Welcome to Tory Britain. A dozen years after the Tories returned to power in 2010 we have a cost of living crisis, with millions struggling to pay rent, buy food, and heat their homes. At the same time, we have a 'run on champagne' as bankers celebrate the biggest bonuses since the financial crash. The Guardian reports that:
"This week British bankers will start collecting the biggest bonuses since before the 2008 global financial crisis as their employers fight an “increasingly intense war for talent”.
As most Britons face the biggest squeeze on their incomes since at least 1990, already very highly paid bankers are celebrating “particularly obscene” bonuses in the City’s pubs and wine bars".
And this comes at a time that the governor of the Bank of England has been calling on workers to exercise wage restraint at a time when inflation could go as high as 8%, and when Rishi Sunak has just handed £1 billion to banks in a tax break which is intended to keep them 'competitive'.
The relentless attack on the living standards of ordinary Britons continues whilst the bankers, corporations, and the super-rich continue to increase their wealth. This is a trend that began in the 1980s with Margaret Thatcher's governments and has continued ever since - with no end in sight.
So what can we do? We can no longer expect much in the way of support from the state. Voting for Labour and the other main parties isn't going to make much difference, and although we must continue to support, locally and nationally, parties and candidates who we believe can reverse this trend, we are increasingly going to have to support ourselves in local communities through solidarity and mutual aid.
This is happening across the UK in many communities where people are working together to establish community hubs, growing local food, street kitchens, local energy companies, and cooperatives.
In the longer term, we need to build this mutual aid network into a powerful grassroots movement nationally. Get involved if you can.
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