TEN million households are suffering from the financial and political crisis says Which? as it calls on the coalition government, ahead of its Autumn statement, to put consumers at the heart of measures to drive economic recovery.
In fact, Chancellor Osborne is preparing to increase taxation and bring in even more welfare cuts, as his plans to reduce borrowing and cut the deficit as a percentage of the national debt continue to hit the rocks.
The plain fact is that unemployment throughout the EU is growing, and the UK workforce already has millions of part-time workers existing on subsistence wages, barely able to buy food and heat their homes, plus a vast army of youth unemployed, with over 25 per cent of university graduates failing to get any kind of paid work.
Ahead is a new banking crisis, with the Governor of the Bank of England fearing that the UK banks face a ‘black hole’ of between £35bn and £60bn. This is a black hole that the working class and the middle class will be required to fill.
Already, Which? has found that more than a third of the population (39%) are feeling the squeeze, equalling 10.2m households.
This includes 2.3m households who have defaulted on a loan, bill or housing payment, and 1.5m households that have taken out one or more unauthorised overdrafts or payday loans, at fantastic interest rates, simply to make ends meet.
Its new research also reveals the extent to which the squeeze on households is having an impact on the wider economy. The fall in consumer confidence, since the start of the recession, has resulted in a loss of consumer spending of £8.4bn!
The latest Which? Consumer Insight Tracker finds that the top worries of the working class and the middle class are the price of food (85%), energy (85%) and fuel (78%), and the fact that all three categories are rapidly rising.
Two thirds of people are worried about future tax levels (68%), interest rates on their savings (68%), the value of their pension (68%) and public spending cuts (64%).
The Executive Director of Which?, Richard Lloyd, argues that people are becoming trapped in a vicious spiral.
He said: ‘There are huge knock-on effects for people if they are not paying their loans, paying their bills, their housing costs on time. They often have to pay extra charges, pay extra interest where they are defaulting on debts, and they are unable to get access to credit.
‘People are having to turn to increasingly expensive ways to meet their costs. It’s a real worry for many, many people getting into debt.’
Which? even argues that the government ‘has a job on its hands to convince people that everything possible is being done to keep unavoidable costs like energy and food bills under control’.
In fact, the result of the three recent by-elections show that the masses have long given up any idea that Tory policy and the coalition government can ease their crisis in any way. The masses are convinced that the coalition serves the bankers and the bosses, and rescuing these parasites from the crisis of their own making is its only policy.
As well, the words of Labour’s shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, that it is time to ‘change the medicine – or change the doctor’, carry no real weight since Labour is committed to saving capitalism, and thus will impose the same, or even worse, austerity measures as the current coalition.
What is happening is that the masses of the people are starting to take their fate into their own hands. This is what last week’s 15,000 strong demonstration to save Lewisham hospital was about.
What this country needs is not a Labour or national government but a socialist revolution and a workers’ government!
Now is the time to build the revolutionary leadership of the WRP in the trade unions, the working class and amongst the youth to lead this revolution to its victory.