The TUC launched a verbal shot across the government's bows earlier today, evoking the imagery of the poll tax struggle and promising a campaign of civil disobedience, protests and industrial action to see their cuts off. To coincide with its warnings, the TUC has released a substantial report in defence of public services.
When George Osborne unveiled his so-called emergency budget in June, he attempted to cloak his programme of class warfare in flowery progressive language. But thanks to the TUC's work, the graph below (from page nine of the report) shows how the pain of public spending cuts will likely be distributed across income groups.
How empty the Tory/LibDem claims to be a progressive government are.
And new Labour claim, I think the Tories are going to far and not hitting the right people, yet Labour tried to hit the welfare with claim to save 11 billion.
seems both parties are hitting the one's who cannot fight back.
Not until the next economic crisis will the left have any real opportunity to assert itself. Ironically, if we had had a Tory government two years ago when the economy tanked, we would probably be in a very different situation now. The Keynesian propping up of the banks by the Labour government (and opposed by the Tories) has left us locked into neo-liberalism - most people did not feel the crash as it would have been felt were the market to have been allowed to take it’s course.
The real irony is that it is market fanaticism that is discredited – and it is market fundamentalism that is now on the march!
On the bright side, nobody appears to have learnt any lessons from the crash, so perhaps we can await more radical change after the inevitable future tanking of the economy.
And new Labour claim, I think the Tories are going to far and not hitting the right people, yet Labour tried to hit the welfare with claim to save 11 billion.
ReplyDeleteseems both parties are hitting the one's who cannot fight back.
Not until the next economic crisis will the left have any real opportunity to assert itself. Ironically, if we had had a Tory government two years ago when the economy tanked, we would probably be in a very different situation now. The Keynesian propping up of the banks by the Labour government (and opposed by the Tories) has left us locked into neo-liberalism - most people did not feel the crash as it would have been felt were the market to have been allowed to take it’s course.
ReplyDeleteThe real irony is that it is market fanaticism that is discredited – and it is market fundamentalism that is now on the march!
On the bright side, nobody appears to have learnt any lessons from the crash, so perhaps we can await more radical change after the inevitable future tanking of the economy.
As for now, it’s already over I’m afraid to say.
They are progressive. That graph gets progressively smaller the more money you have. What more evidence do you need?
ReplyDelete