Is there anyone left who seriously believes the Coalition
Government?
On Monday, David Cameron and Nick Clegg gave us their
mid-term report, a staged PR stunt, designed to convince the world that they
were on target to achieve everything they desired. Taken at face value, this variously involved
“cutting the deficit”, “getting the economy back on track” and “getting Britain
working.” By Tuesday night, it was clear
that, with at least one ex-minister voting against the attempt to cut benefits
from the country’s poorest, even its former members have ceased to take the
Government seriously.
No matter how much Cameron and Clegg protest, the truth is
very different from the image they like to portray. The real terms cut in benefits harms ordinary
families most. Only 3% of all benefits
go to the unemployed. The majority of
the cuts have fallen on ‘in work’ benefits, such as maternity and paternity
pay, adoption pay and the child element of the Working Families Tax
Credit. According to the BBC (1), single
parents are the group most affected by the cut.
This coming from the same Government who gave the richest 1% a huge tax
cut in the ‘Omnishambles’ budget.
But it is not just the act of taking from the poor and
giving to the wealthy that offends our sense of decency. It’s the underhand way this Government has
chosen to go about it. Ian Duncan Smith
was recently caught out by Channel 4’s ‘FactCheck’ (2) when an article he wrote
for the Telegraph stretched the truth beyond credible boundaries. Mr Duncan Smith was attempting to portray Tax
Credits as frippery, an example of excess and a honey pot for foreign
fraudsters. Unfortunately for him,
Channel 4 sought to verify his claims with his own department and discovered
that his statements were at best exaggerated and at worst, downright lies. More unfortunately for everyone is the fact
that the mud has probably already stuck in the minds of the ordinary
voters. Those greedy working class
families should not be pandered to in this way.
They should take home their poverty wages and be thankful, unlike the
wealth creators whom we should be making even richer.
There is more than a faint whiff of Dickensian morality
about the Coalition, reviving notions of ‘deserving’ and ‘undeserving’ poor,
blaming working people for their own plight rather than tackling the real
problems. For instance, the Government
has been very keen to cut the Housing Benefit bill. I would be fully behind this if they
approached it in an intelligent way. Surely,
with the economy heading for an almost unheard of triple-dip recession, it
would make sense to prevent landlords exploiting the public purse by
ratchetting up rents as much as they can?
But no – rent controls would interfere with the free market (the same one
that is rigged to make sure that some businesses enjoy charitable status
despite not being charities at all).
Blaming the poor for not being able to afford housing is much
easier. And if anyone should stick their
noses in to complain, just follow the example of Ian Duncan Smith and make
things up.
The Tax Credit system is also an area that needs to be
looked at. That so many people who go
out to work are having their wages subsidised by the state is just plain
wrong. While I am in favour of the
Government assisting small businesses create jobs, the fact that giants such as
Tesco and McDonalds can pay their employees so little that the rest of us have
to chip in to give them a decent wage is abhorrent. Look at some of the profits announced by major
companies in the last few recession-hit years and it becomes obvious that we
are putting money straight into the pockets of the rich.
Maybe I’m being unfair.
Maybe the Coalition are achieving their goals and what I’ve described
above is exactly what they want. Perhaps
they want to get the economy back on the sort of track that saw unemployment
hit 3 million in the 1980’s. Maybe
Britain working for lower and lower wages is their ultimate aim. So far, the Big Society is visible only in
the increased use of food banks and charity hand outs. For all the fanfare, after two and a half
years, they have very little else to shout about.
(2)http://blogs.channel4.com/factcheck/factcheck-ids-tax-credit-claims-discredited/12160
Twitter - @LiamStubbs
Email - liamstubbslabour@hotmail.co.uk
Twitter - @LiamStubbs
Email - liamstubbslabour@hotmail.co.uk
