In 1904 Winston Churchill (then a Liberal MP) said that the Conservative Party stood for “cheap labour for millionaires”. In his Autumn Statement today (3 Decemeber) the current Conservative Chancellor did nothing to dispel this image.
In 1904 Winston Churchill (then a Liberal MP) said that the Conservative Party stood for “cheap labour for millionaires”. In his Autumn Statement today (3 Decemeber) the current Conservative Chancellor did nothing to dispel this image.
There was little in Mr Osborne’s statement to worry Mike Ashley, for instance, the billionaire owner of retail chain Sports Direct, who employs 20,000 staff on zero-hours contracts.
The government pays lip service to a desire to create better paid jobs, but actions speak louder than words, and in the past four years only two employers have been prosecuted by HMRC for paying below the National Minimum Wage, despite the fact that hundreds of thousands of people are victims of this exploitative behaviour.
People at the bottom of the income scale move in and out of insecure low paid jobs, with the Department for Work and Pensions snapping at their heels. Employers now know that Jobcentres push people to accept any job available, no matter how unsuitable, and they know that if an unemployed person refuses a job they may well be sanctioned and left with no income whatsoever. It almost literally means ‘beggars can’t be choosers’ so employers, no matter how prosperous, have no incentive to offer decent pay and conditions. It’s no surprise then that the Office for Budget Responsibility predicts that wages are set to stay low for the foreseeable future.
This would be bad enough if it was affecting only those workers directly involved. But as we have seen, low pay means a lower tax take, and Mr. Osborne is inclined to plug the gap with ever more drastic cuts to public spending. As the TUC’s Frances O’Grady has pointed out: “The public spending cuts predicted by the OBR are simply terrifying. Making the cuts on the Chancellor’s timetable will slash public spending per head from £5,650 to £3,880. That will take us back at least to the level of spending in 1948 and probably to the lowest spending levels for 80 years.
“This can only be done by deep cuts to vital services that threaten social cohesion and stability. As 60 per cent of the cuts are still to come, this will result in a revolutionary programme to shrink the state.”
Chancellor Osborne and his colleagues talk about ‘tough decisions’, but really these decisions, to shrink the state so dramatically, are very much in line with their political philosophy, (and incidentally, in line with UKIP’s philosophy, in so far as one can be discerned.)
One commentator said that the Autumn Statement ensured that the next General Election could be a referendum on public services. Do we believe in them, or not? If we believe in strong public services, an adequate welfare state, and fair wages, we need to choose a very different path to the one we are on now.
* More from Ekklesia on the Autumn Statement here: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/autumnstatement
* Previous budget analysis from Ekklesia: http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/budget
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© Bernadette Meaden has written about political, religious and social issues for some years, and is strongly influenced by Christian Socialism, liberation theology and the Catholic Worker movement. She is an Ekklesia associate and regular contributor. You can follow her on Twitter: @BernaMeaden