Them & Us

Classless Ukip?

Ukip claims to represent 'all social classes'. So what is the commons voting record of Ukip's newest MP, Tory defector Douglas Carswell?

He voted for: £9,000 a year tuition fees; the bedroom tax; reducing the rate of corporation tax; ending financial support to 16-19 year olds in further education and training; the privatisation of Royal Mail; restricting the scope of legal aid; capping civil service redundancy payments; privatising forests...

He voted against: a bankers' bonus tax; restrictions on fees charged to tenants by letting agents; a mansion tax; equal gay rights; raising welfare benefits at least in line with prices; slowing the rise in rail fares...

Not much support for the working and middle classes here then!

Private landlords in England are receiving in excess of £32 billion earnings in rents from tenants a year, or nearly £2.7 billion a month

Less is more

In the last decade, gas and electricity customers have seen their bills rise a massive 52% above inflation, adding an average £410 per household according to Which, the consumer magazine. This is despite, and probably leading to, domestic energy consumption falling by 17% over the same period.

Caring Labour

Care UK strikers in Doncaster recently lobbied local MP and Labour leader Ed Miliband for his support in their months-long pay cuts battle and to defend the NHS.

Perhaps Ed could have a word with former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn - now the Con-Dems government's social mobility tsar. The Blairite ex-minister also happens to be on the European advisory panel to Bridgepoint Capital the private equity company which owns Care UK.

The world's richest 1% own nearly half of $263 trillion global wealth

Living wage

Don't hold back when demanding a pay rise from your boss. Tyrel Oates, an employee of Wells Fargo in the US, co-emailed 200,000 fellow workers with a message sent to the company's head: "My proposal is take $3 billion, just a small fraction of what Wells Fargo pulls in annually, and raise every employee's annual salary by $10,000."

In response, the company says its workers' wages are "market competitive". Wells Fargo made $5.7 billion profit in the second quarter of 2014 and paid its CEO $19 million last year.

Affordable housing

The National Housing Federation reckons workers need an £108,500 annual wage in order to buy a home across London as a whole. However, in Kensington and Chelsea a house buyer needs an annual salary of £378,380 to buy an averaged priced home.

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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.