedly govern on their behalf.

It’s all a bit humiliating, frankly. We need to rediscover our self-worth, remember who we are, have pride in what we do and crucially realise just how much they need us. We really need to bite back.

Honestly, we’re too good for them.

Graham Martin is editor of TFN.