Bank of England building. Photo: Doyle of London/CC
Bank of England building. Photo: Doyle of London/CC

Interest rates – accept lower pay while banks make bumper profits

The UK has entered a recession and interest rates set by the Bank of England will remain high unless there is “moderation in pay pressures”, according to the bank’s monetary policy report. That means – while the prices in supermarkets, bills, and mortgage payments keep going up – you’re supposed to accept getting paid less while bosses get richer. And if you do fight back to get a bit more of the pie, its not those making profits that are the problem its you!

Some have done very well out of the high interest rates. Natwest bank made £6.2 billion in profit last year. This is the highest since just before the crisis in 2007, a crisis which caused the bank to be bailed out by the government and nationalised. The Tory government has a stake of 35% of the bank, but will we see any benefit from this? We need the banks and the big companies nationalised and put under our democratic control, to run the economy for us, not for profit.


Recession – Get ready to fight back against more bosses’ attacks

Melanie Dent, Reading Socialist Party.

Once again, we find ourselves in economic recession. This comes on the back of the punitive cost-of-living crisis and endless Tory austerity which have driven down wages, pensions, benefits and living standards at a rate not seen since the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. The Tories will try again to make us pay for the capitalist system’s crisis.

It’s already obvious the Chancellor’s forthcoming Spring statement will hold few, if any, surprises for ordinary working-class citizens and public-sector pay will attempt to be frozen below the rate of inflation.

Once again, the hated ruling class does not care about life on or below the poverty line. With their offshore accounts, and lucrative bonuses, why would they? We are about to enter another season of bitter struggle. Minimum Service Levels laws will be held as a threat over the heads of those workers preparing to revive the strike wave.

The Tories attempt to divide workers because they fear ordinary people fighting back, saying: ‘No more’. The Tory ship is sinking fast and Starmer’s Labour ‘lifeboat’ offers working people little alternative than a New Labour Mark II.

Socialist Party members will be standing alongside workers fighting back, on picket lines and at the ballot box, to say we won’t pay for their crisis.