CAMERON began his election manifesto speech yesterday morning by insulting the intelligence of the listeners by stating ‘We are the party of working people, offering you security at every stage of your life.’
When Nye Bevan in the late 1940s pledged to the working class that Labour would bring ‘security from the cradle to the grave’ he was subjected to a massive Tory assault, and then a campaign that has lasted for over 60 years to destroy the Welfare State and the security that it gave the workers.
Cameron, however, hinted at the desperation of the UK ruling class when he remarked about debt-ridden Britain – ‘this buccaneering, world-beating, can-do country – we can do it all over again’.
In fact the great buccaneering thieves, Drake, Raleigh and others plundered Spanish gold to give developing British capitalism its headstart.
The ruling class headed by Cameron and the Tories now want to plunder the Welfare State, and the NHS to try to give British capitalism a re-launch.
This is what Cameron was hinting at when he said: ‘We can do it all over again.’
It turns out that what Cameron was talking about was an uncosted give away to the better off, which will cost tens of billions, without admitting that the cost for the proposed changes are to come from smashing welfare, smashing trade unions and the right to strike, imposing zero-hours contracts on the workplace, in fact robbing the working class on a massive scale.
Cameron continued to speak about the next five years when the Tories intend to make £50bn of cuts.
He said: ‘The next five years are about turning the good news in our economy into a good life for you and your family.’ This would be unlike the current UK, which he labelled ‘as a debt-addicted, welfare-burdened, steadily-declining, once-great nation – which is what we found…’
Cameron pledged: ‘There’s £8 billion more a year for our NHS . . .Rail fares are frozen for five years . . .500 new Free Schools are delivered. . .and 200,000 Starter Homes are built.’
Cameron also found a place for the MacMillan Tory boom policy of the 1960s to try to disguise what he was doing. He proclaimed that he was building ‘a property owning democracy’, saying, ‘I can tell you: the next Conservative government will extend the Right to Buy to all housing association tenants in this country. That’s 1.3 million extra families – a whole new generation given the security of a home.’
Further: ‘With a Conservative government, you will get 30 hours of free childcare a week… equivalent to £5,000 a year.’
Cameron added: ‘If Conservatives are in government, we will change the law so that no-one earning the Minimum Wage will pay income tax … yes: the tax-free Minimum Wage.’
The new tax-free Minimum Wage will be more than covered by the loss of benefits by Minimum Wage families!
Cameron proposes to knife Housing Associations and councils by forcing them to sell off their properties which can be handed out in one way or another to those who have already got homes.
The 800,000 Housing Association tenants will be offered massive discounts of between 35% and 50% to purchase their social housing.
The discounts will be worth up to £77,000 across England and up to £102,700 in London.
Forcing councils to sell their more expensive properties will raise £4.5bn and further undermine council housing. The £4.5bn is allegedly going to be used to build new houses, at the new affordable market rents, which no ordinary worker can afford to pay.
All that Cameron really announced at his manifesto launch is that there is to be a much fiercer assault on the working class to raise the additional resources that his plans require.
There is no doubt that the Tories must be smashed in the May 7th general election and a Labour government returned.
However, a Labour government will buckle almost at once before the assault of the bosses and bankers and launch emergency austerity measures as required.
This is why we urge workers to vote WRP in the seven constituencies where we are standing and also to join the WRP and the Young Socialists. What is required in the UK is not just a general election, but a socialist revolution!
