I’m not listening to Chancellor Sunak’s Spring Statement.
Here’s why.
He’s already told us what we need to know: ‘The government cannot be expected to solve every problem.’
He’s not kidding.
He and his government have certainly created enough problems.
They’ve cocked up our supply chains with the sclerosis and bureaucracy of their botched Brexit. They’ve pushed workers away so that we can’t pick our fruit, we can’t pick our vegetables, and our farmers can’t bring their meat to market because they don’t have the staff to do the job.
Road hauliers, pushed away by Brexit, aren’t here in sufficient numbers, so that what we do have, we can’t distribute.
All of these contribute to inflationary pressure.
We can see it in the prices at the shops, rising each and every week.
Inflation is running wild, and wages and benefits aren’t keeping up. Everyone is poorer.
Adding to this problem – not solving it – will be Sunak’s National Insurance rise. This is a tax – on workers and employers – at exactly the wrong time.
He has let it be known that he might tweak the thresholds at which this additional tax bites, but really? Big f*cking deal. There should be no NI hike at all. There should be a reduction.
And don’t forget, these guys are masters, absolute masters – with weasel words and diverting headlines to distract the media – at making it look like they are giving, when in actual fact they are taking away. They’re brilliant at it. For a day or two, in all the hullabaloo and earnest analysis, we can’t see what they’ve done. Only when the smoke clears, a week or three later, does it become clear. And by then it is too late.
This time, let’s not be fooled.
Because for a dozen years, that is precisely what they have done. Under the guise of prudent economics and a ‘balanced approach’, they’ve chipped away and chipped away at our infrastructure, our health service, our local services and our benefits, and now, when the British people face a historic cost of living crisis, what have they got for us? Nothing. They ‘can’t be expected to solve every problem’.
On energy prices, they’ve promised a loan to offset soaring price hikes. A loan! This is your government, in your hour of need. Men and women paid by you to really grip problems. But they say they ‘can’t be expected’ to help you, and instead they’re behaving more like payday loan sharks, bunging you a few quid now, only to come back later to claw it back, when you’ll probably be in an even worse position.
On fuel, they’ve said they might take 5p off a litre of fuel. 5p! 5p is what Tesco might offer you as a reward for doing your shopping there. It is not what a government does to remedy a dramatic crisis. And remember, half the pump price is fuel duty and VAT. Sunak will still be taking about 80p from you in tax for every litre you buy.
VAT remains on energy too. As the prices rocket, so does Rishi’s revenue.
He can afford to do more.
We cannot afford for him to do so little.
Rishi Sunak and his family are richer than Queen. He is a man who will never, ever have to worry about the price of a meal, the price of fuel, or the cost of a warm home. Never. Rich people can make fair choices for all, but they cannot know the fear and the disabling horror of lying awake over how to pay for the basics. If they did, they could never say, in the face of a historic crisis, that they ‘can’t be expected to solve every problem’. Such a sentence wouldn’t even flash across their minds.
When he says he can’t be expected to solve every problem, he really means he’s not going to solve any problem. He really means ‘suck it up’. The ‘whatever it takes’ Chancellor has, in short order, become the high tax, no heart Chancellor. The ‘whatever it takes for me to build a war-chest for the next election (when I might be leader)’ Chancellor.
On their own admission, the Tories ‘can’t be expected’ to solve our problems. Their record, from austerity to Brexit, proves the contrary: they’ve created and contributed to our problems. They’ve ground Britain and its people down for a dozen years. It’s time for change. It’s time to take the country back from people who just don’t get it. It’s time to #takebackBritain.
You can join #takebackBritain at www.reimagine.uk.com