09.11.1995

Clarke sharpens the axe

Peter Lilley, hardly a friend of the working class, has been told to think again. His proposed £1 billion cut in social security spending was rejected as “not enough” by the Treasury. So, Lilley is now looking for fresh victims - single parents, young people, victims of industrial injury ...

THE CHANCELLOR, Kenneth Clarke, is about to unleash a new round of attacks on our living standards. This so-called ‘leftwing, one-nation’ Tory will outline his budget on November 28. We had better be ready for it - as the future will only bring more such assaults on our class.

Clarke clearly believes that ‘if it ain’t hurting, it ain’t working’. Thus, we can be sure that tax cuts are on the agenda. Tax cuts for the rich, that is, not the poor. The rich must get richer, and the poor must get poorer. How will Clarke find the cash to do this? Simple, attack public spending.

Naturally, education, housing and transport will have to be savaged even more. For instance, housing associations and cooperatives - traditionally a source of relatively cheap housing for the poor - are to have their funds reduced yet again. Never mind that the construction industry is in severe, if not terminal, recession. Never mind that surveys predict that over the next 15 years some 250,000 new dwellings will be needed. Given the fact that the local authorities in England managed to build only 441 new houses last year, the future looks bleak. Homelessness is set to mercilessly increase, as is poverty and low pay.

We have the near god-like ‘financial markets’ to thank for Clarke’s budget. They, the City sharksters, are concerned that public spending is still far too high: the working class is not being exploited ‘efficiently’ enough. Time for another crackdown!

As if that was not enough, rightwing Tory backbenchers are baying for tax cuts, believing that by bribing ‘middle England’ even more, they can keep Tony Blair out. Unfortunately for the Tories, the ‘social-ism’ of Blair will remain a safer bet for the alarmed citizens of ‘middle England’, who yearn for stability and the easy life.

The cuts will see £3 billion wiped off public spending. Even Gillian Shephard, the education secretary, and Stephen Dorrell, the health secretary, are alarmed about the scale of cuts to come - they don’t want to lose their jobs.

This is the brave new world: more benefit cuts, more bad housing, more overcrowded school classes, fewer but more expensive trains. We must start the fightback now, as we know where Blair’s Labour Party stand - they promise us more of the same.

We need to fight in our unions, in our schools, in our communities, against all cutbacks and ‘efficiency’ drives. Fight for what we need, not what the bosses’ account books say they can afford.