Clive Walder, Birmingham Socialist Party
Rachel Reeves’s discovery of the £22 billion ‘black hole’ which she used to justify scrapping of winter fuel payments to 10 million pensioners is typical of how Starmer’s Labour government will frame arguments to try and extinguish any expectations of improvements in peoples’ lives.
£22 billion is a lot of money to you and me. It is being used to paint a picture of a bankrupt country that can’t afford to look after the less advantaged. In fact, it is a mere 1.79% of the government’s budget. Hardly a massive black hole
The government is cynically manipulating arguments to get us to believe a decent retirement, decent pay and well funded public services are unaffordable.
Our demand to open the books when poverty is pleaded is as important where the government is concerned as it is with privately owned businesses.
