So the London Games are over. Time for grim reality to
return. Bad news then for the Tories who have been trying to live off the
feel-good factor for the last two weeks. If there was any sign of a Team GB
medal in the offing then up would pop Mr. Cameron to cheer along from the
stands. No problems getting tickets for him then. Now he is off chillaxing on
holiday!
So the London Games are over. Time for grim reality to
return. Bad news then for the Tories who have been trying to live off the
feel-good factor for the last two weeks. If there was any sign of a Team GB
medal in the offing then up would pop Mr. Cameron to cheer along from the
stands. No problems getting tickets for him then. Now he is off chillaxing on
holiday!
Strangely enough, George Osborne stayed hidden from view
lest his trademark smirk enraged the people watching and caused a repeat of
last year’s riots. However, with the ending of the Olympics, normal news has
returned to our screens. Even during the games, some bad news got through.
First we saw the Governor of the Bank of England Mervyn King changing his tune
and announcing that the UK economy faced zero growth for the foreseeable
future. The Bank has also
expressed surprise that, according to the ONS, inflation has shot up from 2.4%
to 2.6% in August. Inflation and Slump – not a good mix for our captains of
industry.
The UK quarter-on-quarter growth levels are currently,
according to the Evening Standard of 14 August 2012 at minus 0.7%, equal with
Italy and not much better than the other basket cases of Europe – in fact worse
than Belgium (-0.6%) Spain (-0.4%)
and France (0.00%.) Even Germany looks in peril as the Budesbank warns of a
decrease in growth and notes a fourth-successive fall in investor “sentiment.”
The high UK inflation figures have also indicated a likely
massive rise in rail fares come the New Year. A figure of 11% has been mentioned.
This is a defacto tax on workers with the money being funnelled off to the rail
companies who have enjoyed the fruits of the huge increase in fares over the
last five years – amongst the highest in Europe by far.
Meanwhile, the Tories have been trying to talk up the fall
in unemployment. Oddly enough they decided not to adjust the data for the
temporary jobs created by the Olympics – 90% of the fall in unemployment was in
the capital city. They also have not felt keen to mention the record high numbers
of people taking up part-time work to try and earn something. In fact most
experts now predict that unemployment figures will start to rise again in the
autumn. Already reports are coming through of firms who have been hanging on
with staff on reduced pay now having to lay people off as the money runs out.
The
ruling class see little way forward despite the fact that we are paying the
bill. The warning has gone out that Europe can afford to bailout Spain and
Greece in the next round and then that will be it – all money gone! Double-dip?
Triple-dip? It all just one capitalist crisis. Workers need the gold medal of
socialism as the only prize worth fighting for.
