Beginning to See the Light: Treated with contempt

 

‘I got no emotions for anybody else
You better understand
I’m in love with myself, myself
My beautiful self’

 
In ‘Poverty, Worry, and Destruction‘, last week’s review of Chancellor Sunak’s spring statement (‘the statement’), I said that for all of us struggling in the current cost-of-living crisis we are merely collateral damage sacrificed on the altar of his [Sunak’s] political ambitions. Sunak is, hopefully, the last vestige, of a series of brutal Tory governments who, imbued with Thatcherism, have wreaked havoc on this country.  

The Tories have long believed they are the natural party of government and, for too long, conservative people have been happy to tug the forelock to those they assume are their ‘betters’. People need to wake-up, Victorian, and Edwardian era’s have passed, these people aren’t your betters, they don’t even care about you. 

Voters are simply cannon-fodder to be buttered-up every 5-years when their votes are required. If you don’t vote Tory, you don’t count, you don’t matter, you aren’t forgotten, you are irrelevant.  

For any ambitious Tory politician what counts is the goodwill of backbench MPs and constituency associations. They represent what is deemed to be ‘mainstream public opinion’, with the ability to make you party leader, and thus PM.  
 

‘Voters are simply cannon-fodder to be buttered-up every 5-years when their votes are required’

 
In his spring statement Suank had the opportunity to make a difference, to ease people’s pain. It is expected that borrowing will be C. £72bn lower over the next 4-years than he thought last October, meaning that the forecast budget deficit in 4-years will be the lowest for 25-years. 

In his statement he tried playing to the backbenches posing as a tax-cutting chancellor, whilst overall taxation levels are rising to post-war highs, while people are suffering the biggest drop in household incomes for 66-years. 

He continues to ignore ‘levelling-up’, there was no uplift in universal credit, or any indexation of benefits to compensate for higher inflation as families face real poverty. There were no inflation related increases for government departments, even defence spending is to face a real term cut in 2022-23. 

Everything was subordinate to his ambition to be PM. The money is in his buy the election slush fund. Let’s not forget this isn’t his money, it’s the country’s, the taxpayer, yet he brazenly treats as his own to further his political ambitions. 

Every issue that comes along seems to create a crisis for this gaffe prone administration. Partygate had become chip wrapping thanks to Putin, but this weeks’ news that the police has fined 20-people who attended the events that never happened, has bought it back to the fore. There is no disclosure required for FPNs and, despite Downing St promises to reveal if the PM receives one, I doubt we will ever know. This will be filed under the ‘PM lying to parliament, again’, and we move on. 

The cost-of-living crisis won’t go away so easily. The Tory’s new adviser, David Canzini has been telling Tory advisers that Brexit and measures to deal with the soaring cost of living should be the two top domestic priorities for the Johnson government.  

What initial enthusiasm there might have been for Sunak’s statement soon dissipated as even normally ultra-loyal Tory newspapers were accusing the chancellor of having failed to understand and help those caught in cost-of-living crisis. The Express ran a headline on its front page on Thursday asking: ‘The forgotten millions say: what about us?’  

A shadow cabinet ministers claimed that privileged Conservatives such as Sunak – one of the richest men in politics – simply could not identify with real people. ‘I don’t want to get all class war about this, but it did look a bit like the rich boys think this crisis in people’s lives is all just a political game.’ 

The PM is said to have wanted more help for people with their mounting energy bills, but Sunak resisted, wanting to hold down spending to fund to buy the next election. 

Sunak either doesn’t understand or doesn’t care. His statement offered nothing for the millions of people who are suffering most – those on benefits. ‘It did not sit well with us being all about levelling up,’ said a former Tory minister afterwards. 
 

‘The forgotten millions say: what about us?’  

 
Levelling up, remember that? This was the promise that broke the ‘red wall’, one that was going to deliver Brexit dividends to working people. 

One such red wall seat is West Bromwich East, now held by Conservative MP Nicola Richards, a constituency that contains some of the poorest communities in the UK. 

According to government figures from 2019/20, C. 30% of children live in relative poverty, whilst in some postcodes, more than 60% of children are living in poverty. 

The constituency had one of the highest proportions of leave voters in the UK, with 68% voting ‘leave’. Much good it has done them!  

There is clearly a split at the top of government; the PM still wants to deliver ‘levelling up’, whereas the chancellors’ policies are making the wealth divide even greater. This is becoming clear in the debate over the future direction of our energy policy, a subject at the heart of the cost-of-living crisis.  

Voters now regard energy as the second most important issue facing the UK, even ahead of the economy. The latest Opinium poll for the Observer found that 48% of voters flagged it as an important issue, up 17%. Only health and the NHS are greater concerns. 

Kwasi Kwarteng, the business secretary, is said to be keen on schemes that would boost onshore wind by giving energy bill discounts for those who live near turbines, a scheme that has been run successfully by Octopus Energy. The PM is also said to favour accelerating the creation of small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) produced by Rolls-Royce, but Sunak has been warning about the long-term costs involved in a big expansion of nuclear power.  

 

There are also concerns that some of the help with energy bills offered by the chancellor will not reach vulnerable households. An official assessment of its much-vaunted £150 council tax rebate predicted that 1.3m households won’t receive it. 

The Office for Budget Responsibility predicted that 20% of those who did not pay their council tax by direct debit would not take up the rebate, saving the exchequer £195m. The most vulnerable households are more likely to be among those who do not receive the tax cut automatically. 

Within the issue of energy lays the climate change debate, something right-wing Tory’s remain in denial of. The government, despite its promises, continue to do the wrong things; since the Cop26 climate summit last November, it has approved one new oil and gas field in the North Sea and proposes to approve six more. 
 

‘Within the issue of energy lays the climate change debate, something right-wing Tory’s remain in denial of’

 
There are no incentives for energy efficiency improvements which are subject to the highest rate of VAT (20%). Green renovation grants were stopped in 2013, as a result the number of loft insulations fell from 1.6m a year to 126,000, and the rate has never recovered, proving that energy transition is entirely dependent on effective state policy. 

This is recognised by the government’s own Climate Change Committee, who this month said that our strategy for decarbonising buildings relies on ‘voluntary targets’ and ‘an untested market-based approach’.  

Right-wing Tory MPs insist that what is needed is ‘unaffordable’.  The Climate Change Committee estimates the average total cost of decarbonising homes is under £10,000, meaning that converting every home in the country would cost less than the government’s spending on Covid or the 2008 financial crisis. And that’s before discounting for job creation. 

By comparison, Italy provides 110% of the cost of home energy improvements, paid as a five-year tax credit (the 10% covers financial and transaction costs). The scheme pays for everything: insulation, ventilation, new windows and doors, solar panels, heat pumps. 

Finland has equipped roughly one-third of its homes with heat pumps. The fact that they work in a very cold Finland shoots down our so-called ‘professionals’ who tell us that ‘heat pumps wouldn’t work in our cold climate’. 

As the Climate Change Committee points out, if gas prices remain at current highs, decarbonising the whole economy would save 0.5% of GDP, and lift people out of fuel poverty. Not to mention neutralising our reliance on Vladimir Putin and other fossil-fuelled autocrats. 

When I re-launched this column as Beginning to See the Light in January 2020, I said that it would be ‘a commentary on the weeks’ events, highlighting what I believe is the biggest issue facing us, the wealth gap, that has created such an unequal society.’ 
 

‘2-years on and nothing has changed. The ‘haves’ still have more and the ‘have nots’ continue to flounder’

 
Over 2-years on and nothing has changed. The ‘haves’ still have more and the ‘have nots’ continue to flounder. The recent disgraceful behaviour by P&O Ferries simply highlights this. Over 2-weeks on from the sacking of 800 British workers, despite some hot air and bluster the government has done nothing. 

When addressing a Commons select committee last week their CEO, Peter Hebblethwaite, admitted that his company carefully assessed its options and decided that breaking the law was its best bet. 

Via video link from Dubai, Jesper Kristensen, the COO of marine services at DP World, confirmed that Hebblethwaite would not be sacked, and that the mass dismissal of the UK crew had been blessed in advance. 

Government ministers followed this with limp excuses as to why they had not immediately run off to the high court.  

The answer should be simple: DP World, for all its wealth and state backing, cannot be considered a suitable partner for the UK’s freeport programme. A company that ignores UK employment laws does not belong in a government-backed scheme. In reality, this looks like being another issue the government pretends not to see as it tries build a post-Brexit Britain.  

In truth the government needs anything it can get to support Brexit; the OBR has highlighted how Brexit has induced a collapse in our exports to and imports from the EU, calculating that trade’s share in UK GDP has fallen 12% since 2019 – two-and-half times more than any other G7 country. 

Brexit is the cause, and none of the much-hyped trade deals outside the EU have compensated for it.  

We are still governed by Thatcherites, romanticising about mythical tax cuts, and ‘fiscal responsibility’, whilst ignoring the plight of the people. Sunak’s spring statement was breath-taking in its cynicism but was typical of their conceited belief that the Tories’ priorities and values are those of the country. 

The truth is that people are not desperate for tax cuts or wanting an ongoing struggle with Europe. What they need and deserve is a government that cares for and about them, one that creates fairness with an economic framework that stimulates growth and living standards.  

None of that will be forthcoming from this government. This is a government out-of-step, out-of-touch, and hopefully, out-of-time. 
 

‘So I turned myself to face me 

But I’ve never caught a glimpse 

How the others must see the faker 

I’m much too fast to take that test’ 

 
Another hard hitting piece from Philip that once again fosters a sense of sadness; is it really this gloomy?

Sadly, for increasingly large numbers of people, it really is – as we learn today that inflation and in particular rocketing energy prices, mean that families will be £2,600 a year worse off.

Mrs May’s ‘JAM’s will be simply spread too thinly as millions are plunged into poverty; not the relative poverty that comes with being one of the ‘have nots’ that have featured often in Philip’s colunm, the crushing poverty that sees people declining food at food banks that they cannot afford to heat.

Surely Mr Sunak would take the opportunity to display his ‘compassionate Conservative’ credentials by slapping a hearty windfall tax on energy companies that seemingly can’t fight cash off with a 5hitty stick, and bail out the most needy in society. 

Not a bit of it – a measly 5p a litre cut in fuel duty (which didn’t even amount to the additional 8p the treasury had earned from fuel duty in the previous month) and of little use to those without a car; however meagre the gesture, it seemed that few forecourts passed it on anyway, to cement the fossil fuel industry’s reputation for boundless greed.

‘How about popping duty on aviation fuel to fairly tax an industry that is the fastest growing threat to the planet?’ – what and upset ‘hard working families’ and those needing to get to their third home in Padstow – no fear; ‘anyway, climate change is only for tree-hugging crusties’ – according to right-wing loonies led by Craig Mackinlay.

So what did Philip say? – ‘This week we continue with Sunak’s spring statement, and how it utterly ignores what is happening to people.

I question whether he doesn’t understand or doesn’t care. I find it impossible to imagine he doesn’t understand, he’s intelligent, he can read the data. He is blinded by ideology and can’t see beyond it.

At heart he is a Thatcherite, and he sees that as the way to cement his place as the next Tory leader. His austerity measures are designed to save funds for an electoral bribe, a tax-cutting budget before the next election. The money he proposes to use for that isn’t his, it’s the taxpayers. This is a misuse of our money.

The statement only serves to highlight the gap between him and Johnson. Johnson might not really care about levelling-up, but he’s a pragmatist, saying and doing what he thinks is needed. He might just see the issue here.

Underlying all of this is the ‘if you don’t vote Tory you don’t count’ issue. Tax cuts for pensioners was a bonus to those already exempt from NIC, and therefore avoid the increase.

Another example of this expediency is the P&O ferries debacle. The CEO sits there admitting he knowingly broke the law, and the government does nothing. They and their parent company should have their asses kicked back to UAE and left there!

At the heart of the crisis is energy costs. Whilst other country’s forge ahead with their plans, including taking into the climate crisis, we are either in denial or claiming we can’t afford it.

We finish with Brexit, and yet more evidence of the damage it is causing. Still, we can console ourselves with a rousing chorus of ‘Rule Britannia’, or ‘Land of Hope and Glory’. ‘Living in the Past’ might be more appropriate.’

Peter Hebblethwaite deserves as much ordure as could possibly be heaped upon him; but who in this government has the moral authority to castigate him. One of the 20 that received fixed penalty notices from the police for breaking the law? Or maybe Grant ‘Two Planes’ Shapps/Fox/Stockheath/Green who appropriated public money to fight off affordable housing developments to preserve private airstrips for his rich mates?

This week’s lyrics were an easy choice. ‘No Feelings’ by the Pistols, because Sunak has none, followed by ‘Changes’, which we desperately need. Enjoy (while you still can)!

@coldwar_steve

 

Philip Gilbert is a city-based corporate financier, and former investment banker.

Philip is a great believer in meritocracy, and in the belief that if you want something enough you can make it happen. These beliefs were formed in his formative years, of the late 1970s and 80s

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