More brutal cuts from the imploding Tories

Paula Mitchell

The Tory party conference is a vision of a party in peril, and a leader surviving by the seat of his pants.

David Cameron hoped to steady the ship, reeling after weeks in which he and his party looked potential meltdown in the face. But instead they were rocked by another defection to Ukip and a sex scandal.

There has been no abatement of the cruel anti-working class agenda as Cameron and Osborne nervously look over their shoulder at a restless Tory right and the shadow of Ukip looming over them.

A further brutal £25 billion of cuts are promised by this government of millionaires, whacking 10 million people with benefit cuts.

They try to present this as fair to workers 'who have to pay for the benefits of the undeserving', but 7 million of those to be hit are in work. On top of this the public sector pay freeze will continue into 2017. Under-21s will be hammered with a vicious ban on housing benefit and a 'work for your dole' regime.

They hope the right and Tory voters will be assuaged with tax cuts for better off pensioners and a pledge not to increase taxes, balanced only slightly by threatening to chase tax-dodging corporations.

Splits

The sexting scandal of Tory MP Brooks Newmark once again gives a glimpse of the seedy, arrogant lifestyle of an out-of-touch elite, but more important is MP Mark Reckless jumping ship.

The defection of Douglas Carswell to Ukip in August was the first concrete indicator of the potential splits that could open up in the Tory party. As we go to press the Tory party leadership is on tenterhooks, as Ukip's Nigel Farage taunts them with the possibility of another defection to coincide with Cameron's speech.

'Stay with us to get the EU referendum you want', Cameron desperately pleads, even holding open the possibility of an exit from the EU: 'Vote Ukip and you'll get Miliband and Balls' borrow and spend, we'll get the economy going and be ruthless with it'.

Cameron is a leader teetering on the brink following the Scottish referendum. With a stunning combination of arrogance and ineptitude, he bungled his way through the campaign from start to finish. He narrowly escaped going down in history as the Tory leader who lost the union.

While the Tories have scraped by at this stage, they have been massively damaged. Lord Ashcroft, former Tory donor, warns that they are not gaining enough to win in 2015.

The anger of working class people against austerity and all the main parties, which found a voice on 18 September, is not going away. The Tory crisis may now take longer to play out, but crisis there undoubtedly is.

Their only hope of getting away with it is that the Labour opposition is so poor. But the rage that found an outlet in Scotland will build and transform as working class people find a voice and get organised.

The crisis in the Tories is just part of a crisis of all big business parties. How else can Ukip's threat to Labour in the Heywood byelection, a Labour seat since it was formed in 1983, be explained?

As the Socialist said last week, "This is a new era of four, or in fact five, six and more-party politics, in which 'stability' will be elusive."

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Finance appeal

The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.

The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.

The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.

The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.