Friday, March 29

Britain’s cost of living crisis means ‘getting by’ will become a luxury for some | Francis Ryan


TThe thing about governments in crisis is that they have little time to govern. Boris Johnson, once king of the world, now a lame duck, is a prime minister consumed with his own survival. Experts say Johnson is motivated to cling to power not to deliver a pressing political agenda, but to beat former Bullingdon Club friend David Cameron: “He will not accept that the last Etonian Prime Minister has outlived him.” Meanwhile, in the real world, British families are about to endure the worst cost-of-living crisis in 30 years, and are left waiting for someone in power to notice.

For many, money going out is about to skyrocket, causing money coming in to shrink in real terms. Inflation rose to 5.4% last month, fueled by more expensive food and clothing. Energy rates are going up and tax bills will go up too. At the same time, the £20 universal credit increase has been cut and unemployment benefits are about to hit their lowest real value in more than three decades, a rate that experts call “just a little more than destitution.” The ministers can say that work is the solution, but they are good jobs, not just any job, that is a pardon; most people living in poverty in the UK last year were in working households. The official line may be that the pandemic is over, but this is also taking a toll on personal finances; just ask the clinically vulnerable retiree sheltering in a cold home. The result of all this is quite clear: simply surviving is going to become more and more of a luxury.

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today’s release social security commission report – the result of a two-year initiative to outline proposals for a better benefits system run by claimants themselves – outlines the kind of ideas that could make a real difference right now. After a decade of pernicious and reduced welfare, the report makes some useful proposals. He suggests scrapping universal credit and replacing it with a “guaranteed decent income for all”, set at 50% of the minimum wage (£163.50 a week); the end of profit penalties; and ending the use of social security as a patch for failures elsewhere by abolishing zero-hour contracts and introducing free early childhood education and care.

The concern here is not that Boris Johnson would never introduce such solutions, that’s no surprise, but that his government barely engages with the problem. Ask a minister what the most pressing problem facing “families struggling to make ends meet”, and it’s not a ratty benefits system, energy bills, rising food prices or insecure work: it’s the BBC license fee. What those with low incomes will spend on average 18% of those revenues (after housing costs) in April’s energy bills is seen by this government not as an imminent threat, but as an inconsequential sideshow.

The crisis facing the British people right now is not just that millions cannot afford the basics, but that their leaders have no intention of helping them. Or even maintaining the pretense that they will. This is a remarkable state of affairs once you really start to reflect on it, though it’s nothing new. People in this country have been skipping meals and wearing coats in their front rooms for some time, and no one has been paying attention to this either. The difference now, perhaps, is that such events will not be limited to the working class. Middle-class families who were previously managing could soon find themselves in financial difficulties, while those who were already struggling will fall into extreme poverty.

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Politics is often seen through the prism of the Westminster drama, a sight never made clearer than the latest Tory power struggle. We’re led to believe that this is all that matters, that it’s normal to pay more attention to what the No 10 wine staff puts in a suitcase than to the fact that many parents can’t afford to put food in the pantry. Johnson clearly believes this himself to a great extent, viewing power as a game and the rest of us as pawns. But politics, real politics, is not defined by the ostentatious maneuvering of a few at the top; it is defined by the ordinary question of whether a teacher can afford to turn on the heat in the winter.

It is these mundane topics that seem to simply bore Johnson and the public school students around him. The fact that food staples like eggs, butter and milk are experiencing price increases may not be a glamorous fact to ponder, but it will be part of the larger issue facing this country in the coming months. That neither the labor market nor the social security system is fit to weather the storm is not only a deep concern for the future, but also a hard lesson about the mistakes of the past.

The way out of this will not be found through a different Conservative session in Downing Street, nor perhaps even a change of party. What it requires above all else is an acknowledgment that this country is crying out for dramatic change, and that playing by the same old economic rules will not get us there. This means shifting power from Westminster to communities, a rejuvenated modern welfare state, and a media willing to hold quacks to account, rather than help them get elected. Until then, millions of people in Britain will find themselves falling below the poverty line. The cost of living with Boris Johnson as prime minister is too high.

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