EVERYBODY knows that the Tory government was completely unprepared for the Covid-19 crisis that erupted in the UK in December 2020.
The Operation Cygnus exercise debacle in October 2016 proved that the government was absolutely unready to deal with the epidemic.
Huge mistakes were made when the epidemic struck, from transferring patients from hospitals into care homes where they infected the elderly at the cost of tens of thousands of lives, to the assumption that the virus would not mutate, and would go away.
While China completely shut down Wuhan to defeat the epidemic, the Johnson government put saving capitalism first, at the expense of the workers, with stop-go-stop policies that allowed the virus to mutate to the point where the NHS is now being completely overwhelmed, with the army being drafted in and the care homes opening up once again to take hospital patients.
The Tories are now making a big, belated effort with vaccines and are banking that after vaccinating millions, business will be opened up with ‘no holds barred’, to claw back the tens of billions that they have spent in keeping the bosses going.
This scenario is now emerging at great speed, and will be seen today in the House of Commons. Conservative MPs have been ordered by the government to vote against a motion on Universal Credit and free school meals.
The Starmer-led Labour Party has organised a House of Commons vote for today on stopping the planned cut to Universal Credit and Working Tax credit in April, and continuing with free school meals for families during the holidays.
Tory MPs have been told by Johnson officials that there is a three-line whip to vote against and sink this motion. The Tories are insisting that Opposition Day debates and votes are not binding, and just stoke political divisions.
Labour will therefore vote for the motion while the Tories declare that it will definitely not be carried out if it is passed!
The Tory press is meantime demanding that the motion be defeated and that the country must be readied for the bringing in of a batch of new anti-union laws.
The Tory whip is out and Tories are being ordered not to vote ‘for’, despite the fact that 50 Conservative MPs, members of the Northern Research Group, who pushed Brexit through, are prepared to vote for the motion.
In fact, the Tory leaders are preparing a massive attack on the working class to claw back all the billions that they have been forced to spend to try and keep capitalism afloat. The Tories are preparing an austerity attack in the March 3rd budget to make the working class pay for their debts.
They also want workers to be forced to work much longer for less! The Tory Daily Telegraph has stated that the government is planning a wholesale reform of employment law and a round of savage cuts. The Telegraph states: ‘Sure there will be plenty of flack but it should be ignored.’
It adds: ‘In truth there has never been a better moment to reform employment laws … We are going to have to create millions of jobs in the blink of an eye if we are to have any hope of recovering from Covid-19 – laws designed for a 20th century industrial economy aren’t going to work for a 21st century digital one.’
Britain is to be de-industrialised! The working class is to be fired but not re-hired!
Commenting on the reports that the government is drawing up post-Brexit plans to rip up workers’ rights, Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: ‘There is immense loss, sadness and uncertainty in our country just now. No decent government would pick this moment to launch an attack on the rights of its citizens.
‘The people who have kept this country fed, safe and supported under unimaginable pressures deserve so much better than to be threatened with the loss of their basic rights. This is a huge mistake by this government. This country has a proud history of standing up for rights, freedom and decency.’
As usual, the Unite and the TUC leaders are on their knees – appealing to the Tory butchers to spare the working class. However, this is the time for revolution, not organised cringing by the trade union leaders.
When the Tories vote down Labour’s motion today, the TUC must be made to call a general strike to bring down the Tories and bring in a workers’ government and socialism!
