Child poverty reaches chilling levels
Recently released statistics about child poverty are a damning indictment of the Tories’ austerity agenda, and of British capitalism more widely.
According to the government’s own figures, one-in-four children in Britain is now living in absolute poverty. This equates to 3.6 million children across the country.
The rise in child poverty over the last year is the largest increase since records began almost 30 years ago. According to UNICEF, on almost every available measure, the UK is bottom of the table compared to other advanced capitalist countries.
Other data highlights that one-in-six British children live in families suffering from food insecurity – an increase on the previous year’s figures. And 1-in-40 children live in a family that has visited a food bank in the past month: a doubling compared to a year earlier.
Despite their own tight budgets, schools are attempting to paper over these cracks, providing food, showers, and clothes washing to children from deprived households. But this is little more than a sticking plaster for an ever-widening wound.
And there is no sign of improvement under a Labour government, given that Sir Kid Starver has refused to scrap the Tories’ two-child cap on benefits.
Alex Baxter, Farringdon Communists
Lazy MPs get a tidy pay rise
I was unsurprised to read recently that, on average, MPs have been sitting in the Commons chamber for less time than in any other parliamentary period in the past 25 years. I’m sure they have much more important business to attend to than, say, running the country.
Equally predictable, but slightly more infuriating, was reading elsewhere that MPs will be receiving a 5.5% pay raise from April, bringing their basic salary to over £91,000.
But even this is not enough for the out-of-touch Tory chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, who says that such a sum “doesn’t go as far as you might think”.
Sunak’s government has cracked down on local councils moving to a four-day working week, and has discouraged similar practices across the country. Yet it seems that MPs can work fewer hours and receive a pay increase too! Parliament truly is a farce.
Our demand that elected representatives should only be paid the wage of an average skilled worker, and should be subject to immediate recall if they fail to meet their duties, has never been more relevant.
It’s time all these careerists were replaced with genuine class fighters. And while we’re at it, we should abolish the House of Lords and the monarchy too!
Jo Bunkle, Cambridge Communists
Bastard MP of the week
I would like to nominate Mel Stride for the award of ‘bastard MP of the week’.
The Tory MP for Central Devon has scandalously suggested that workers convince themselves of mental illnesses in order to avoid precarious jobs.
Better yet, he has a solution! If you suffer from anxiety, work from home!
Seems like a great idea, until you realise that many WFH roles involve sitting in front of a monitor all day, isolated from normal interactions with your colleagues.
Stride also has the audacity to say that work is good for us. But the 2022 Global Workplace survey found that 60% of workers worldwide feel emotionally detached at work. 19% regularly feel miserable; 59% feel stressed; 56% feel worried; and 31% feel angry.
Yes, work is good…when your job is to blame the poor for being poor, like the Rt Hon Mel Stride.
He has a net worth of £4 million and an annual MP’s salary of £91,000. Yet he has the cheek to tell struggling workers to simply suck it up and find a job that won’t destroy their body and soul.
Roman Merker, Birmingham Communists
