It's time to stop any pretence that the the Tories aren't about class warfare and that their economic policies aren't intended to promote the wealth of a few at cost to the majority. As the Institute for Fiscal Studies note today (as reported in the Guardian):
The IFS work divides households up into 10 groups ("deciles") in order to assess the impact of tax changes and benefit reductions. "Taking all family types together, within the bottom nine income decile groups, those with the lowest incomes are set to lose the most from these reforms as a percentage of income … Given that the annual welfare budget is being cut by £18bn, this is perhaps not a surprise."
There's much more on the same theme, but the reality is this: the worst off in the country will get cuts of about 12% in their incomes as a result of Tory policy and the wealthy virtually none. All the top 10% lose will be the result of the 50p tax rate on the top 1% of earners, and we now know Boris Johnson was behind the letter in the FT to abolish that.
On top of that, banking is going to be reformed so far in the future it may never happen; planning is being opened up so the country can be pillaged and small business is being sucked dry of finance.
Happy days for the very rich - and deliberately so. It's going to be a nightmare for everyone else.
That is a choice by Cameron and Osborne.
It's a choice that will inevitably lead to conflict. Cuts in living standards for the majority whilst the top 10% get away with losing little or nothing have not occurred in living memory. And I can't see that happening without considerable stress arising.
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This is the formerly covert becoming overt. Expect more and expect it to get worse. I don’t believe that they grasp we won’t put up with this, and that the police and the army too will be divided about supporting laws which greatly detract form their own qualities of life. The real backlash is going to come from informed individuals in positions of authority who are beginning to grasp that Cameron and his backers cannot see beyond the money. They can’t see anything beyond immediate profit. They can’t see that they’re destroying the economy so there’ll be no-one left with any money to make profit from. Dullards in my view, got bits missing from their brains. On the subject of brains, have readers seen Billion Dollar Brain? Remember the Karl Malden character who took money from the head bad guy ostensibly to fund an army (which he pretended was in place) but really he kept it? He let (hero) Harry Palmer (Michael Caine) in on the secret and offered him a share of the money. Palmer points out that the head bad guy is thinking there’s an army ready to do his bidding and on that basis he’s prepared to start a war, thinking he’ll win. What will really happen is WW3 will start and everyone will die. Malden’s character thinks about this for a moment, then asks, Do you want the money or don’t you? See, he can’t understand the consequences of what he’s doing. Same deal with Cameron, Osborne (silly little boys), and their loony-tune financial backers. They just don’t get it, it’s beyond them. Send for adults!
BB
An alternative viewpoint is that they do “get it”
They [gov, advisers and rich] have just castrated the population to an extent that they do not think/do not care.
The “higher classed” members of the establishment really…really…do not care.
I remember in the early 60s’ I worked on a farm at weekends. the farmer was a tenant farmer. His “land lord” (a real lord) hunted at weekends, and he [farmer] was required to have refreshments available for the hunt when it passed.
Not only do they not care, they are mentally unable to care for those whose status in life falls into the “little people” section.
They have never changed, and never will.
“The unspeakable in pursuit of the inedible”
Hunting foxes was associate with class privilege and social hierarchy.
But to relate class ideology with a love of animals may be mistaken..
Hunting was more about an interaction between humans as between humans and animals.
As Immortalised by Billy Bennett …
SHE WAS POOR, BUT SHE WAS HONEST
She was poor, but she was honest
Though she came from ‘umble stock
And an honest heart was beating
Underneath her tattered frock
‘Eedless of ‘er Mother’s warning
Up to London she ‘ad gone
Yearning for the bright lights gleaming
‘Eedless of temp-ta-shy-on
But the rich man saw her beauty
She knew not his base design
And he took her to a hotel
And bought her a small port wine
Then the rich man took ‘er ridin’
Wrecker of poor women’s souls
But the Devil was the chauffeur
As she rode in his Royce Rolls
In the rich man’s arms she fluttered
Like a bird with a broken wing
But he loved ‘er and he left ‘er
Now she hasn’t got no ring
It’s the same the whole world over
It’s the poor what gets the blame
It’s the rich what gets the pleasure
Ain’t it all a bloomin’ shame?
Time has flown, outcast and helpless
In the street she stands and says
While the snowflakes fall around ‘er
“Won’t you buy my bootlaces?”
See him riding in a carriage
Past the gutter where she stands
He has made a stylish marriage
While she wrings her ringless hands
See him there at the theatre
In the front row with the best
While the girl that he has ruined
Entertains a sordid guest
See ‘er on the bridge at midnight
She says “Farewell, blighted love”
There’s a scream, a splash……Good ‘eavens!
What is she a-doing of?
So they dragged ‘er from the river
Water from ‘er clothes they wrung
They all thought that she was drownded
But the corpse got up and sung
It’s the same the whole world over
It’s the poor what gets the blame
It’s the rich what gets the pleasure
Ain’t it all a bloomin’ shame?
“the left/right distinction is extinct and we live in a world where we are ruled by a permanent class of powerful people looking down on the rest of still fighting the battles of thirty years ago”
http://progcontra.blogspot.com/2011/09/corporate-enemy.html
Great post Richard. And shame on the Liberal Democrats for joining in this ransacking of the poorest in our society. “ConDems” indeed.
“Big business is as pernicious as big government. It cares even less. It takes even more”
http://raedwald.blogspot.com/2011/09/corporates-draw-up-battle-lines.html
Oh dear RM , you are falling into the Marxist rhetoric I grew up with. It’s precisely where
the far Right want you to go. E.G. Margaret’s Thatcher’s biggest ally was Arthur Scargill
in destroying the miners (l come from mining stock).
You are going to end up losing your credibility over Tax Reform because the Right will point you out as left wing nutter/ Marxist and “reasonable” opinion will be persuaded to reject you.
Ah, so the fact the Tories are pursuing class warfare (and they are) is a great taboo we must not name, so they get away with it?
It’s a cliche to say that evil triumphs when good men do nothing, but it’s sure as hell true when they’re too frightened to name the evil they see.
I’m not
I see that evil
And I have no problem with being described as ‘left wing’ if it means I have a bias to the poor – as I have. It is what has always driven my work
That and an utter dislike of right wing nutters – nutters I am happy to describe and campaign against
But Richard is nothing like Arthur Scargill. He is a respected commentator. This blog is widely read. Richard’s opinion is sought by many media. This time it’s different.
I’m also widely vilified
And the profession like to say I know nothing at all
But most commonly – the right always say this when they run out of other things to argue about – I’m not ‘nice’ – the ultimate sin of unacceptability because I might not have learned my manners properly
Except I did, which is what really irks them
The likes of Cameron,aided and abetted by the LibDems,unchallenged by NewLabour think the underclass are Morons.
They want a benefits system like the United States.But most Americans were born without a welfare state.They find it hard to comprehend.Trying to explain free healthcare to a American can be hard work.I have done this a few times.
They want workfare,this makes those in crap jobs scared of losing it in case they end up on workfare.The person with the slightly better job also is scared of joining either of the two other groups.This of course creates a system of fear,people more likely to kiss their bosses arses.To afraid to speak out against injustice.
But America is great for the very wealthy and crap for the very poor.America is screwed.Its like a empire in its last days.
But our Politicians want to emulate America’s crap policies.Hard Capitalism and survival of the fittest.
I foresee proper political riots if things continue.The kiddies have had their turn.Wait till the grown ups kick off.Then these people,The ConDems and New Labour will start to realise we are not Morons.
I am not advocating violence,but am under this system predicting it.
BTW,liked the post Richard Murphy.