THIS week, Tory Chancellor Jeremy Hunt jetted off to Washington to attend the spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), with the stated intention of declaring that the UK economy ‘is on the up’.
Along with this doomed attempt to convince the IMF that the UK economy is not the basket case that they all believe, Hunt’s job was to pledge Britain’s allegiance to US imperialism.
Before leaving, Hunt made this clear, saying: ‘At times of instability across the globe, we are reminded that we are stronger when we stand together,’ before adding: ‘The US is our most important strategic ally and we are both at the forefront of keeping the world safe.’
Keeping the world safe for US imperialism and its faithful lapdogs in the UK, means arming the genocidal war by Israel in Gaza, and in the latest development of pushing for an all-out war with Iran that will set the entire region ablaze.
That the war drums are beating increasingly loudly amongst sections of the Tory Party, can be gauged by the pages of The Daily Telegraph, the most authoritative voice of an increasingly desperate ruling class, which yesterday carried a front page article proclaiming that: ‘Iran is an existential menace that must be contained.’
Another article yesterday by the Telegraph’s Defence and Foreign Affairs Editor, Con Coughlin, warned ‘Britain is under attack – and refusing to defend itself,’ which damned the Tory government for not taking more robust steps in sanctioning Iran for the crime of retaliating against the Israeli attack on its embassy in Damascus.
Meanwhile, in Washington, Hunt took time out from cuddling up to the US and global financiers to ramp up the war at home that the Tories are intent on launching against the working class.
In an interview with the Telegraph, Hunt vowed to go ‘further and faster’ to slash the welfare bill.
He referred to the latest unemployment figures released this week, that showed a total of 9.4 million people have become ‘economically inactive’, that is dropping out of the workforce and not seeking employment.
A record 2.8 million are inactive due to ill-health, with mental health issues being cited as one of the increasing factors.
Hunt singled out those crippled by mental health issues in his attack on the sick saying that too many people were being ‘labelled’ with mental health conditions and ‘parked on benefits outside work’ indefinitely.
Hunt said that he would be looking to slash benefits to drive the sick back to work through cuts to benefits, and that: ‘It is not sustainable to carry on increasing our welfare spend at the rate that we are doing.’
While pledging to slash benefits to drive the sick back to work, Hunt made clear in the interview that the Tories were determined to go forward with tax cuts for the rich – something the interviewer, Szu Ping Chan, noted put him on a ‘potential collision course’ with the IMF, which warned the UK against any tax cuts that would drive the up the national debt, which is fast approaching £3 trillion.
The IMF fears another Liz Truss moment, when her unfunded tax cuts during her brief premiership in 2022 came close to bankrupting the entire UK economy, requiring the Bank of England to step in and print billions to stave off collapse.
Hunt in the past vowed to bring down this massive debt pile. The only way for the Tories to even slow it down, is to slash all public spending with the benefits of the unemployed and the low paid, the prime target.
There is truly a war on two fronts being organised by this Tory government.
War in the Middle East to crush Iran, to try and restore imperialism’s stranglehold on the region, and a war on the working class at home, to force workers to pick up the bill by being driven into the gutter of poverty.
The working class has the power to end this war on two fronts by forcing the TUC to immediately call a general strike to kick out the Tories and bring in a workers government. This will nationalise the banks and major industries, to replace bankrupt capitalism with a socialist planned economy.
