The Austerity Illusion

 

There are now just hours to go until the public will be taking to the polling stations and casting their votes for the general election. Tensions are running high and I swear to God if I hear Theresa May come out with a pathetic sound bite one more time I’m going to lose my shit and run through a field of wheat with a covfefe on my head.

The reason that these sound bites are so frustrating is because they hold about as much irony as when she said that the UK hasn’t done enough to tackle terrorism, when that has literally been her job for seven years.

Coalition of Chaos

We have heard countless times, members of the conservative party referring to a Coalition of Chaos, supposedly headed up by Jeremy Corbyn. How unthinkable – parties with opposing views joining together to run the country as an unelected Government! The fact is that we have already seen a coalition of chaos. 2010 brought us the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition, providing with us with David Cameron, our very own unelected Prime minister (they seem to have a habit of doing this). During their five years in power, the Conservative/Lib Dem coalition embarked crippling austerity, causing the start of unimaginable chaos to our public services. The parties introduced the following austerity measures;

The bedroom tax; aimed at low income/unemployed families - according to the TUC, this affected a total of 31% of all working age families in the social rented sector. They also slashed Legal Aid, the top rate of tax was cut from 50p to 45p, we saw Sure Start centres from across the country being shut down (612 in just four years) [site 4children], the Sure Start Maternity grant was also abolished - costing low income mothers £500 and hitting the poorest the hardest, education maintenance allowance for 16-18 year olds was snatched from the hands of the poorest students attending further education, the armed forces were cut - creating a loss of thousands of soldiers, as well as the RAF losing hundreds of helicopters and planes, Child Trust Funds were totally abolished, we have also seen huge numbers of changes to benefits. Child benefit was frozen for a total of three years, inciting a cumulative loss of £1,000 to families with two children, families receiving working tax credits saw a rise in the number of hours they had to work from 16 to 24…the list goes on, including cuts to GP surgeries, Remploy, Youth Centres, local council funding, local parks, police, buses, education, income support, youth employment and support allowance, prisons, public sector pay, mental health.

Basically the coalition government slashed everything they could get their paws on, if I were to list it all in detail it would take up the full blog post, however you can find all the information here.

Strong Economy

Two years on, now with a Conservative government in power and we are still seeing violent austerity across the country. We are being told that we must live within our means and that these measures will create a ‘strong economy’ (you know, that thing they have been promising us for seven years but we are yet to see).

Wrong.

The conservative government displays public spending in the same way as managing a household income. When you are tight on money you make savings through cutting out luxuries; you stop shopping at Sainsbury’s and go to somewhere like Aldi, you decide not to take that holiday that you’ve been planning, you cancel your gym membership – because who are you kidding? You never go anyway.

Cutting back on luxuries works well as a way to survive when you are low on money. The fact is that this logic is not transferrable to government spending and austerity is not about cutting down on luxuries – it is about cutting vital public services that help the majority of people living in this country to thrive.

By cutting funding to education, the poorest children are unable to gain the knowledge and skills that they so desperately need for the future. By cutting spending on mental health services we see individual’s health deteriorate, often resulting in a loss of employment, then housing and sometimes a loss of their own lives. By cutting benefits we see more people pushed into poverty and therefore further from the jobs market, more reliant on our underfunded NHS, more reliant on our underfunded social care services and more reliant on underfunded local authorities.

Do you see a pattern here yet? Circa 100,000 children fell into relative poverty in 2015-16, showing a year on year increase of one percentage point. Not only that but people with disabilities have had to withstand the worst of our government cuts, many of whom have literally had their human rights violated as a result of austerity. Between 1st April 2016 and 31st March 2017, The Trussell Trust’s Foodbank Network provided 1,182,954 three day emergency food supplies to people who literally could not afford to eat. Of this number, 436,938 went to children.

The Tories boast that they have created record numbers of jobs, yet fail to mention the record rise of in work poverty under their leadership; the Nuffield Foundation found that the risk of poverty for adults living in working households rose by more than a quarter (26.5%), from 12.4% to 15.7%, during the ten year period 2004/5 to 2014/15.

The fact is that there is nothing strong about one of the richest countries in the world having literally hundreds of thousands of citizens who can’t afford to feed themselves.

Magic Money Tree, Magic Money Tree, Magic Money Tree

On the BBC Election Debate, the night that our Prime Minister Theresa May went missing, we heard Amber Rudd squealing about Labours ‘magic money tree’. Throughout the campaign we have seen this phrase banded about – probably a tactic used to avoid the fact that the Labour manifesto is fully costed and has the backing of 120 economists from across the globe, while the only figures that appear to be in the Conservative manifesto (in the words of John MacDonnell) are the page numbers.

“There is no magic money tree!” we hear them scream, “We can’t just find this money from nowhere! We have to build a strong economy to afford such luxuries as money that allows people with disabilities to live independently and…you know…eat.”

Funny that, because it seems that there is quite a large sum of money floating around.

In March, the conservatives managed to implement their inheritance tax cut, meaning that couples who pass on homes worth up to £750,000 pay no inheritance duty. Not only this, but by 2020 even homes up to £1million will be exempt from the tax. According to figures from the House of Commons library, this measure will cost the taxpayers £1billion over the next three years, while only benefitting 26,000 of the country’s richest households – and I can guarantee those are not the ‘just about managing’ that Theresa May loves to speak about.

We have also seen a huge tax cut for high earners by pushing up the threshold for paying the 40p rate of income tax, we have seen a reduction in corporation tax and cuts to capital gains. They implemented the new ‘lifetime ISA’ which means that wealthy parents are now able to open tax free savings accounts for their children, deposit up to £4,000 a year and gain £1,000 of tax payer money as a bonus. On top of this they have allowed people with spare rooms, houses or flats to get a tax break on the first £1,000 a year they make renting them out online, not only benefitting people with extra properties but encouraging them to let them out on a short term basis rather than long term.

The fact is that austerity does not work. The method has been widely discredited by economists. Back in 2012, the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) chief economist, Olivier Blanchard, said that although his organisation never bought into the notion that austerity would actually boost economic growth, the IMF now believes that it massively understated the damage that spending cuts inflict on a weak economy.

But why would our Conservative government continue down the path of austerity if it is doing nothing but pushing thousands of people into poverty and taking away any hopes for decent employment? It’s not like they are too stupid to realise what is happening. They aren’t doing it just because they hate poor people, people with disabilities, mental health needs, single mothers and everyone else who is losing out. Nor is this an accident. This is a very well planned out dismantling of our welfare state and it is happening because it widens the gap between the rich and the poor, it strips the pockets of the most vulnerable and in return, lines the pockets of the most wealthy.

I was going to go into a more detailed answer to this question but I think from today’s events and the headlines printed across our right wing mainstream media, it is very clear. The priority of the Conservative party is to enhance the interests of the ruling classes. The majority of our main stream media which happens to be owned by billionaires will continue to push austerian messages to keep this government in power, meaning that they can keep getting those juicy tax breaks.

Austerity is not just about cutting spending, it is also very much about privatisation of publically owned services. Conservative values mean that they are ideologically opposed to having a public sector. By privatising and selling off our public services, capitalism prospers, shifting the priorities of these services from serving the public to generating profits. Cue: zero hours contracts, low pay and restricted worker’s rights.

Is it any surprise that in 2015, the Conservatives signed their biggest private deal on our NHS - £780million to be exact – to private firms, half of which have ties to the party.

For the Many

Whatever the result tomorrow, we can take a glimmer of hope from this election. Not only has Theresa May’s car-crash of a campaign been highly entertaining to follow; starting by basing all promotional materials around May herself, rather than the Conservatives as a whole, presenting herself as a ‘strong and stable’ leader, followed by her refusing TV debates, avoiding the general public at all costs and basically imploding during questions given by TV audiences.

The real hope that we can take from this campaign is the excessive support that Jeremy Corbyn has harnessed from previously disillusioned voters. People from all walks of life coming out and backing him. The most vulnerable in society finally finding a voice in politics. The anti-austerity message that has finally been brought to the table.

Even if we lose tomorrow, this campaign has touched so many people and it won’t be forgotten by them. They will continue to vote and they will continue to hold our government to account. During Corbyn’s time as leader he has forced the Conservatives to make huge U-turns on policies that would have had a detrimental effect to the poorest in our country, with the backing of new voters, he or whoever takes his place, can and must continue to do this.

Social mobility on this level has never been easy and if Corbyn were to win it would be the most monumental change in political history dating back to the war. We must take his campaign as a victory and we must make a promise to ourselves and each other that we will continue to fight, for the many, not the few.

 

The Myth of the Myth of the Gender Pay Gap

This blog post is written in response to a Milo Yiannopoulos video that was shown to me. I was going to write my response in the comments underneath but it became too long so I decided to write a blog post instead.

I’m in two minds about sharing the video because I don’t want to increase the views of an alt right, sexist, homophobe, however, I think its fair to provide people with a balanced view. So here it is.

This video seems to make out that it is women (and perhaps biology slightly) that bring any sort of pay gap upon themselves through having different priorities or generally not working as hard. This is an extremely lazy point to make. I can see how its very attractive as it puts the onus on women to fix these issues and takes the focus away from government policy and the negative effects of capitalism – therefore women can look at it and believe that they can take it upon themselves to change for the better on an individual basis - problem solved! Government can promote it and get away with implementing oppressive policies towards women and big business can continue their focus on their key priority, which is profit, at the expense of their workers.

I think the use of the word ‘choices’ in this video is quite powerful and has dangerous implications. Much of what holds women back in their careers are not personal choices but decisions made for them, either by society or nature. Our personal aspirations and priorities are defined intensely by our social class, race, sexuality and gender. We can aspire as much as we want but the reality is that our society sets boundaries for what is and isn’t possible for each person. The fact that the majority of high paid jobs are taken up by men is not a coincidence, nor is it that they simply work harder and therefore deserve the role more. There is much more depth to this subject than that.

Reproduction does come into this – weather or not women choose to have babies. According to research, women are still judged largely upon their potential or actual reproductive capacity when applying for jobs/promotions. Notice that this is not a CHOICE of the woman – whether she choses to have a child or not is irrelevant in this instance.

Yes women have children and therefore require different support to men. This comes into what Milo says about women “taking more from the system than paying in”. It is a fact that women claim more in benefits than men, however, this is not to be confused as a luxury. Duty of care – whether it be caring for children or other family members – disproportionally falls upon women, prompting them to have to claim more in child benefit, carer’s allowance etc. Do we honestly believe that women should therefore be labeled as scroungers and lazy? That they bring this pay gap upon themselves? That their lifestyle is a choice solely made upon their own personal preferences?

When it comes to women claiming more benefits than men it is a fact that women make up the majority of public sector jobs and have therefore been hit the hardest by austerity. It has been proven that when recession hits, it impacts women at a much grater rate than men and when recovery sets in, men benefit over women. Did women alone cause the financial crash of 2008? These are all factors that are not decided by the women themselves but by others. 

It is also important to consider the fact that social care is being slashed by our government, not only causing women in this sector to lose their jobs but also causing a reduction in services specifically designed to support vulnerable women. Single mothers on low incomes and women in violent relationships are not receiving the support that they require due to actions largely caused by men; lack of involvement from fathers with their children and abusive partners/relatives. How is a woman in this situation supposed to prosper at the same rate as a man within her career?

As I said, yes women to have children and surprise, surprise, yes this means that they require maternity leave – a fact that is not going to change any time soon. Implying that this is some sort of indulgence that therefore justifies men progressing with their careers over women is absurd. Carrying, birthing and caring for a baby requires far more physical and emotional strain than showing up in an office each day. Women should be accommodated in these situations – not resented, not pushed to the back of the queue. We should be tackling the workplace bullying and resentment towards women who go on maternity leave (and yes, this does happen) by exploring ways to keep options open for them when they decide to return to work. Also remember that reproduction benefits both men and women but that women bare the brunt of it.

There is far more depth to this issue than this 3 minute 20 second video explores. It does seem to be a trend with the alt right to gloss things over as being very black and white and not exploring root causes of issues, to find an easy scapegoat to blame and relentlessly persist that there is nothing more to the issue. Reeling off facts such as “women take longer holidays” is completely useless when you are not looking at the bigger picture. 

Can we also take into account the outrageously sexist tone of the video itself – “feminists don’t like numbers” “economics are too complex for them” – generalisations such as these are what has created and continue to fuel the oppressive culture that we have, the culture that stops women from progressing in the first place and therefore makes it - as Milo would like to put it - “a lot more expensive being a man”.

*credit to Dawn Foster's book - 'Lean out' 

World Suicide Prevention Day: Time to start the Conversation.

Lucius Annaeus Seneca - a Roman Stoic Philosopher of Latin literature - once said: ‘Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.’ Although Seneca died in 65 AD, the sentiment of his statement still remains and is perhaps just as applicable today as ever before.

Tomorrow is World Suicide Prevention Day. A day to raise awareness of an issue so prominent in our society that it has made an impact on most people’s lives. The latest figures show that over 800,000 people die from suicide every day. They show that if you are a male, aged between 20 and 39, you are more likely to die from suicide than you are from cancer. This is not something that we can ignore. This is not something that can be brushed under the rug because it is an uncomfortable subject. This is a major, growing epidemic and we need to start talking about it now.

In order to tackle the issue of rising suicide rates, we cannot look just at its causes in isolation but we must instead create a sea change in the culture of our society. Although not all suicidal people suffer from long-term depression or other mental health needs, it is still vital that mental health is to be considered as important as physical health – suicide is one of the leading causes of death for young people and in order to prevent this, we must treat it as such. The stigma surrounding suicide and depression is at the root of the problem. Before the 1961 Suicide Act, taking your own life was illegal in Britain. Although this has been revoked, the subject still carries with it a feeling of shame and embarrassment and the idea of talking about suicidal urges can be painfully hard – to the point where taking your own life becomes the easier option.

We cannot overlook the fact that that although suicide rates in females are at their highest since 2011, there is a significant issue with men taking their own lives. There is no clear-cut explanation as to why this is. This is not a straightforward, black and white subject. However, it might be safe to assume that this comes from human tradition throughout the whole of history of men having to fill the role of the strong hunters and providers who do not show emotion.

The role of the male has changed dramatically over the past century and social progress in the UK has (thankfully) allowed women to become more financially independent. The modern man is changing and it is not the same as three generations ago, or even two. Middle-aged men, who saw their fathers fulfil the role of the main breadwinners and on top of this, fight in a World War – all whilst projecting a “toughen up, man up” attitude – are now contributing to the huge increases in suicide.

The 2008 recession has a part to play in this as well. 1,000 extra deaths and 30,000 to 40,000 suicide attempts occurred between 2008-2010, following the economic downturn. This dramatically reversed previous trends in Britain that showed suicide rates among men to be falling. Lack of employment and an increase in job losses from a damaged economy can surely be blamed for a portion of this. It is important, though, to consider mental health once again and the damage of our Conservative Government’s vicious cuts.

In early 2016, austerity measures were branded ‘profoundly disturbing’ to the nations mental health in a letter that was signed by hundreds of psychiatrists, psychotherapists and other experts within the field of mental health. Over the past five years we have seen a rise in demand for mental health services – a staggering 20% to be exact. This has happened while mental health services have been slashed by 8% in real terms. It has been shown that sanctions on benefits have also played their part in the increase of mental illnesses that can ultimately lead to suicide. According to the Independent, the restrictions put on claimants with disabilities have correlated with 590 additional suicides, 279,000 cases of mental illness and 725,000 more prescriptions of anti-depressants. Research conducted by ReTHink found that 21% of patents taken from 1,000 GPs had experienced suicidal urges due to Work Capability Assessments. These are not ‘benefit scroungers’; these are some of the most vulnerable in our society, people in positions that any one of us could find ourselves in. Although we hear claims from Prime Minister Teresa May that our Government is spending more on mental health than ever before, it seems that the party has managed to create a crisis so profound that their funding won’t even touch the edges of the void that it has made in our society.

Some of these causes sadly lie in the hands of our Government to fix but by opening up a dialogue about mental health we can begin to tackle the wider problem. If we can step away from the stigma surrounding mental illness and suicide and instead create a culture of care and communication, we can encourage people who are suffering to come forward and seek the help that they deserve. We must break down the barriers of gender inequality that affect men as well as women. In order to ensure that the help is there for us, free at the point of use through our NHS, we must speak up to our Government and make them see the problems that have been created.

Take action – write to your local MP, work with charities and campaigns to push this subject into the centre of Parliament. Even something as small as sharing a petition on social media can make a difference. We cannot let this epidemic spread, we cannot stand by and watch our friends, brothers, fathers, mothers, daughters and sons lose their lives in this horrendous way. Now is the time to start the conversation.

Sign this petition to help stop cuts to local authorities: https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stop-government-cuts-to-local-authority-budgets