The Socialist 10 October 2012

Tories promise more pain ... Kick out the 'nasty party'!

Tories promise more pain... Kick out the 'nasty party'!

Labour Party conference - not fighting austerity

Arguing the case for a 24-hour general strike

Birmingham Tory conference demo

'Millions crying out for leadership and for an alternative'

Anti-austerity candidates selected for November contests

No welfare cuts

Health workers must fight attacks on jobs and pay

Politicians line up to attack abortion rights

The hidden homeless - "Sofa surfing is my lot"

Them & Us

Send the transport privatisers packing

Venezuela presidential election

Greece: escalating the action against austerity

South Africa: 'What are we doing about this government that is killing us?'

Why we're marching on 20 October

More success for Socialist Students

Save East Midlands ambulances

Campaign Kazakhstan: A musical and political evening

Youth Fight for Jobs and Education fortnight of action 13-27 October

Dewsbury fights health service cuts

Waltham Forest: Parents and staff unite against school sell-off

Sunderland anti-fascists stand up against divisive EDL

South Wales bus workers receive strong support for strike

Fighting the construction industry blacklist

Workplace nurseries saved in HMRC

Leeds solidarity with Crossrail battle

Mid Yorkshire Health admin staff ballot for strike

Bin workers' strike threat

Workplace news in brief

TV review : Masters of Money - Karl Marx




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Them & Us

Who they are

54% Tory MPs went to fee paying schools
38% Tory MPs went to Oxbridge
27% Tory MPs have worked in finance (compared to 7% of the general population)
¼ Tory MPs are private landlords
23/29 cabinet members are millionaires - the richest, Tory leader of the House of Lords Lord Strathclyde, has assets and investments worth £10 million including a £2.3 million house in Westminster

What they say

Chancellor George Osborne, apparently invoking the spirit of Marx at the Tory conference: "Today we set out proposals for a radical change to employment law.

"It's a voluntary three way deal. You the company: give your employees shares in the business. You the employee: replace your old rights of unfair dismissal and redundancy with new rights of ownership.

And what will the Government do? We'll charge no capital gains tax at all on the profit you make on your shares... Owners, workers, and the taxman, all in it together. Workers of the world unite."

Tory chief whip, Andrew Mitchell, reported ranting at police officers outside Downing Street, said: "Best you learn your f***ing place...you don't run this f***ing government...You're f***ing plebs."

Quickly proven to be untrue, Cameron said: "I think the last one I bought was from the West Cornwall Pasty Company.

I seem to remember I was in Leeds station at the time. The choice was to have one of their small ones or their large ones. I've got a feeling I opted for the large one and very good it was too."

From one of their own! Tory MP Nadine Dorries told the Financial Times that government policy was "being run by two public school boys who don't know what it's like to go to the supermarket and have to put things back on the shelves because they can't afford it for their children's lunch boxes." She has since called for a 'Kill Cameron' strategy.

Tory treasurer, Lord Fink said: "I don't see why the UK should not compete for jobs that at present are going to the Cayman Islands.

"I lobbied George Osborne when the Tories were in opposition. I have long felt that the British government loses jobs to tax havens by allowing the Revenue to have these rather archaic rules."

What they've done

Increased the cap on university fees to £9,000 a year and scrapped EMA student payments for 16-19 year olds

50p tax rate for top earners scrapped - a recent poll showed 71% of the population think the government should abandon this policy, including 65% of those who voted Tory in 2010

Opened the door to huge privatisation in the NHS through the Health and Social Care Act as well as attempting to make £20 billion 'efficiency savings' - just recently G4S have been handed a £13 million contract to handle NHS Patients' Transport in Great Yarmouth, despite their disastrous management of security at the London Olympics

Massacred welfare benefits - including increasing to 35 the age at which someone is entitled to enough housing benefit for their own flat and stopping child benefit for households where someone earns over £40,000 a year

Attacked public sector pensions to force people to pay more, work for longer and get less - leading to a huge fightback and series of strikes by public sector workers

What it means for us

In 2011 there was a 15% increase in the use of pawn shops
There has been a rise of up to 20% in thefts of meat from supermarkets
128,697 families were given emergency food supplies by charity organisations last year. There are now more than 200 food banks across the country, with more opening every week
Last year there was a 32% increase in young Londoners sleeping rough