We are now stuck in the slow lane of capitalism for the foreseeable future. Other countries are roaring ahead internationally. Why? Because they have abandoned austerity and are investing in their infrastructure. Their policies are more Corbyn than May.
The number of Labour manifesto commitments that have been stolen now requires a calculator. The Conservatives abandoned their manifesto as they wrote it as up and down the country people rejected it. The country now has a major problem. A Tory government that does not have a clue of how to cope with a complicated international and domestic environment.
Low levels of investment and the incompetent Brexit management are killing the UK.
To list the spin and lies of the Tory party would take forever and given that so many others have done it it would not be a valued use of my time in this moment.
However here are some key points from today’s Budget debacle:
Stamp Duty: In the short term it will push prices up and wipe out all gains from non payment of stamp duty. It will mean that current home owners will gain more than first time buyers.
Did the Tories know this and are just giving a headline to their mates at the Mail, Express and Telegraph? Or didn’t they know and are thus plain stupid.
Small businesses are stating that this government has not even scratched the iceberg. For them they argue from a selfish perspective and want pension contributions frozen; the minimum wage kept in check and VAT reduced. Nothing for them. Their bottom lines are being squeezed.
Homelessness is a sick joke that the Tories perpetually play out. Three pilot schemes?????
Thank you say those sleeping rough. Thank you say those in temporary accommodation including over one hundred thousand children.
Housing is a promise never kept and again serves only to shuffle the gullible in to another siding.
The NHS. The Conservatives have taken billions out and then they want us to slap them on the back for putting some of it back in as the political temperature rises and more see them for what they are.
Much, much more will come out in the next few days and weeks but as Adam Samuels has noted:
‘OK, the budget: Total disaster and total rubbish. The best evidence of this is all the jokes, all the mentions of the opposition-i.e. DESPERATELY trying to distract from the reality of Tory failures. The only thing Hammond didn’t try was putting on a Groucho Marx mask (the surname put him off), climbing onto a unicycle and peddling up and down the chamber while juggling & shouting “The communists are coming!!”‘
Douglas James
