Nearly all the candidates have said that they back tax cuts – but how will that help in the current crisis? The Tories are just using the crisis as an excuse to make even more governmental cuts – some are demanding 20% cuts across government departments, even after a decade of more of huge austerity where many public sector, including Further Education, health and local government, are on the brink of collapse.
There will be another huge hike in energy bills in mid October – just two weeks after the new Tory leader is confirmed. None of them have even mentioned what they propose to do about it, mostly because they have no ideas.
When he was Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s response to the Cost of Living Crisis was pitiful. It was far too little. But now even his meagre efforts are being attacked by rabid Tory right wingers like Member of Parliament for the 19th centuryJacob Rees Mogg who have called Sunak a socialist (!) and said he was more on the left than the right (!!). This is a smear campaign to isolate the so-called moderate wing of the Tory Party so that the right wing around Truss can win the election.
Apart from tax cuts the only other policy on offer is cuts to fuel duty – in response to the protests a in mid July which blocked motorways. Of course this policy is easy for the Tories, it isn’t primarily a trade union demand or seen as a ‘left wing’ demand around wages.
It is clear what is needed – wage increases linked to inflation and price controls and nationalisation of key industries like energy and transport to reduce costs. This is what is needed but the Tories are bitter enemies of all of these demands. They aren’t just a barrier to the solution they are part of the problem – it is their policies that have suppressed wages for over a decade, their policies that have protected profit instead of the public interest.
They must be overthrown.
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