SA – I’m not a fan of Pears Morgan, I never watch his show, but he is sure perfecting the art of going for the jugular and not even giving the Tories an easy ride. They are such hypocrites, preaching human rights over Russian treatment of Navalny, but hands-off MBS; those arms contracts to blast Yemen into oblivion are just too lucrative. The Tories hate Alex Salmond, but delight in his takedown of Sturgeon. They are incapable of recognizing their decade-plus foul treatment of the Scotts and foolishly think that the Scottish clamouring for Independence is just a personality cult that can be quashed with her demise. The French have tried and convict Nicolas Sarkozy when will we acquire similar accountability in the UK? Maybe never! But today the Tories have so much at stake it will be really tough working ou what to force the BBC to cram into their fake news propaganda broadcasts to placate the masses. There will be a few peachy gifts tucked discretely into Sunak’s budget to please wealthy elite Tory donor friends no doubt!
‘Borrowed Votes!’ ‘Borrowed £300Bn!’ ‘Borrowed reality!’ Blame Boris for all that ‘borrowed bullshit,’ but it’s just a true-to-form deliberately deceptive Tory agenda con-trick to prepare the British public for yet another devastating wave of austerity. The fancy made-for-TV trailer staring hero Rishi Sunak striding in to save us from the economic impact of Covid 19 was just a stunt for those who generally pay no attention to the budget beyond an extra penny on a pint! There was no logical reason that worried workers on furlough and those relying on Universal Credit needed to suffer weeks of stress so that there were a few scraps to toss to the paupers as he grandstands over perks for wealthy homebuyers in his budget. This extension of the torment was an unnecessary act of deliberate cruelty, but we can expect a lot more when the Tories really start to ‘Decimate Down’ hard on the working poor and unemployed. For now, the first service cuts and tax rises will be delivered by Councils who have had their funding chocked off.
The worst nightmare is that after we all thought that ‘austerity is necessary to pay down our massive debts’ myth had been very thoroughly debunked, it is being hastily resuscitated by the Tories for another round of persecuting the poor. In the Canary Article entitled “Marr just told one of the biggest lies of the pandemic, and it could impact all of us,” they say “Andrew Marr just repeated one of the biggest lies of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic. What’s worse, it’s one that could help the Tories put in place more austerity. On your marks… get set… LIE! Chancellor Rishi Sunak was on the Andrew Marr Show on Sunday 28 February. His slot was ahead of the budget on 3 March. But before Sunak even spoke, Marr was already spreading propaganda for him.” Marr works for the BBC, it’s his job to function as a Tory mouthpiece! How did he wade hip-deep into the Tory bullshit? They noted that “In his intro, he said: Now, my final guest is a man who’s borrowed almost £300bn: the chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak.”
Steve Topple Tweeted: “#Marr compounding one of the biggest lies of the pandemic: that the Tories have ‘borrowed’ £300bn. Clear paving of the way by the government and corporate media for increasing austerity.” The Canary claim “That’s the lie right there. Because Marr claiming the Tories have ‘borrowed almost £300bn’ is simply not true.” They resolve to ‘unpicked’ Marr’s lie, noting that “Tax expert Richard Murphy was straight on it. He tweeted that: ‘How many times this week will we hear the lie that the government has borrowed £300bn to pay for Covid? It hasn’t. It has issued debt, but then immediately repurchased it using new money created by the Bank of England. This debt has already been repaid in that case, for good.’ Murphy is so ‘irritated‘ by this lie that he did a video.” In the Richard Murphy Video, he says: “There is nothing owing to anyone. How do I know? Because the bills have been settled.” Some people might be confused by this concept, but Murphy explains this well in his must-watch video.
The Canary report that “He then says that the Tories have already paid the £300bn off: with money created by the Bank of England [BoE], which was used to buy government bonds, which bonds were issued by the Treasury simultaneously with their repurchase – in effect to fund the deficits that were required to ensure that government could continue to provide its services despite the collapse in tax revenues… How many bonds have been issued? Roughly £300bn… How many bonds have been repurchased by the Bank of England on behalf of the Treasury? Roughly £300bn… What is the consequence of that repurchase? That the Bank of England has injected roughly… £300bn worth of new money into the economy.”
The Canary ask, “£300bn: where’s it come from, and gone to?” To answer, “Where has this £300bn gone? Murphy says it’s gone: either into savings, and savings have risen by roughly £300bn this year; in such things as stocks, shares, and other things, or in cash. Now, that is the end of it. There is no further bill to pay. So Marr was either lying, or he doesn’t get basic economics. Let’s say it’s the latter. To be clear for Marr’s benefit: what Murphy is saying, simply put, is this. The Tories just got their mates at the BoE to print a load of money. End of.” The Canary ask, Why would Marr, much of the corporate media, and the Tories keep lying about borrowing?” Are there “More cuts coming? SNP MP Angus MacNeil took Marr’s lie to a possible conclusion. As he tweeted:
His #AusterityCausingTV hashtag is apt. Because this £300bn lie could well pave the way for more cuts to public spending and/or tax rises. That is, the Tories could bring in more austerity.”
Truth be told they have already started because by not reimbursing local Councils for their Covid overspend the Tories are forcing a hefty rise in Council Tax rates and deep cuts to local services provided. This is a direct breach of the Tory pledge to refund our Councils enabling them to do ‘whatever it takes’ in the fight to get the virus under control. Meanwhile, it has foisted an additional burden on Councils by telling those who cannot afford to self-isolate that they can receive a £500 payment from the Council while again central Government is not covering the rising cost of providing such relief. This allows Chancellor Rishi Sunak to offload the financial responsibility onto Councils and let them take the flack for cuts to services. The Canary also remind us “We’ve already seen a bit of it, because the Tories have made a real-terms cut to some public sector workers’ pay. This, and any future cuts, are based on a lie that we owe someone £300bn. We don’t. So, for Marr to say otherwise, is him being complicit in this sham.”
In the Skwawkbox Article entitled, “Poll shows Starmer’s really got his finger on the pulse in opposing corporation and wealth tax rises,” they ask “Or is it somewhere a lot darker..? Keir Starmer and his front bench have outraged Labour supporters by saying that they will oppose Rishi Sunak’s plan to increase tax on companies and wealthy individuals that have made a fortune during the pandemic, and at the same time, the Labour hierarchy is threatening councillors with severe disciplinary action if they oppose Tory cuts to local government budgets. Starmer’s opposition to tax rises, almost the only time in his leadership that he’s actually opposed anything, puts him alongside the hard right of the Tory party. His supporters claim that’s because it’s not the time tax rises don’t fit the ‘public mood’ and because he needs to pursue Tory voters. Well, the public, including Tory voters, seems to drastically disagree with him about what its mood is, with more than two-thirds saying they agree with tax rises right the hell now:” They post a
Chart by @LeftieStats and say “Maybe it’s not just his finger he’s got somewhere dark.”
In the Skwawkbox Article entitled “Trickett, Beckett, Lavery unite against Labour HQ briefing against left MPs for saying they’ll vote for tax increases on wealthiest,” the progressive’s speak out. “Left Labour MPs and Unite general secretary candidate combine to denounce hostile briefing by Starmer’s crew, who are now further right than most Tories on tax. Labour MP Jon Trickett and Unite assistant general secretary Howard Beckett have united in solidarity with Ian Lavery and Richard Burgon, after both MPs were the target of hostile briefings to the press by ‘senior party sources,’ for the ‘crime’ of supporting an increase in taxes paid by the businesses and wealthy individuals who have made a fortune during the pandemic, while ordinary people struggle.”
The Skwawkbox reported that “Lavery tweeted his own response to the sly and slimy message farmed out to Paul Waugh, a favourite of the Labour right: ‘Am I right to be slightly irritated that ‘senior Labour sources’ are briefing the right-wing press against @RichardBurgon and myself for our view on increasing corporation tax in next weeks budget? One senior party source tells me: ‘The approach being advocated by Ian Lavery and Richard Burgon is an unintended argument for austerity because it suggests you can fiddle with taxes and spending to pay off debt accumulated in an economic downturn. It’s the mirror of the argument George Osborne made a decade ago’. Starmer and his front bench, disgracefully, are now well to the right of Tory chancellor Rishi Sunak and his boss on tax, despite an overwhelming preference among voters for immediate increases in corporation tax.”
The Skwawkbox claim that “Having blundered yet again and presumably feeling it’s too soon since Starmer’s last panicked u-turn on his dire ‘Recovery Bonds’ idea that was touted by his supporters as a game-changer, they are desperately trying to shore up the last vapours of their credibility by briefing against MPs who, rightly, oppose them. Jon Trickett, in his second blast at the party’s purple hierarchy in three days and his third in a week, stood by Lavery on the issue.” Trickett Tweeted, “Be clear this Labour Party source (anon) is distorting the Left’s view which has massive support in the Party as we shall prove on Monday Night. Join us @Nback20 on Monday to show which way Labour should take the country. We won’t be silenced by false briefings to the Torygraph.” These progressive MPs are deluded if they think they can rescue Labour without the immediate removal of Starmer
The Skwawkbox say “Unite’s Howard Beckett namechecked both men as he took aim at the ‘disgraceful’ right-wingers: Starmer’s idiot pursuit of Tory voters has blown up in his face yet again: more than two-thirds of voters want corporation tax to increase, including very nearly two-thirds of Tory voters. Yet again, leading figures from the left of the movement are right and yet again the dreary Labour right is desperately trying to distract from the egg on its collective faces.” Skwawkbox provide a graph to prove their point. With the BBC and the Mainstream Media all hyping–up the massive debt issue the British people are being duped into the same old Tory trick for accepting budget cuts, pay freezes and more austerity, just packaged under a different name because Boris doesn’t like the term ‘austerity.’ Could be because Johnson knows the entire argument for austerity is not at all credible and it has been publically debunked, but that certainly won’t stop the Tories monetizing the misery of the many for the enrichment of the few.
This Tory Government really must honestly level with us regarding the appalling state of our heavily lopsided economy. They have no intention of spreading any potential growth in the economy more evenly amongst our population as they claim with their latest ‘lev…up’ catchphrase. The ‘level’ of household debt has risen; the ‘level’ of DWP sanctions has risen; the ‘level’ of destitution has risen; the ‘level’ of homelessness has risen; the ‘level’ of child poverty has risen, the ‘level’ of infant mortality has risen, but the level of life expectancy has flatlined, and among some groups it has fallen. What else has fallen in real terms due to a decade of Tory austerity continuing now under another name? The ‘level’ of real-term wages not keeping pace with inflation; the ‘level’ of staffing in our NHS Hospitals; the ‘level’ of policing on our streets; the ‘level’ of public services provided by our cash strapped local Councils the ‘level’ of support provided to the disabled, the vulnerable and the unemployed have all diminished under the Tory cosh!
Despite the growing witch-hunt targeting those on the left of the Labour Party another bold progressive Socialist proves unafraid to speak his mind in the Morning Star Article entitled “Socialist policies are the way to avoid economic ‘long Covid’ – Labour mustn’t shy away from them.” Ian Lavery MP writes that “research done by his organisation and polls nationally show that the only thing that reversed the decline of Labour’s vote in constituencies like his were the bold progressive proposals of the Corbyn era.” Wednesday will see one of the most consequential budgets of our time proposed to Parliament by Rishi Sunak. The importance of this budget simply cannot be overstated. It will reflect how the government chooses to rebuild Britain out of the devastation of the pandemic and it will show the government’s priorities and ambitions for the people of the country. It will also show quite clearly how the leader of the opposition Keir Starmer prioritises tackling the inequality that plagued this land long before coronavirus hit.”
Lavery writes “2020 marked the year that, along with Jon Trickett MP and Cllr Laura Smith, former MP for Crewe and Nantwich, I co-founded the organisation No Holding Back. More than a year has passed since then, during which time we have undertaken a virtual tour of every corner of Britain, listening to the grassroots communities on which the politics we represent were founded. We published The Challenge for Labour, a report based upon the analysis of the conversations that we had. It is vital for politicians to listen but essentially it is even more important to then shape the policies and the solutions to provide answers to the problems raised. This must be an ongoing exercise. It is not good enough to just check in to tick a box. Building on that first initiative of the virtual tour, we have now set up a new Activists’ Assembly, the first iteration of which focuses on Wednesday’s Budget. We have been blown away by the response to our first consultation. Over 1100 have responded with their priorities for the Budget.”
Lavery reports that “There is a clear signal of what people would like to see and we will be releasing the findings on Monday evening. The responses that we have had have come from a wide cross-section of society and it is absolutely crucial that their views are heard before the Labour front bench responds to Rishi Sunak’s fiscal plans. It is obvious that currently the Labour Party machine is prioritising returning to the acceptance of the status quo of the Blair years over the politics of progressive transformation of the Corbyn period. A rewriting of history and ducking and diving of responsibility is underway and frankly no good will be achieved long term if this approach continues. Labour was steadily losing support from the Labour heartlands for decades because solutions were not being offered to improve the lives and opportunities of those living there. People and communities whose votes had long been taken for granted felt alienated from the politics of Westminster.”
Lavery rightly claims that “2017 was the only time that that changed when a real progressive agenda for change was put forward and people were excited about what that meant. For the Many, not the Few offered hope despite vicious internal attacks and, in my view, attempted sabotage from those who prioritise holding the gears of the internal machine as more important than getting the Tories out of power. By 2019 the hateful attacks on the party leadership by the media and organised sections of the Labour Party, plus the disastrous second referendum campaign and lack of discipline of the left on the matter had sealed the fate of socialist and transformational policies coming to the forefront of British politics.” Within this statement is an acceptance of the Labour loss in the Covert 2019 Rigged Election that I still cannot buy into. The defamation had an impact, but the prospect of a second referendum was far safer than ongoing austerity after a Tory controlled Brexit: we still need to fully Investigate this unfathomable election result.
Lavery is right to claim that those transformational policies were popular and vote-winning but misled in his acceptance that the positive inspirational policy agenda of 2019 was blown off course by a fixation on Brexit at all costs. I don’t find it credible to believe that after a gruelling decade of intense suffering under Tory austerity a large faction of former Labour supports among the exploited working poor voted to extend the torment and abuse of Tory rule. Survival is the single strongest human instinct so at a point where the public came to realize that the conscious cruelty of Tory austerity was not a necessity, but ideologically driven by excessive greed, I seriously doubt they voted for their children to starve. How long did it take before the new Tory Government was putting the squeeze on school meals and forcing even greater reliance on food banks? Less than nine months after they stole the Covert 2019 Rigged Election, but the public were not in the least bit surprised because for the Tory elite it was business as usual!
Lavery insists that “Those very policies are the blueprint to drive us out of the economic disaster that we face now. The answer to how we bridge inequality starts there. It is clear as day from our original tour with No Holding Back and this latest consultation that those popular policies are still popular. That has been proven in various polls nationally and it would be disastrous for Labour to ignore this and offer more or less the same as the Tories (and conceivably even less). The full economic impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic are still being quantified and understood, but it is already clear that it is a major economic event, unprecedented during peacetime. Government action will be critical to ensuring the avoidance of an “economic Long Covid” that could reshape Britain’s economy for years to come, accelerating inequality, deepening poverty and further widening regional economic disparities, with all the associated social, economic and political costs.”
Lavery reminds us that “We must not forget however that not everyone has experienced economic losses because of the Covid-19 economy. At the very top of the income distribution, many amongst the very wealthy have been making a killing. The private contracts being dished out to friends and associates of the top leaders of the Conservative Party go to show how utterly divided and corrupt things have become. Given the social, political and ecological harm created by runaway inequality, Labour should call for a windfall tax on excess profits and/or a wealth tax, rather than increasing taxes on work or spending during an economic contraction. If the Labour leadership is to oppose any increase in corporation tax, they’d be out of step with the country at large, 67 per cent of voters, including 76 per cent of Labour supporters, say they’d favour an increase. Britain’s existing corporation tax rate, at 19 per cent, is the lowest in the G7.”
Ian Lavery, who is the MP for Wansbeck, warns that “Starmer needs to stop listening to the likes of Peter Mandelson, who is famous for taking the heartlands for granted with his ‘nowhere else to go’ comments and instead, listen to those who live and breathe the concerns of real communities crying out for new politics. Taking bolder action, more in line with the scale of the Biden economic stimulus proposals we have seen in the US can begin to radically transform the situation and instead put Britain on a different path. Lives can be saved and a more hopeful future achieved, mass unemployment can be prevented and we can halt and reverse the spiralling levels of poverty and wealth inequality in this country. We need a budget that will protect health, jobs and incomes. That is what the Labour Party should be about.”
Convincing arguments put forward by Robert J. Murphy refute the need to pay back a massive debt to avoid burdening future generations. ‘Quantitative Easing’ (QE) sees the Bank of England injecting newly created money into circulation to spur investment and public spending. The real key is in the word ‘circulation;’ taxation is necessary to prevent funds being syphoned off by the super wealthy to be unproductively hoarded in offshore Tax Havens! The whole fake promise of ‘lev…up’ is just a cover for more austerity as the Tories monetize the misery of the many for the enrichment of the few. We must banish this grossly deceptive phrase from our lexicon as it continues to trick progressives into regurgitating this cruel Tory lie. There will be subtle hints in this budget of exactly how and when the Tories will ‘Decimate Down’ in their continued exploitation of the working poor. The Tory boot will remain on our necks until we take to the streets on mass to protest and challenge their claim to power: Get The Tories Out! DO NOT MOVE ON!