It’s the cost of living, stupid. The Autumn Statement graphically demonstrates ‘the long term plan’ isn’t working.
George Osborne is expected to provide good news as usual for millionaire pals, while the statement does nothing for a worsening cost-of-living crisis. Any benefits for disability allowances will be more than offset by disabled citizens being clobbered by the ‘bedroom tax’, annihilating the slogan of the Liberal Democrats of ‘a fair society, stronger economy’. Any recovery at all three years into this parliament is of course to be welcomed, especially since Labour had actually handed over the keys to government in May 2010 with an economy in growth. That’s right – the economy had been recovering in May 2010.
There is now a maximum number of people in employment with terrible employment rights. Zero-hour contracts have become an unsightly blot on the landscape of the Liberal Democrat’s fair society. The deficit rose due to throwing money at the banks in the last parliament as an emergency last-resort. Barack Obama had even thanked Gordon Brown personally for his leadership in the global fiscal crisis. Since then, come tomorrow, we are expecting another sharp cut of £1 bn in budgets. But this is a Government which is addicted to austerity for simply ideological fetish.
However, the intellectually bereft Coalition will churn out yet again that Labour has no ideas, and sticking to their spend their way out of trouble, in dreary sad repetition. This is clearly laughable as the government has just unveiled its infrastructure spending plan for the next two decades, describing it as “a blueprint for Britain”. About £375bn of investment in energy, transport, communications, and water projects is planned, although no new money will be forthcoming. So that claim about Labour being the only one with the cheque book is an obscene joke. Most of this Government’s borrowing has been to make up for the disasters of their economic policy. Labour had wanted infrastructure spending a long time ago, to give the economy the desperate boost it needed. That boost came eventually, but it was too little too late. The Autumn Statement graphically demonstrates ‘the long term plan’ isn’t working: infrastructure spending was an after thought.
And this is a Government which has lost any freedom. It is in the pockets of the corporates. The ‘cost of living crisis’ is deepening, and the recovery is not guaranteed. If the recovery is founded on a flaky London-based “property bubble”, and exports don’t pick up, this recovery might not be sustained after all. But will most ‘normal people’ feel any prosperity? Real wages have fallen significantly, and most people will feel poorer than 2008. This is because the economy is fundamentally is in a shoddy state, benefiting the rich but not the less well off. The Autumn Statement graphically will demonstrate ‘the long term plan’ isn’t working. The economy has been fundamentally moribund since Thatcher took over. Labour looked after the super rich, as Mandelson explained in a moment of being intensely relaxed.
And what about the claims to be “the greenest government” ever? This has been the most incompetent government ever, quite simply. The Government has already announced that it will loosen the ‘green’ obligations faced by energy providers, subject to approval. Those providers have promised to pass on any benefits, thought to be around £50 per dual fuel bill, to the general public. Of course they won’t. They will threaten us with blackouts instead. Pensioners are having to decide between food and fuel.
The Coalition also is sending out rather odd messages consistent with social engineering through the tax system. They are giving the impression of discrimination against unmarried couples. One expected measure tomorrow is designed to make couples better off by £200 when it is introduced in 2015. But even the private bank Coutts has argued that given the value of the proposed tax break and the number of individuals who would be eligible, this historic pledge might ultimately have little impact on people’s living standards.
And are the Coalition actually competent at running the economy? It’s been leaked that the Department for Education even complained that the extra money could require ministers to raid its basic needs budget, the fund used to deal with the rise in the number of primary schoolchildren caused by a baby boom. However, instead it was agreed that unspent money from the Department of Education’s maintenance budget would have to be deployed. It’s widely reported that the LibDems had to concede on environmental issues. Will the Coalition admit the truth of this ‘in the national interest’? Even a Department for Education source has said: “There is no spare money in either the basic needs or maintenance budget to pay for Clegg’s kitchens.” It’s simply a gimmick. Gimmicks don’t constitute a long term plan.
And as usual the Conservatives are desperate to look after their chums. In it together. It of course isn’t ‘in it together’. That would show true solidarity – or even socialism. Senior tax advisers have called for the Government to reduce stamp duty on homes worth between £250,000 and £300,000 – a move that would cost the Treasury about £150m.
But this is Tory Britain, where to pay for this you have to clobber the disabled. This is a significant moment in welfare policy affecting millions of people, as previously benefits had increased in line with the rising cost of living. Some of us are still having to pay for three lost years in the Government’s economic policy. It’s expected that many benefits will rise by 1% in April 2014 include income support, jobseeker’s allowance and housing benefit. But top CEOs or bankers are doing just fine with sky-rocketing bonuses.
The cap for the ISA will be falling for those not quite as rich. This means you can’t mend your roof as much even if the sun is shining, despite the Tories’ only claim to Keynesian economics. And the multibillionaires will still be able to avoid tax. Yes, it really is Tory business as usual.
However, benefits for disabled people and carers will increase in line with the rising cost of living as measured by CPI inflation in September, which was 2.7%. This might seem like ‘good news’ except they are being clobbered by the Bedroom Tax. The Labour Party is the only party which has promised to repeal this dangerously unfair Act of parliament in the next government. The Government have admitted that they know there are not enough smaller properties in the Bedroom Tax scheme to enable people to downsize. Despite fierce lobbying by all interested organisations for an exemption from the benefit cut for people in receipt of Employment and Support Allowance and/or DLA, the only current exemption is for a minority of tenants who can prove they require constant overnight care. For everyone else the ‘tax’ (benefit cut) takes immediate effect on 1 April 2013.
This is a tired Government, desperately out-of-touch.
Lynton Crosby wants to clear out some ‘barnacles’.
But this new autumn statement will do nothing to sort out the real ‘cost of living crisis’.
And will protect its friends and donors as usual.
The Autumn Statement graphically and tragically demonstrates ‘the long term plan’ isn’t working.
