… on a quiet day, I can hear her breathing

Category: Cost of Living crisis

  • Government urged to drop ‘parasitic’ private contracts as rail fares set to soar

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/government-urged-drop-parasitic-private-contracts-rail-fares-set-soar

     People using a ticket machine at Waterloo train station in London

    THE government was urged to ditch “parasitic” private contracts today after it emerged that regulated train fares in England could soar by 5.8 per cent next year.

    This year fares went up 4.6 per cent — one point higher than last July’s retail prices index (RPI).

    …

    The government is set to renationalise all train operators by 2027 and integrate them into Great British Railways, a new public body which will also oversee rail infrastructure.

    However GBR will continue to lease rolling stock, carriages and locomotives, from private firms. Outsourced contracts, such as those for cleaning staff, are also set to remain.

    A spokesperson for rail union RMT said: “Our analysis shows that £720 million is extracted each year from our railways through rolling stock leasing, outsourcing and subcontracting.

    “Eliminating that profiteering would allow fares to be cut by 6.5 per cent.

    “The government has an opportunity under GBR to remove these parasitic contracts that drain resources from the network and instead offer real value for money for passengers through public ownership.”

    …

    Original article at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/government-urged-drop-parasitic-private-contracts-rail-fares-set-soar

  • Campaigners urge government to prioritise ending fuel poverty in home upgrade plan

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/campaigners-urge-government-prioritise-ending-fuel-poverty-home-upgrade-plan

     An elderly lady holding a cup of tea at home in Liverpool with her electric fire on

    THE Warm Homes Plan should be judged on how much it cuts fuel poverty rather than focusing on technical targets, campaigners urged the government yesterday.

    The £13.2 billion scheme aims to improve energy efficiency in five million homes by 2030.

    End Fuel Poverty Coalition has written to energy minister Miatta Fahnbulleh, outlining key recommendations to ensure it delivers for those most in need.

    Campaigners suggest that the scheme’s success should not be judged by how many insulation measures are installed, or homes moved to EPC band C, but by how far it goes in ending fuel poverty. 

    About five million households in Britain are trapped deep fuel poverty, according to a University of York study.

    Simon Francis, co-ordinator of the End Fuel Poverty Coalition (EFPC), said: “Cold homes cause suffering, cost lives and drive up costs for the NHS. 

    “The Warm Homes Plan can be the solution — but only if it’s designed around the real needs of people, not just technical targets.”

    …

    article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/campaigners-urge-government-prioritise-ending-fuel-poverty-home-upgrade-plan

    Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
    Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.

  • The rich are a threat to our economy and our democracy

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/rich-are-threat-our-economy-and-our-democracy

     Waspi (Women Against State Pension Inequality) campaigners stage a protest on College Green in Westminster, London, as Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves delivers her Budget in the Houses of Parliament, October 30, 2024

    HMRC’S ignorance about how much tax British billionaires pay exposes the missing factor in government announcements on public spending.

    Tight finances are used as excuses to attack pensioners and deny justice to the wronged, like the Waspi women.

    Even when — thanks to a welcome revolt against Rachel Reeves’s renewed austerity by Labour MPs — cuts to disability payments are reduced in scope, ministers suggest the pain will be shunted sideways: it will make it harder to lift the two-child benefit cap, or force a regressive freeze on income tax thresholds (so they don’t rise with inflation, distributing the tax burden downwards).

    The public accounts committee’s Lloyd Hatton says its report is “not concerned with political debate around the redistribution of wealth,” and is intended solely to address shortcomings in HMRC’s ability to collect the tax owed.

    But the doubt it casts on HMRC’s own estimates of the “tax gap” (the difference between tax owed in theory and tax collected) has significant implications for public spending choices.

    Besides, the failure to introduce land and wealth taxes is one reason the very wealthy are able to hide their assets, and indeed real incomes, so effectively.

    The concentration of extreme wealth among an ever smaller number of people is accelerating. It is pronounced enough — with just 50 families owning as much as the poorer 50 per cent of the British population — to distort the entire economy.

    …

    Keir Starmer confirms that he's proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
    Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.

  • Starmer’s Labour: cuts to everything except the war machine

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    https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/starmers-labour-cuts-everything-except-war-machine

    The BBC and OBR claim that failing to cut disability benefits could ‘destabilise the economy’ while ignoring the spendthrift approach to tens of billions on military spending that really spirals out of control, argues DIANE ABBOTT MP

    THE Labour leadership is adopting a scorched-earth policy to social programmes and public spending, with no section of society safe from their cuts. The consequences will be very grave for some of the poorest in society, for society as a whole and for the Labour Party.

    In the first year of a Labour government, we have had cuts to the winter fuel allowance, a refusal to budge on the two-child benefit cap, cuts to sickness and disability benefits, and a tightening of departmental spending overall, which means cuts for some and a squeeze for the NHS.

    This list is growing longer all the time. The latest target is the provision of special educational needs (SEN) spending in our schools, which ministers claim is spiralling out of control. There is also the beginning of a concerted PR campaign to abolish the “triple-lock” on the state pension, even though the meagre amount provided is one of the lowest in western Europe and insufficient for a decent retirement.

    The main exception to this all-round austerity drive is military spending, which is really spiralling out of control. In fact, the pace of spending cuts elsewhere is designed to fill the real hole in government finances caused by the commitment to raise military spending to 5 per cent of GDP, a promise given to placate Donald Trump by Keir Starmer at the Nato summit.

    …

    Dianne Abbott’s article continues at https://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/article/starmers-labour-cuts-everything-except-war-machine

    Keir Starmer confirms that he's proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
    Keir Starmer confirms that he’s proud to be a red Tory continuing austerity and targeting poor and disabled scum.
    Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
    Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.


  • No more jam tomorrow – it’s time for Labour to deliver

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/no-more-jam-tomorrow-its-time-labour-deliver

     Health Secretary Wes Streeting, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer at the launch of the government’s 10-year health plan, July 3, 2025

    The electorate see no evidence of the government’s promises of change, and the good jobs and decent pay that people are crying out for. Bold action is needed right now, warns SHARON GRAHAM

    IT IS true that Labour have taken over an economy ravaged by 14 years of Tory austerity. But that should mean a profound opportunity to deliver change. Britain is broken, yes. But they cannot keep making everyday people pay.

    Today MPs will be voting on the government’s despicable plan to cut disability benefits. Just as with every other wrong decision, such as scrapping the winter fuel allowance, rowing back on investment in British industry or failing to ensure proper local authority funding, the excuse will be the same — “we have no choice.” And again it will be absolute rubbish. Of course they have choices.

    We are the sixth-richest economy in the world. But the way that wealth is divided is increasingly unequal. The richest 50 families are worth about £500 billion, the same as half the entire UK population. In 1990 there were just 15 billionaires in the UK, but since then their number has jumped to 156.

    So, there is a choice. If we taxed the richest 1 per cent just 1 per cent, that would generate about £25 billion. That is a choice. We need a wealth tax now.

    …

    Continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/no-more-jam-tomorrow-its-time-labour-deliver

    Yougov: Would you support or oppose introducing a wealth tax of 2% on wealth above £10 million?
    Yougov: Would you support or oppose introducing a wealth tax of 2% on wealth above £10 million?
    Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.
    Keir Starmer says that the Labour Party under his leadership all feel a small part of Scunthorpe.