Wednesday 9 January 2013

A Rotten Bill and a Rotten Borough too

A Rotten Bill and a Rotten Borough too

Last night Tory and Lib Dem MPs sniggered and chortled as they voted to cap vital benefits to those ‘strivers’ they claimed to support.

With help from their media allies and Daily Mail headlines it has been easy for the Tories to turn large sections of the population agin each other. ‘Strivers’ versus ‘skivers’ and ‘shirkers’ with Cameron & Osborne continually drawing on evil images of the work shy and feckless with their curtains drawn, “asleep, living a life on benefits.”

But who are these ‘scroungers’ Cameron & Osborne will be clamping down on? According to the Governments own figures; forty-thousand soldiers will be hit; three-hundred thousand nurses will lose out and one-hundred and fifty thousand teachers will be hurt.

More than 60% of the recipients of the benefits are working people, meaning that seven million working households will now lose £165 a year and those who will be hit the hardest will be lone parents, the disabled, and women.

These ideological cuts will push hard working people below the poverty line at a time when they need help the most. Those on low incomes contribute a much higher percentage of their income to the economy, but unless the Government intend to legislate to ensure fuel bills, fares, rents and food prices are capped, they will now be paying a far higher price. 

The grins and guffaws from the Government benches yesterday were sickening. As they hand a tax cut of over £2,000 to the wealthiest in the country, food banks are springing up across the UK and even in leafy green Barnet.

The issue isn’t the unemployed but lack of a fair days pay for a fair days work. As the rich get richer the poor get poorer. But if you base your policies on Daily Mail headlines it is hardly surprising.

That can't be fair. People are struggling to make ends meet. This is a time when they need help.

We have gone back to the days of divide and rule. The ideology of ‘striver’ vs ‘shirker’ and ‘private’ vs ‘public’.

This will not cut the Welfare Bill as they think but will put more pressure on local services already hit by Tory policies nationally and by daft privatisation plans locally. 

We all want to make work pay but we need to tackle the issue of low pay, temporary and part time employment and the rising cost of living. Fure bills, fares, rents and food prices are crippling for many families and they need support from Government. This is just another kick in the teeth for millions out there.

The mean old Tories backed by their Lib Dem friends are truly back!

To quote David Miliband this should be “a priorities debate, not an affordability debate”.



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