Cost of Living crisis

It hurt when I crashed my bike into a pothole – and it taught me the true price of austerity George Monbiot

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

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/04/crashed-bike-pothole-cost-cycling

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I was lucky. Last week, I was cycling downhill when I hit a pothole. The front wheel folded into an infinity symbol. I went over the handlebars and, with no time to put my hands out, landed on my face. My helmet and glasses took most of the impact. I emerged, remarkably, with just a few cuts and bruises.

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Austerity – which leaves our potholes, alongside many other gaps in public provision, unfilled – does not save money. On the contrary, it costs us a fortune. What the rich might save in taxes, the rest must pay over and over again.

False economies abound. For example, the government may at last be persuaded to remove the Tories’ vicious, Malthusian two-child benefit cap. But what many people have failed to grasp is that behind it stands another brick wall: the household benefits cap. If families now receive money for a third child, it could push them past the household limit, and they’ll be scarcely better off than before. This household cap has extreme and perverse consequences. It ensures that rents, even in the social sector, are almost everywhere unaffordable to the families affected, most of which are headed by lone parents. The result is that they are thrown into temporary accommodation, which local authorities must provide at far greater expense: roughly £2.3bn a year. Being forced into temporary accommodation also curtails adults’ employment opportunities and children’s performance at school, and generates great suffering, which can translate into physical and mental health problems, which of course means further economic impacts.

In 2019, a parliamentary committee called on the government to “conduct a full cost benefit analysis of the benefit cap”. The government rejected the call, but said it would explore the possibility in future. I checked with the Department for Work and Pensions – it still hasn’t happened.

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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.

Continue ReadingIt hurt when I crashed my bike into a pothole – and it taught me the true price of austerity George Monbiot

Household energy debt soars to £4.43 billion

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Image of cash and pre-payment meter key
Image of cash and pre-payment meter key

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/household-energy-debt-soars-ps443-billion

HOUSEHOLD energy debt has soared to £4.43 billion, leaving hundreds of thousands trapped in arrears, new figures revealed today.

Figures from Ofgem show that energy debt has more than tripled since the end of 2020, when the figure stood at £1.45bn.

The regulator reported that there are currently 1,133,683 electricity customers and 926,545 gas customers in debt without any repayment arrangement in place. 

The debt is leaving households facing up to an extra £145 a year on their bills to cover the collective shortfall.

End Fuel Poverty Coalition co-ordinator Simon Francis said: “Energy debt is now driving people into dangerous financial positions as we approach the fifth winter of the energy bills crisis.

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A new analysis by think tank Common Wealth shows that 24 per cent of the average energy bill went towards pre-tax profits by the energy industry.

Robert Palmer, deputy director of Uplift, said: “Yet again while shareholders are celebrating rising prices and huge profits, people are facing stark choices of how to ration their energy.

“Only by supporting struggling households now, improving energy efficiency and getting us off expensive gas through homegrown renewable energy will ministers be able to get a grip on the situation.”

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/household-energy-debt-soars-ps443-billion

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.
Image of Keir Starmer and a poor child.
Zionist Keir ‘Kid Starver’ Starmer. Image thanks to The Skwawkbox.

Continue ReadingHousehold energy debt soars to £4.43 billion

Keir Starmer told scrapping two-child cap on benefits should be ‘bare minimum’ in fight against poverty

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Keir Starmer explains that he feels no shame or guilt benefitting personally from gifts from the rich and powerful while insisting on policies of severe austerity causing suffering and death.
Keir Starmer explains that he feels no shame or guilt benefitting personally from gifts from the rich and powerful while insisting on policies of severe austerity causing suffering and death.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/keir-starmer-told-scrapping-two-35965638

[Daily Record] EXCLUSIVE: SNP MP Kirsty Blackman said getting rid of the hated Tory welfare policy should be the “bare minimum – not the height of ambitions”.

The UK Labour Government has been challenged to go “much further” than scrapping the two-child cap on benefits if it wants to reduce number of kids living in poverty.

SNP MP Kirsty Blackman has today written to Keir Starmer to insist getting rid of the hated Tory welfare policy should be the “bare minimum – not the height of ambitions”.

It comes amid rising speculation the Prime Minister may use next week’s UK Labour conference in Liverpool to confirm the two-child cap will finally be ended.

Anti-poverty campaigners and charities have long warned the policy punishes larger families and pushes more youngsters into a life of poverty as a result.

The SNP Government has already commited to mitigating the impact of the welfare cap in Scotland from next March.

In her letter, Blackman said: “Independent analysis shows that if the UK government matched SNP action across the UK, it could lift 2.3million families out of poverty overnight, including a further 96,000 in Scotland.

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Article continues at https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/keir-starmer-told-scrapping-two-35965638

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.
Keir Starmer commits to play the caretaker role for Capitalism through the "hard times".
Keir Starmer commits to play the caretaker role for Capitalism through the “hard times”.
Continue ReadingKeir Starmer told scrapping two-child cap on benefits should be ‘bare minimum’ in fight against poverty

Labour’s Conference Arrangements Committee blocks key motions on spurious grounds

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https://labourhub.org.uk/2025/09/20/labours-conference-arrangements-committee-blocks-key-motions-on-spurious-grounds

Attempts by Labour’s dominant faction to fix Conference may yet backfire, however.

“A motion to scrap the two-child benefit cap has been blocked from being discussed at Labour’s Annual Party Conference at the end of the month,” reports Left Foot Forward. “The motion, submitted by Open Labour, Compass and Momentum, was rejected by the Labour Conference Arrangements Committee.”

The CAC says that this is because it does not meet the required criteria, including covering “more than one subject” and “does not relate to a new issue not substantially covered in the NPF report.”

The organisations supporting the motion reject this and say the CAC has blocked the motion on tenuous procedural grounds. “Not allowing this motion to be debated is a senseless act,” they responded, adding that blocking the motion is “indicative of the hyper-factional culture at the top of the Labour Party that is stifling progress that will genuinely help people in need in Britain.”

The blocking of the motion by Labour’s CAC seems all the more absurd, given that the Government seems to be rethinking the issue. Partly to breathe new life into her flagging Deputy Leadership campaign, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson yesterday branded the controversial two child benefit cap as ”spiteful”. The apparent U-turn comes just months after several Labour MPs were suspended from the Party for voting for it to be scrapped. Some  – including former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell MP – have yet to have the whip restored.

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Article continues at https://labourhub.org.uk/2025/09/20/labours-conference-arrangements-committee-blocks-key-motions-on-spurious-grounds

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.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel.
Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA

Continue ReadingLabour’s Conference Arrangements Committee blocks key motions on spurious grounds

Morning Star Editorial: The left must understand and challenge the right’s demagogy

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/left-must-understand-and-challenge-rights-demagogy

 People taking part in a Tommy Robinson-led Unite the Kingdom march and rally in Trafalgar Square, central London, September 13, 2025

WELL over 100,000 people gathered in London last weekend under the banner of “Tommy Robinson” — actually Stephen Yaxley-Lennon — a notorious and violent fascist and grifter, with several criminal convictions.

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The racist core of Robinson’s support is a small minority in most communities, and its attempt to stir up violence generally falls flat.

Saturday’s rally was actually called not to protest about the arrival of asylum-seekers on our shores, the issue which Reform’s Nigel Farage had been majoring on all summer. Its main theme was, ostensibly, “free speech.”

And underlying it was certainly an expression of popular powerlessness and national decline, sentiments which powered the Brexit vote in 2016 but which have only been exacerbated since, since the assertion of sovereignty does not in itself guarantee that it will be wielded to any good effect.

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In reality, the left has always focused on winning arguments rather than banning contrary views, but it needs to double down on that approach today as part of the general defence of democracy.

The particular argument it urgently needs to prevail in today is the responsibility for the national malaise affecting so many areas of ordinary people’s lives. It is not down to the impoverished refugees arriving by boat.

It is down to the ruling class and the global super-rich, seen fawning on the leader of the far right internationally, Donald Trump, in Windsor Castle this week.

It is they who have spent 15 years slashing living standards to protect profits, who squeeze public services dry to promote private interests, and who slash support for the neediest the better to fund their imperialist aggression abroad.

What Farage and Robinson are doing is, in large part, a manoeuvre of deflection. Farage is himself a very wealthy Thatcherite, while Robinson is the well-funded plaything of the multibillionaire manchild Elon Musk. Their populist demagogy is just a mask.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/left-must-understand-and-challenge-rights-demagogy

Climate science denier Nigel Farage explains that it's simple to blame asylum-seekers or Muslims for everything.
Climate science denier Nigel Farage explains that it’s simple to blame asylum-seekers or Muslims for everything.
Keir Starmer refuses to be outcnuted by Nigel Farage's chasing the racist bigot vote.
Keir Starmer refuses to be outcnuted by Nigel Farage’s chasing the racist bigot vote.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Elon Musk urges you to be a Fascist like him, says that you can ignore facts and reality then.
Continue ReadingMorning Star Editorial: The left must understand and challenge the right’s demagogy