The new Labour government is actually doing quite well so far. They’ve done a lot of good things which have, for some reason, not appeared in the hated mainstream media. It’s almost as if there’s a degree of right wing bias in the media, right from the newspapers to the dying remnants of the BBC. Oh wait: there is. Given that Labour is barely ten months into its five year term, I am not greatly concerned by its current unpopularity but I do find some of its more unpopular decisions have become more than a bit of a distraction and an unnecessary one at that.
In principle, I have no qualm with the winter fuel allowance being withdrawn from all but the less well-off pensioners. It is absurd that everyone gets the payment from millionaires to those in absolute poverty, but here’s the thing. One of Labour’s first acts was to scrap it. That’s bad politics. They should have carried out a full consultation exercise with the public and with organisations that have a vested interest in ensuring people don’t freeze to death in winter. Using actual facts, the payment could have been tweaked to ensure that no one had to freeze. But the government didn’t do that. Potentially a good policy but certainly bad politics.
Today, the Tories and Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Ltd attacked the government to reinstate the payment, not because they really believe in it because they’re both in favour of slashing state benefits, but it gives them a chance to attack Labour. You see, Labour is supposed to be the party of working people but it is easy to paint it as the party that wants to have a pop at pensioners.
There are whispers that Labour could review the decision to scrap the payments and change the criteria of those able to claim it. I’ve got a better idea: just reintroduce the bloody thing for everyone. Means testing is complicated and expensive and there will always be someone who slips through the net. Many of us donate far more to charity every year than we get by way of winter fuel payments. Let the better off, who don’t need the payment, have the money and if they want to give it to charity, all well and good. If not, well who cares? Given how much money the state spends, this is relative peanuts.
The government dealt very badly with the inheritance tax issue, too. It looked like they were having a pop at your average farmer, but they weren’t. It was the greedy landowners and land hoarders like Jeremy Clarkson who were actively trying to dodge inheritance taxes who were the target. The government’s presentation was so poor, people took the side of greedy land hoarders. Why did they not consult, like they should have done with winter fuel payments? Explain the policy and have done with it. But again they didn’t. Good policy – and this definitely was – but poor politics. Solution? It’s a bit late now but work with the NFU to ensure that British farmers are protected and supported, as they certainly weren’t by the last Tory government or their hard Brexit. Winter fuel payments and inheritance tax are but a small part of the story. When it comes to public spending, I’d go much, much further.
I know this would rather blow chancellor Rachel Reeves’s ‘balance the books’ out of the water, but if I took over 11 Downing Street, I’d spend, spend, spend. Borrow vast sums of money to invest in the things that matter to people. Dramatically increase NHS spending to eliminate all waiting lists within say a couple of years, giving everyone access to low cost dentistry, launch major infrastructure strategies to improve railways and introduce light rail transit schemes in places like Bristol starting not in 20 years, but next year. I’d end the scandal whereby people have to sell their homes to pay for social care, depriving families of their inheritance. Introduce a tax of, say, 25% of the cost of a property to cover social care and allow relatives to inherit the other 75%. This would be a voluntary scheme. Those wishing to sell their houses to cover care costs still could. I’d dramatically increase defence spending to counter the existing threat from Russia and the new threats from the USA. It might costs hundreds of millions, but who cares? Pay it all back over 100 years or whatever. Get the economy growing and you’d like to think the Treasury’s coffers would be bursting almost at a stroke.
We don’t need to do this to be popular. We need to do it to raise people’s living standards. Instead of this endless austerity, let the government ensure that the one life we live is not filled with fear about whether we can put bread on the table and heat the house in winter.
I am not sure that my economic plans – basically spend money like it’s going out of fashion – are going to find favour in the government, or anywhere else for that matter, but that’s not my concern. I’m just sick of governments cutting this, that and the other for what? To make us more miserable, that’s what.
Give pensioners their money back, get farmers back onside and better still rebuild the country by borrowing shit loads of money. And what happens when the money runs out? Just print some more. The government is doing all right so far, see below. It can do even better by splashing the cash. Let’s go for it, Rachel. There’s no time to lose.
