austerity

Food bank charity launches General Election Manifesto, setting out actions for the next government to eliminate poverty

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/05/food-bank-charity-launches-general-election-manifesto-setting-out-actions-for-the-next-government-to-eliminate-poverty/

‘It is not right that anyone should need to use a food bank because they can’t afford to eat and pay bills. However, food bank need is at an historic high.’

On May 15, the Trussell Trust, the UK’s largest food bank charity and a leading voice on poverty and hunger, released its annual figures. In the last year, 3.1 million food parcels were distributed by their network, the most parcels the network has ever distributed in a single year. It is also a 94 percent increase in the total number of parcels distributed compared to five years ago.

Facing historic food bank need in 2024, the charity says this long-term pattern needs to change and is urging for urgent reform to Britain’s social security system. 

In its General Election Manifesto, the Trussell Trust is calling on all political parties to commit to building a future where no one needs a food bank to survive. The charity asks for an Essential Guarantee into Universal credit to be introduced, that would protect people from going without essentials, such as food and bills. They urge for debt deductions from social security payments to be more affordable, and for there to be a long-term strategy and funding for local crisis support.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/05/food-bank-charity-launches-general-election-manifesto-setting-out-actions-for-the-next-government-to-eliminate-poverty/

Continue ReadingFood bank charity launches General Election Manifesto, setting out actions for the next government to eliminate poverty

Starmer offers baby steps to fix crisis

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/starmer-offers-baby-steps-fix-crisis

Labour Party leader Keir Starmer speaks during his visit to the Backstage Centre, Purfleet, for the launch of Labour’s doorstep offer to voters ahead of the general election, May 16, 2024

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On the economy, Labour offers only a commitment to “stability” based on austerity-style control of public spending and a hope that growth will nevertheless appear.

Establishing a publicly owned clean energy company, GB Energy, is all that remains of the radicalism of Sir Keir’s 10 pledges when seeking the Labour leadership.

Other ”first steps” include setting up a grandiose border security command to halt Channel boat crossings to outflank the Tories and a crackdown on “anti-social behaviour.”

Sir Keir told his audience that even these “first steps” could take two full terms in office — 10 years — to fully implement.

That makes their modesty still more striking. One pledge is to recruit 6,500 new teachers when 40,000 leave schools each year, equating to one-fifth of a new teacher each for Britain’s schools.

On the NHS, a first step commitment to provide 40,000 more appointments each week is equivalent to just a 2 per cent rise.

All this was welcomed by Lord Cameron’s friend, Boots chief executive Seb James, who particularly praised Labour’s “sensible fiscal measures.”

It was less welcome to Labour left organisation Momentum, which decried the party’s lack of radicalism.

A spokesman said: “These fixes fall desperately short of the bold policies needed to fix the Tories’ broken Britain.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/starmer-offers-baby-steps-fix-crisis

Zionist Keir Starmer supports Israel's Gaza genocide.
Zionist Keir Starmer supports Israel’s Gaza genocide.

Continue ReadingStarmer offers baby steps to fix crisis

Morning Star: Mass action is the antidote to Labour-Tory policy consensus

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/editorial-mass-action-antidote-policy-consensus

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves speaking about the economy at the Association of British Insurers in the City of London, May 7, 2024

“LABOUR and the Tories move closer on economy.”

Thus a headline in the Financial Times last week. The FT speaks not just to and for British finance capital, but to capitalists worldwide needing a steer on British and international politics.

Unlike the bought-and-paid-for Tory press, it usually does so without demagogy or partisan point-scoring. Its conclusions are therefore to be taken seriously.

It writes: “Despite being the official opposition, Labour has signally refused to oppose many of [Jeremy] Hunt’s recent economic policies…” including the cuts to National Insurance.

Further: “Hunt set out 110 measures to boost the economy in his 2023 autumn statement and Labour opposed none of them. The same applied to all of the policies announced in the chancellor’s spring budget this year.”

Shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has also agreed with all Chancellor Hunt’s financial services reforms, has accepted his target of ensuring falling debt as a share of national income within five years, and adopted his corporation tax rate.

The Tories have repaid the compliment up to a point, stealing Labour proposals on taxing non-doms and the North Sea oil and gas industries.

But this convergence is mainly on Tory terms, with Labour dumping any proposal, like its green investment plans, which sit outside the consensus around a new austerity.

For that is what is on offer at the general election. It is a further squeeze on public services and wages to help improve the competitive position of British capitalism.

Reeves and the Labour Party pretend that their approach represents “change” because it offers “stability” after years of Tory chaos.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/editorial-mass-action-antidote-policy-consensus

Continue ReadingMorning Star: Mass action is the antidote to Labour-Tory policy consensus

David Cameron slammed for ‘swanning around’ in £42m luxury jet as Tories prepare to slash sickness benefits

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/david-cameron-slammed-for-swanning-around-in-42m-luxury-jet-as-tories-prepare-to-slash-sickness-benefits/. Many articles from LeftFootForward today.

The foreign secretary travelled on the hired Embraer Lineage 1000 for a five-day visit to Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Mongolia last week

The Tories have been slammed for their rank hypocrisy, after former Prime Minister David Cameron hired a £42 million private jet to travel around Asia, costing the taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds, while the government prepare to slash benefits for people suffering from depression or anxiety.

The foreign secretary travelled on the hired Embraer Lineage 1000 for a five-day visit to Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan and Mongolia last week, the Mirror reported.

The shadow attorney general, Emily Thornberry, posted on X: “I get that David Cameron may need to charter a plane when travelling to multiple countries in one week, but that does not justify spending hundreds of thousands of pounds at taxpayers’ expense to hire one of the most luxurious private jets on the market.”

The taxpayer is footing the bill for the private jet at the same time as the Tories cut benefit payments for those with disabilities and physical and mental health conditions.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/david-cameron-slammed-for-swanning-around-in-42m-luxury-jet-as-tories-prepare-to-slash-sickness-benefits/

Continue ReadingDavid Cameron slammed for ‘swanning around’ in £42m luxury jet as Tories prepare to slash sickness benefits

24 MPs sign motion calling to reconsider two-child benefits limit

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/24-mps-sign-motion-calling-to-reconsider-two-child-benefits-limit/. Many articles featured from LeftFootForward today.

The motion expresses ‘incredulity’ that the government hasn’t assessed correlations between the two-child limit and child poverty levels

A motion signed by 24 MPs has called on the two-child limit to be reconsidered while expressing disbelief that the government has not assessed the correlation between child poverty and the Tories benefit cap as new research came to light. 

Tabled by Labour MP Mary Kelly Foy, the Early Day Motion highlighted research from the End Child Poverty Coalition which revealed how some of the most vulnerable families are those hardest hit by the two-child limit. 

Introduced in April 2017 by the Tories supposedly as an incentive to get parents into work, the policy prevents households from claiming universal credit or child tax credit for a third or subsequent child.

Concerns were raised by the government’s own Work and Pensions Committee in 2019 which recommended that the policy be abandoned, warning that the limit would increase the number of children in poverty and disproportionately affect minority groups.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/24-mps-sign-motion-calling-to-reconsider-two-child-benefits-limit/. Many articles featured from LeftFootForward today.

Continue Reading24 MPs sign motion calling to reconsider two-child benefits limit