LABOUR leader Miliband’s speech of yesterday was a pre-election attempt to bolster up support from workers by arguing that Labour will be able to balance the books of bankrupt British capitalism, with more cuts every year, and at the same time deliver more jobs and higher wages for all workers.
Along with higher wages, plus a defence of the NHS, and Education budgets, Labour at the same time will be making annual cuts to the majority of government departments to wipe out the £91.3bn of government deficit and balance the books for as many years as it takes.
The speech was preceeded by a letter from Shadow Chancellor Balls to all members of the Shadow Cabinet pointing out that ‘George Osborne has had to admit that his promise to balance the books by next year will be broken. He is now set to have borrowed £219 billion more than he planned and government borrowing next year is forecast to be £75 billion.
‘This presents a huge challenge for the next Labour government. As Ed Miliband and I have said, we will balance the books where this government has failed, and do so in a fairer way.’
He added: ‘We will cut the deficit every year, and deliver a surplus on the current budget and falling national debt as soon as possible in the next Parliament. (News Line emphasis) But we will take a different approach to balancing the books than the Tories.’
This turns out to mean that Labour will be ‘reversing this government’s £3 billion-a-year tax cut for people earning over £150,000 and taking action to close tax loopholes and introducing a mansion tax on properties worth over £2 million in order to help save and transform our National Health Service.’
Balls adds that ‘a balanced plan to reduce the deficit will also require spending cuts.’
These include: ‘scrapping the winter fuel allowance for the richest five per cent of pensioners, cutting Ministers’ pay by five per cent and capping child benefit rises at one per cent for two years.’
He adds: ‘We have already made clear that the NHS will be a priority for the next Labour government … In the meantime, you should be planning on the basis that your departmental budgets will be cut not only in 2015/16, but each year until we have achieved our promise to balance the books.’
This is Labour’s version of the Tories’ ‘permanent austerity’.
In his speech, Miliband condemned the Tory plan ‘to return spending on public services to a share last seen in the 1930s: a time before there was a National Health Service and when young people left school at 14.’
Miliband’s plan is dominated by the notion that ‘So there is no path to growth and prosperity for working people which does not tackle the deficit …
‘We will deal with our debts but we will never return to the 1930s. We won’t take risks with our public finances, but we won’t take risks either with our public services, our National Health Service.
‘Our tough and balanced approach will balance the books through an economy based on high wages and high skills, common sense spending reductions and fair choices on tax.’
Miliband unveiled five principles. These involve ‘getting the national debt falling as a proportion of national income as soon as possible within the next Parliament …
‘And we will also have a surplus on the current budget so that revenues more than cover day-to-day spending, again as soon as possible in the next Parliament.’
He however cautioned: ‘The last Labour government increased spending year-on-year, using the proceeds of economic growth to make our country fairer.
‘That option will not be available to us … And nor would it deal with the root causes of an economy that does not work for working people … Higher spending is not the answer to the long-term economic crisis that we have identified.’
Miliband is seeking to con the working class into believing that there is some reformist way out of the crisis of British and world capitalism. The only answer to this crisis is to get rid of capitalism and bring in socialism.
The News Line wants to see the Tories out and a Labour government in. Having got rid of the Tories, workers will not take more Tory policies from Labour. Attempts to make workers accept such policies will lead to the British socialist revolution!
