DITCHING his opposition to a new third runway at Heathrow airport on Thursday, Ed Miliband, the UK Energy Secretary, not only cravenly abandoned his opposition to the project, he undermined yet another of the crisis Labour government’s pledges on carbon emission climate targets.
Just nine days after Chancellor Rachel Reeves finally backed the third runway project in the desperate ‘chase for economic growth’, Miliband told Sky News: ‘I believe this can be done, aviation expansion can be done consistent with our carbon budgets.’
Meanwhile on Thursday, the pound sterling crashed by 1.1 per cent as the Bank of England (BoE) cut interest rates to 4.5 per cent to dampen inflation rates, with more to come this year.
According to the BoE, the UK crisis economy is on course for its third year without productivity growth. Output per worker – a critical measure that enables rising wages and living standards – is forecast to fall by a further 0.5 per cent in 2025!
The Bank of England highlighted how the growing public workforce is draining productivity, warning that there were increasing signs that Reeves’s record tax raid was dragging on the economy.
Currency traders have ramped up bets on further interest rate cuts by the end of the year, while BoE staff now believe the economy will expand by just 0.75 per cent this year, down from a projection of 1.5 per cent just three months ago.
The BoE’s latest economic forecasts warn of a stagnating economy, higher inflation and rising unemployment, against the backdrop of a £40bn tax raid that will hit low-paid workers hardest – a recession in other words!
According to David Frost of the Telegraph: ‘Britain is inexorably heading for bankruptcy with no way out – tax rises won’t boost revenue and Labour can’t stop spending.
‘And the constantly increasing burden of tax, spending and debt crushes the economy still further. The truth is that we can’t afford to increase government spending at all.
‘We’re in a vicious circle. High taxes and spending, low productivity and growth, each reinforces the other.
‘The UK economy has evolved over time to be dependent on footloose industry, creative and intellectual property-based activities and rich entrepreneurs and investors.
‘So raising taxes is not a way out. The alternatives are to cut spending or to deregulate to grow the economy.’
So the only other option is massive deregulation shock tactics, like those proposed by Elon Musk in the US, which amounts to ‘just sack everyone in the public sector and let them starve’.
Britain is on the rocks and in recession with total bankruptcy ahead!
Capitalism’s future is mass unemployment, starvation wages, disease and the very real prospect of trade and military wars.
The only way this will be prevented is by the working class rising up to seize power, and to bring in socialism worldwide.
The way forward is through planned nationalised economies under workers’ control, that will run the economy for the benefit of all.
Join the Workers Revolutionary Party today to organise this struggle to go forward to the victory of the world socialist revolution!
