CHANCELLOR George Osborne in his Autumn statement was forced to admit failure, that his policies were not working and that he had been forced to extend austerity measures to 2018 – and that he will miss his own targets for reducing the national debt, despite his savage austerity measures.
He was left to bluster that he would continue efforts to cut the deficit, saying Britain was ‘on the right track – and turning back now would be a disaster’.
Osborne had pledged that debt would start falling as a proportion of GDP by 2015/16 – the year of the next general election. He told MPs yesterday however that the UK economy was now forecast to shrink by a worse than expected 0.1% this year.
Setting out spending plans for 2015-16 and a framework into 2017-18, he said deficit reduction measures would be achieved ‘fairly’ – this was revealed to be by mass sackings of civil servants and by starving the workers and the poor by limiting public sector pay rises and benefit ‘increases’ to 1%, far less than the inflation rate, over the next three years, at a time of runaway food prices.
He admitted he was going to miss his target that debt should start falling as a proportion of GDP by 2015/16 – the year of the next General Election. Instead he said it would take another year.
He said the Office for Budget Responsibility’s central forecast is that net debt will be 74.7% this year, then 76.8% next year, 79% in 2014-15 and 79.9% in 2015-16. It will then fall to 79.2% in 2016-17 and 77.3% in 2017-18.
He admitted ‘Yes, the deficit is still far too high for comfort. We cannot relax our efforts to make our economy safe.’ it is to be war to the end with the working class, the middle class, and the poor.
Osborne told MPs: ‘The public know that there are no miracle cures. . . . Just the hard work of dealing with our deficit and ensuring Britain wins the global race.
Arguing that those on out-of-work benefits had seen incomes rise at twice the rate of working people, he said benefits would increase one per cent next year and for the next three years, much lower than the 2.2 per cent that had been expected for 2013-14. This would save £3.7bn a year by 2015-16. It will however turn millions into paupers.
To help the ‘squeezed middle’, Osborne cancelled a planned 3p rise in fuel duty. In addition, from next April, the personal allowance people can earn before paying income tax will rise to reach £9,440.
At the same time he kicked the ‘squeezed middle’ in the guts stating that the government will spend another £5bn on new schools, roads and science projects. in an attempt to boost economic growth.
But this will have to be paid for via deeper cuts across Whitehall. This will cost between 15,000 and 50,000 civil servants their jobs, and possibly their homes.
Osborne said the welfare system should be ‘fair to the working people that pay for it’. He stated that cuts in benefits would save £3.7bn a year by 2015-16.
Another £1bn of revenue will come from below-inflation increases for the next two years in the higher-rate threshold for income tax.
As against the £3.7bn robbery of the poor, Osborne said that he would do more to collect tax from the super-rich multinational companies, which he hoped would increase the amount of money collected, through tackling evasion and avoidance by about £2bn a year, a pittance as far as these companies are concerned.
What was taken from them with one hand was then returned with the other when he announced that he will cut corporation tax rate by another one percentage point, bringing it down to 21 per cent from April 2014.
It is clear that as far as Osborne and his ilk are concerned it is back to the 19th century for the working class and the poor, for the benefit of the bankers and the bosses and to save the capitalist system.
Workers must not only refuse to make these ‘sacrifices’ they must respond to Osborne’s robbers budget with a socialist revolution.
