NINE million people across the UK are living with serious debt problems, according to a new report by the Money Advice Service (MAS).
MAS points out that the problem is particularly acute in five English areas, where more than 40% of the population is struggling to repay debt.
The figures that MAS produced show that Hull is top of the serious debt league with 43.1% of the population struggling to repay debts. Then there is Nottingham 41.2%, Manchester 41.1%, Knowsley 40.7% and Liverpool 40.6%.
The return of mass poverty is a product of the 2008 banking collapse, and the way that the bankers were rescued at the cost of trillions of pounds, entirely at the expense of the working class and the middle class, instead of being permanently expropriated.
Meanwhile, the current coalition government has seen to it that the rich are richer than they have ever been, while everywhere else mass poverty rules, with many families now relying on schools to provide their children with a breakfast.
Now millions are living week to week, borrowing from payday loan sharks, and sinking deeper into debt in the process. Millions more have now been reduced to seeking a few hours work on zero-hours contracts. They live at the beck and call of the employer, without any protection or benefits whatsoever.
The sick and the disabled have been targeted for savage benefit cuts, to the point where many fear eviction and a life on the streets, as a result of the ‘Bedroom Tax’.
This is Britain, ‘in recovery’, with the high priest of austerity, Cameron, pledging to the Lord Mayor’s banquet, where there was definitely plenty in the midst of poverty, that there would not be a return to the conditions of life that existed before the 2008 banking collapse.
No wonder, even the capitalist press called Cameron’s policy ‘permanent austerity’ for the workers.
Others observed that profits were on the rise, the rich were getting richer, so every cloud over the poor really did have a silver lining.
Cameron, the high priest of austerity and chief poverty maker, has however stirred up the anger of the working class in a way that will explode in the period ahead.
Even the ruling class is disturbed at the revolutionary effect of attempting to return the 21st century working class and middle class to the conditions of the 19th century.
It seems that it has been agreed that the best thing to do is to find a scapegoat! This is what Cameron did yesterday when he went on the rampage against Bulgarian and Romanian workers who will be eligible to live and work in Britain shortly.
Never mind the fact that hundreds of thousands of UK citizens live in France, Denmark, Spain and elsewhere in the EU, taking full advantage of the benefits there that they are entitled to. Finding a scapegoat for the popular anger is far more important than the facts.
Cameron, whose policy is putting workers out of their homes in the UK with the bedroom tax, is proposing to deport homeless migrants and cut their rights to unemployment and housing benefits.
The Prime Minister announced that new migrants would not get out-of-work benefits for the first three months, and that these payments would be stopped after six months unless the claimant has a ‘genuine’ chance of a job.
Plus new migrants will not be able to claim housing benefit immediately, and those caught begging or sleeping rough will be deported.
Cameron also questioned the principle of free movement of people across the EU, saying this right could not be ‘unqualified’. He was not referring to the bosses and the bankers. They rule the earth and have the freedom of the planet. He was talking about taking away the freedom of workers.
Cameron wants to withhold freedom of movement from new EU countries until their national income has reached a certain level. This could well backfire and see poverty-stricken Brits not allowed to leave the country for EU states!
The message is that getting rid of the Romanians and Bulgarians will make capitalist Britain a better place to live in. This is absolute nonsense!
He didn’t quite reach the shrill levels of a previous Tory’s anti-migrant speech. It was Enoch Powell who foresaw ‘rivers of blood’ in the UK if migrants were not kept out. Cameron has some way to go in this respect, but no doubt he will get there.
UK workers will not fall for this crude incitement and attempt to divide and rule. The only way to a better life is for UK, Bulgarian and Romanian workers to unite to get rid of capitalism and capitalist exploitation, in order to bring in socialism.
Then things will rapidly improve for 99% of the people.