After 4 Years the Lib-Dems are now Opposed to the Attacks They Supported!
Every time you hear Nick Clegg talk about how the Lib Dems restrained their Tory partners in the Coalition, just think of the attacks on the welfare state, the NHS reforms and above all the attack on claimants. The story below, in last Wednesday’s Guardian illustrates the reality of what has happened. Those who couldn’t protect themselves went without food, had their benefits stopped ‘sanctioned’ and were left to wither on the vine whilst Ian Duncan Smith flattered the Tory’s multi-millionaire donors.
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| Disabled Man Dies - Guardian |
In all of this the Lib-Dems have been complicit. The poor have paid the bankers’ bills as Clegg and Cable smiled on what was happening. Only now have the Lib-Dems discovered that they opposed the Bedroom Tax all along!
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| speaks for itself |
What can be done?
Today there is no movement against the attacks on claimants. Small groups like Brighton Benefits Campaign exist but they are more concerned with their own sectarian differences than campaigning on the coal face. The attack on benefits affects those in work as well as those who are unemployed.
These attacks are designed to keep wages down, even at a time of nominal full-employment. In this they have succeeded. We have a recovery without any increase in the price of labour. The trade union movement has unfortunately sat idly by doing little or nothing.
There is a desperate need for a mass campaign on the lines of the anti-poll tax movement to shake up those in power and reverse the cuts.
Tony Greenstein
