The Starmer Labour government
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But it’s the ‘snake oil’ offered by the previous government that’s to blame (that’s Starmer’s way out of it).
The Labour Party has sent us an email from Sir Keith Starmer addressing us, rather presumptuously, as “Friend”.
Here are some extracts:
“Frankly, things will get worse before they get better.”
“I’ll have to turn to the country and make big asks of you as well. To accept short term pain for long term good. The difficult trade-off for the genuine solution. And I know that after all you’ve been through, that is a really big ask …”
Actually it’s a bloody cheek.
How many times have government asked workers to put up with pain on the promise that things will get better? That before we can reach the sunny uplands we have to pass through the Valley of Austerity? Or that if we tighten our belts today we’ll get Jam Tomorrow?
It’s the standard government line when the state of the capitalist economy forces them to give priority to profit-making over meeting people’s needs.
As of course is for an incoming government to blame the outgoing one rather than capitalism.
“How many times have government asked workers to put up with pain on the promise that things will get better? That before we can reach the sunny uplands we have to pass through the Valley of Austerity? Or that if we tighten our belts today we’ll get Jam Tomorrow?”
That’s like Leninist regimes telling their workers they have to first pass through the valley of state-capitalism before reaching the sunny uplands of communism (a society of free access).
In case you haven’t seen it….
I’ve been devil advocate: UBI (Universal Basic Income) next.
A number of posts on the BBC news website, have sighted a 4 day week means lower output…..Whether it is 5 or 4 days, workers will still be expolited.
BBC News – Four-day week: Workers’ rights could be strengthened – BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gl5w83z7doTaken from the above link:
“Full-time workers’ rights to ask for a four-day working week could be strengthened under government plans to increase flexible working.
“Employees would still have to work their full hours to receive their full pay but could request to compress their contracted hours into a shorter working week.
(. . .)
“[Education Minister Baroness Jacqui Smith] said the four-day week being discussed would allow someone to work 10 hours a day for four days instead of working eight hours a day for five days.”
If that’s the case, then workers would need that extra day off to recuperate.
Even if the total number of working hours a week is reduced when there’s a 4-day week employers will only do it if it improves productivity by their workers working harder during the shortened working time.
This weekend’s i paper has quotes from 3 employers who have introduced a 4 day week with less working hours. In the first case, workers now work 32 hours over 4 days instead of 37 and a half over 5 days. The employer is quoted as saying that “it has increased productivity and energy levels”.
Presumably by “increased energy levels” he means people exercising more energy ie working harder. Of the other 2 employers, the one talks of “better streamlining and efficiency” and the other of “getting staff working when they are at their most productive and creative”.
Of course a 4-day working week has some advantage for workers but it’s not a free gift.
The cat is out of the bag. It was Cabinet Minister Lucy Powell wot done it. Interviewed on radio and television yesterday she revealed that the new Labour government had abolished the winter fuel allowance for most pensioners to appease the “markets”, the international speculators who lend money to governments.
The newspaper headlines tell the story:
Winter fuel payment cut helped stop ‘run on the pound’, says Lucy Powell “We would have seen the markets losing confidence,” Leader of the Commons said (iNews)
UK faced economic crash if winter fuel payment was not axed, Powell says. The Commons Leader says Rachel Reeves’s decision to cut the payment was a ‘difficult decision’ with ‘no alternative’.(Irish News)
Economy could have crashed if winter fuel payments for pensioners weren’t cut, Labour minister claims (Sky News)
Labour cut winter fuel payments to stop run on pound, claims minister (Daily Telegraph)
In other words, the new Labour government within a couple of months only of entering office, has had to bow to pressure from “the markets” and decided to give in to them by cuts to benefits for pensioners.
For the record, here is exactly what she said:
“If we hadn’t taken some of these tough decisions we could have seen a run on the pound, interest rates going up and crashing the economy. It’s something we were left with no alternative but to do.”
(https://www.irishnews.com/news/uk/uk-faced-economic-crash-if-winter-fuel-payment-was-not-axed-powell-says-77KCL4JCJFMD5LH3C47535WN7Q/“ … why we had to do that was because if we didn’t, we would have seen the markets losing confidence, potentially a run on the pound, the economy crashing …”
(https://news.sky.com/story/amp/economy-could-have-crashed-if-winter-fuel-payments-for-pensioners-werent-cut-labour-minister-claims-13207619)She later doubled down on the claim in a second interview, telling Sky News: “We would have seen the markets losing confidence, potentially a run on the pound.” (https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/winter-fuel-payment-cut-stop-run-pound-3255323?srsltid=AfmBOorYBR2y5ZdusvVAK-X_zPecQ_Aw846uZDZHiQWDb7bkPIdhOEt7)
What would really benefit the bourgeoisie is if there were 6 days in a week (instead of 7). That way, most proletarians would work 4 days a week and still only have 2 days off.
I know it’s highly unlikely that the countries of the world will agree to that, however, don’t rule it out completely. After all, countries have decided to change time zones twice a year to benefit their respective economies.
Now it turns out that he occupies the same moral low ground as other politicians — accepting gifts from a dodgy businessman not just for himself but for his wife too:
“THE PM had a day at the races with his wife yesterday — as a row erupts over clothes given to her by a Labour donor.
(…)
This year Lord Alli, ex-chairman of fast fashion firm Asos, gave Sir Keir £18,685 worth of work clothes and several pairs of glasses.”His day at the races probably also involved some gift from some betting firm.
What a hypocrite.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/30445314/keir-starmer-races-wife-labour-donor-clothes/amp/
“In 2017 Labour said 4,000 pensioners would die if the universal winter fuel allowance was scrapped & Angela Eagle said such a move by the Tories would be outrageous
Eagle is now a govt minister and says its needs to be scrapped because the economic situation is different”
Not all politicians are necessarily dishonest but the present prime minister, with his pre-election talk of cleaning up politics, doesn’t fall into this category. The man’s a complete and utter hypocrite. A money-grubber and a person without principles. What a despicable character. Mind you, it wouldn’t matter if he was a saint he’d still have to put profit before people.
After Keir Starmer Kid Starver and Keir Starmer Pension Harmer, it’s now Keir Starmer Freebie Farmer.
It looks like he is doing as intended:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/labour-given-4m-from-tax-haven-based-hedge-fund-with-shares-in-oil-and-arms/“While the £4m donation by Quadrature Capital is the sixth-largest in British political history, it is noteworthy not just for its size, but also its timing.
Electoral Commission records suggest Labour received the donation in the one-week window between former prime minister Rishi Sunak announcing the general election and the start of the ‘pre-poll reporting period’ in which all political donations over £11,180 had to be published weekly, rather than the quarterly norm.”
Worth reading in full.
Quadrature sounds fucking nightmarish: https://quadrature.ai/
“We see a future where Quadrature trades all liquid electronically tradeable asset classes across all horizons to generate consistent, significant returns on our proprietary capital.” It’s the purest form of capital that is now bankrolling the Labour Party.
The problem (from a pro-capitalist perspective) is that politicians are humans who live in capitalist society. This means they can be lobbied/bribed (in one form or another) by different enterprises.
What would be best (again, from a capitalist perspective) is if MP’s were robots designed to only serve the interests of capital.
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