March 2025 - Page 12 of 36 - ... on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

Reeves plans new cuts as economy sags

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/reeves-plans-new-cuts-economy-sags

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves during a meeting at Downing Street in London with regulators. She is expected to use the meeting to announce more detail on how the Government will cut the cost of regulation by a quarter and set out plans to slim down or abolish regulators themselves, March 17, 2025

CHANCELLOR Rachel Reeves is set to announce a huge new programme of spending cuts as unemployment rises and anger at Labour’s assault on disability benefits mounts.

She will use her spring spending statement next week to unveil a fresh austerity programme as the government continues to rule out tax rises on the wealthy as an alternative.

Despair is turning to anger among backbench Labour MPs and trade unions at the government’s course, which is already seeing Labour plunge to record lows in the opinion polls.

Ms Reeves’s death-wish economics come as official statistics showed joblessness increasing, including among young workers.

Unemployment is up by 0.1 per cent, with a youth unemployment rate of 12.9 per cent.

Commenting on the figures, Public and Commercial Services union general secretary Fran Heathcote said: “The labour market figures today highlight the cruelty of the government’s reforms to disability benefits.

“Unemployment is rising, and the wider measure of underemployment is now at 4.75 million with only 816,000 vacancies in the economy — meaning there are already nearly six people chasing every vacancy.

“Those figures exclude disabled people currently deemed unable to work or with only limited capacity for work.

“The reality is that the government’s proposals will not help disabled people off of benefits and into work, but off benefits and into deeper poverty.”

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/reeves-plans-new-cuts-economy-sags

Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.

Keir Starmer explains the moral case for cutting disability benefits. He says work will set you free.

Post author:dizzy
Post published:21 March 2025
Post category:austerity Austerity 2 benefits conservatives crap pretend Labour Keir Starmer Labour Party Liz Kendall Neo-liberalism Rachel Reeves
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France tells citizens to leave Iran amid ‘unprecedented’ US intelligence activity on Iranian border

Post author:dizzy
Post published:21 March 2025
Post category:Donald Trump Fascism genocide Israel Palestine Trump Zionism
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Morning Star Editorial: What is the point of Labour? The key question

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/what-point-labour-key-question

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer during a reception to celebrate St Patrick’s Day at 10 Downing Street, London, March 19, 2025

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[T]he Starmer-Reeves agenda is entirely dictated by the needs of finance capital, mediated through the Treasury and the military.

There is no question, of course, of arms spending being affected by this renewed austerity — on the contrary it is slated to carry on rising for the next decade. Critics of the welfare cuts should not be reticent about making this connection.

Trying to protect spending on services without challenging this renewed militarism hands the Starmerites a free pass by allowing a key argument to go unchallenged.

Starmer’s priorities have a mounting number of victims. Again in Commons questions, Northern Ireland social democrat Colum Eastwood identified one, a deeply disabled constituent able to access benefits under the Tories but now facing destitution as her personal independence payments are withdrawn.

Eastwood then asked the key question. Given all that — what is the point of Labour?

It is a question millions across the country, including many who voted Labour last July, are now asking. This is governance in the interests of capital, not labour by any stretch.

The left in Labour must transition from protest to action against the government if there is to be any positive answer to Eastwood’s question. Issuing statements is not enough if Starmer and Reeves can continue to count on votes in Parliament and canvassers in the country for their anti-worker programme.

Absent that fighting approach, the logical conclusion must be that something new, articulating the values of socialism, is needed.

Original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/what-point-labour-key-question