Another annus horribilis. Another year of Tory disaster - lies, corruption, tax dodging, public sector destruction, swimming in sewage, and dumping on all workers. Where to start? The list of crimes is very long.
The sad reality is that the Tories and their, Tufton Street sponsors, are getting close to their Brexit dream. Britain as Singapore on Thames, the triumph of the 'free' market - with freeports, a gig economy with no limit on working hours, no holiday pay, sick pay, or maternity leave, and the destruction of environmental protections. The only value that remains is the one that matters to them - shareholder value. Profit before people every time.
As Richard Murphy said in his 2021 article (link above):
"A government source said that Mr Johnson was pushing for Britain to become a low-tax, low-regulation regime like Singapore. Last month Mr Johnson raised the prospect of tax cuts for entrepreneurs. He told a Facebook question-and-answer session: “We’ll be looking at the tax environment and the regulatory environment and everything we can do to encourage and support business.”
Three prime minister and four chancellors in the past twelve months year and still the shitshow goes on in our pseudo-democracy. How can this be tolerated?
The reality is that broken Britain has been coming for a long time. It started in 1979 with the election of Thatcher as PM and has moved on ever since. One of the worst crimes came with George Osborne's austerity programme - the disastrous effects of that are still being felt with a predicted 330,000 excess avoidable deaths so far. Massive underinvestment in the NHS is now reckoned to be causing 500 deaths a week.
This week we were treated to tedious and meaningless 'promises' from the PM Rishi Sunak, halving inflation and stopping small boats, and now we're being told the government is planning to introduce legislation to force nurses, firefighters, and rail staff to work even if they vote to strike.
So, 2023 is already looking like a grimmer sequel to 2022. What can we do? Our number one priority has to be to support public sector workers striking for better pay and conditions. If more draconian anti-union legislation is successfully introduced we may well see wildcat strikes. Make no mistake, this is class war. Join a picket line, and contribute to strike funds if you can. Work, every day, in every way, to help bring this Tory government down!
