After Boris Johnson’s hollow triumph in the confidence vote, his days are definitely numbered. However, if people are to truly address the epidemic plaguing their communities, they require far more than the elimination of one lawbreaking liar like Johnson.
The stories of deprivation that people around the country are experiencing are stomach-churning. How come retirees in the world’s fifth-largest economy have to use buses to be warm, and millions of citizens have to pick between food and heating?
Some are Making Money During a Crisis
In sharp contrast to such misery, fresh evidence emerges every day that it has been a very beneficial crisis for others. The number of billionaires in the United Kingdom has climbed to 177 in the last few weeks, and their wealth has reached new highs.
Furthermore, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) said last week that banks’ bonuses had increased by 28 percent in the previous year to £5.9 billion. Bonuses are growing at six times the pace of salary increases.
A Sign of Hope
The recent implementation of a surprise tax on oil companies to help offset growing power costs is a positive step ahead, and it is the consequence of political and public pressure. However, it is insufficient to address the magnitude of the situation.
Why Tory Failed?
They regarded the country and its people like a gigantic cash machine, with the well-connected receiving billions and billions in fraudulent Covid contracts. Rishi Sunak’s latest round of tax incentives is handing out billions more to the exact fossil fuel companies that are pushing up people’s bills and fuelling a climate disaster.
The Tory surprise tax might have been two times higher — at £10 billion this year alone — and these corporations would have still made more money than they did before gasoline prices skyrocketed.
The money saved from that tax cut might have been used to heat 2 million houses, benefiting each family £340 a year. It’s important to remember that not a single Conservative MP voted against the bankers’ tax reduction. The banker’s tax reduction might have supported the introduction of free school lunches for all children on universal credit.
What are people’s strategies for dealing with this? On a political level, they need to have a Labour administration in place as quickly as possible, one that promotes decisions that help the many rather than the few. People, on the other hand, cannot wait until the next national election; they must organise movements now in order to pressure the government to make compromises that will benefit millions of citizens — or to throw it out of power completely.
