I’m a pensioner. Never voted Tory in my life. Most of our friends are pensioners - most vote Labour. Watched for 14 years as the Tories dismantled services, ripped off the tax payer and feathered their own nests. Looked on in horror at the way they handled the pandemic and ignored the fact that very many individuals and businesses suffered from the rules they imposed and yet found so very difficult to follow themselves, Don’t even get me started on the Truss/Kwarteng disaster. Couldn’t wait to vote them out.
On Labours’ showing thus far we’ve had unproven claims of a black hole in public finances - of which they had no knowledge despite having months to inspect the books in the run up to the general election. Despite the urgency they saw fit to give train drivers and junior doctors whopping pay rises instead of applying the money saved from robbing pensioners of the WFP, and other hasty cut backs towards plugging that black hole.
So basically Robin Hood in reverse, and come the budget there will be more of the same. I suspect the two child cap will be kicked into the long grass and among ‘the broadest shoulders’ of which Starmer spoke major burden wil be pensioners again as the poorest are dragged into paying income tax via frozen thresholds, and the sick and disabled by way of drastic cuts to sickness and disability benefits - many of which will affect disabled pensioners as some benefits such as attendance allowance are the only way they can qualify for pension credit and subsequently claim WFP.
Labour have refused to rule out the draconian measures proposed in the Tories consultation document on disability support and their rhetoric on sickness benefits mirrors that of the Tories - cutting support and forcing even the sickest back into some form of work, without any concrete plans as to how that can be achieved.
Labour had a baptism of fire coming to power as the unrest in response to the Southport outrage took hold. Starmer condemned everyone taking part as right wing extremists. That absolves him from looking at the deeper and wider issues underpinning the unrest. Because basically he has no more intention of tackling those issues than the Tories did.
l voted for them, and so far l’m looking on in the same way as inthe last fourteen years of Tory rule. On the showing so far l expect more austerity - rebranded as ‘fixing the foundations’ and it’s those at the bottom of the pile who will feel the effects. They signalled their intentions clearly by targeting the WFP - don’t get me wrong, l think it should have been means tested out of the hands of wealthy pensioners long ago. But tying it to a benefit designed to support the very poorest isn’t the way to do it. It’s still early days and the budget will reveal their true intentions, but my own feeling is that Starmers’ Labour Party tare wolves in sheep’s clothing. And that’s where the Tories have the upper hand. They are greedy, self serving, dishonest, lying, incompetent bastards who don’t give a shit about Joe Public. But they don’t pretend to be anything else.