Next week, the chancellor of the exchequer Philip Hammond will make his autumn statement to the House of Commons and the country, outlying his plans for the economy in the year ahead. It can also be a mini-budget, as we suspect this one to be. And there’s quite a lot to do.
Theresa May has adopted her own cliche to follow George Osborne’s “long term economic plan” and “hardworking people”, which is the JAMs, the Just About Managing. These are the people she is going to help, you see. She said so again this week at a white tie posh do earlier this week where the wine cost £300 a bottle. If Hammond gets things right, I won’t have to rely on a cheap bottle of Aussie red anymore.
The thing is, the chancellor has all but admittedly the inevitable: “I haven’t got a pot to piss in”, he has all but said, so if I was Mrs May I wouldn’t get too near when he rises to speak in the Commons next week.
In recent years, the long term sick and disabled have taken the biggest hit from the Tory government. So have the working poor and many public sector workers whose earnings have frozen or even been cut. With social care in disarray all over the land – and believe me I see it every day I go to work – millions of older people have effectively been left to rot, almost literally in some cases. The only positive side of the social care system is the privatised rump which is screwing millions from the government, local councils and from people in need. What a way to run a country.
If you are low paid, sick, disabled, unemployed or just abandoned by a government in which Theresa May voted for every single attack on the most vulnerable, do you really believe her when she says she’s there for the JAMs? Really? All prime ministers, even Thatcher, say things like that when they are first elected (or appointed in May’s case) and they all don’t really mean it.
I suppose we should wait until Hammond’s dreary monotone confirms the economy is halfway up shit creek before judging him, but it’s probably best not to have too many high expectations. The poor will still be poor when he sits down.
In other news the taxpayer is going to fork out £369 million in home repairs to a 90 year old woman and her extended family. This elderly woman has a house with 775 rooms, 78 bathrooms, 1514 doors and 760 windows and we are going to foot the bill. I am by nature a republican but the vast majority of people in this country like the Queen and want to keep her, so it’s a battle I am not going to join in. It is an unfortunate coincidence that only yesterday it was revealed local authorities rejected 75% of applications for home care from the over-65s and today we have miraculously come up with £369 million from the back of the sofa. But let’s be honest: the Queen brings in millions of tourists. No one comes to this country to observe pensioners who need help with the most basic things in life. That seems to be the sum of it.
