Looking after the millionaires, not the millions


    Mark Best

    On 1 April the Tory-supporting Daily Telegraph splashed its front page with the names of 103 senior business leaders, issuing a dire warning that deviating from the Tories’ economic plan would spell an end to Britain’s ‘recovery’ and threaten thousands of jobs.

    The policy which has these businessmen up in arms is Labour’s commitment to undo the government’s most recent cut in Corporation Tax. The difference between the supposedly anti-business Labour Party and the Conservatives is that Labour would set it at 21% as opposed to 20%!

    It’s clear that while the Con-Dem’s austerity policies have hit ordinary workers and young people’s living standards, they’re working out alright for those at the top!

    Labour

    But the response by Labour, the party which under Blair was “intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich,” has shown who they represent. The shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna attacked the letter because it only represented a small fraction of business – never mind the millions of workers being paid the minimum wage, facing attacks on their working conditions, and people whose essential local services are being axed, etc.

    Whichever party forms a government after the election, they will be representing the interests of the capitalist class. All the main parties are committed to continuing austerity, attacking the living standards of the majority of people while those at the top get richer.

    ‘He who pays the piper calls the tune’, and both Tories and Labour are more than happy to accept large donations from fat cats and bankers.

    We need a party that represents ordinary people. One that fights against all cuts, for a wealth tax on the super-rich, for nationalisation of the big corporations and a £10 an hour minimum wage as a start! A party for the millions not the millionaires!

    The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), in which the Socialist Party plays a leading role, is standing in over 130 parliamentary seats and over 600 council seats. TUSC represents a step towards building this mass party.

    • Amongst the signatories is Tidjane Thiam, CEO of the financial services company Prudential. His salary has more than doubled since 2010, reaching £11.8 million in 2014.
    • BP executive Bob Dudley saw his pay jump to £9.4 million last year during which oil prices have fallen. He rewarded hundreds of BP North Sea oil workers by putting them on the dole.
    • Also signing the letter was George Weston, chief executive of Primark. Weston earns about 500 times the average employee at Primark, which has been targeted by campaigners from Youth Fight for Jobs in the past because of their poor treatment of workers and poverty wages.
    • 27 of the 103 signatories are Tory party donors.
    • 18 of the signatories were given MBEs, OBEs, CBEs and knighthoods David Cameron.
    • The list includes a number of tax avoiding companies – Associated British Foods, Greene King, The Hut Group, and Samantha Cameron’s employer, Smythson.