They want to shift the burden of the crisis, with great speed and thoroughness, onto the shoulders of the most vulnerable in society. Derek Simpson, leader of the Unite union, called it “Vintage Thatcher” and even Financial Times columnist Martin Wolf described it as a “bloodbath”.
Osborne’s references to protecting the poorest were pathetic sops to the supposed sensitivities of the Lib Dems – whose collusion made this onslaught possible. They also say everything about where Osborne thinks public opinion is.
But mealy-mouthed platitudes from a Tory millionaire will not be enough to ease the stomachs of Lib Dem voters watching their party act as Osborne’s honour guard. Nor will they reassure people whose jobs, incomes and services have been targeted as being less valued than investment banks.
The budget is a gamble because it risks pushing the economy into another, possibly even deeper, recession. People with less money can’t do as much spending.
Another danger for the government is that this budget, and the further cuts we are promised, are so blatantly driven by the needs of the rich that workers will be provoked to fight back. As Wolf wrote: “If public sector unrest and a weakening economy bite in the next few years, bravery is going to look close to foolhardiness.”
On budget day trade unionists, pensioners and students protested outside town halls across the country. Activists everywhere need to get organised.
The Right to Work campaign callout for a mass protest outside the Tory Party conference on 3 October in Birmingham is an opportunity to bring together all those who want to resist.
In November of last year, there was a brief moment of light amid the darkness that was 2020. Scotland became the first country in the world to make period products free for all. Just as the weekend and the eight-hour-day are now regarded by many as a given, future generations may be in disbelief that...
On 4 November last year, when many of us were watching the aftermath of the American presidential election, the US formally left the Paris Climate Agreement. Written in 2015 at the United Nations’ COP21 climate conference in Paris, the agreement is often considered to be the most significant document of international climate cooperation. Back then,...
To say 2020 was dramatic would be an understatement. The world situation has been completely transformed by the Covid-19 pandemic and the inadequacy of governmental and state responses. As we head into 2021 it feels like we are entering uncharted territory. To make specific predictions would be unwise. But the Covid-19 crisis raises fundamental questions...
The 2020 crisis we’ve endured isn’t an aberration of the system but, as Alex Callinicos argues, an aspect of its permanent crisis.
