seven weeks in, and it’s all looking a bit… Tory

  • Post last modified:August 22, 2024
  • Reading time:10 mins read


The 22 August 2024 marks seven weeks since the electorate hit the polling booths and voted the new Labour Party government in to a sweeping majority. We distinctly remember some promises about a “changed” country. Now is as good a time as any then to ask: “how’s that turning out?”

The answer should be obvious: not well:

Let’s not forget propping up Israel committing an atrocious, utterly abhorrent genocide in Gaza:

So, about how we thought, then.

Labour: all rather… Tory

Fresh out of the election, and Labour ChangeTM has unleashed another round of austerity misery on marginalised communities.

Ostensibly, chancellor Rachel Reeves has used her bogus “black hole” bluff and bluster to justify these poverty-entrenching measures. First it was maintaining the two-child limit on benefits. Then, she was cutting the winter fuel payment for millions of pensioners. Now, she’s raising social rents on council and housing association properties.

Of course, Reeves and “changed” Labour could be fixing the real issues harming sidelined communities. For instance, the new government could raise public sector workers pay in line with inflation – instead of offering miserly pay deals that amount to real-terms pay cuts.

Boosting benefits or bashing claimants? It has so far opted for the latter, rather than making social security a genuine safety net that supports people to live dignified, fulfilling lives.

It could do away with the parasitic social housing landlords hiding in faux not-for-profit sight. That is, housing associations turning tidy profits while leaving tenants in squalid, shoddy living conditions.

From ‘Milk Snatcher’ to ‘Kid Starver’

But then, the red rosette Tories were never going to do any of that, as plenty of people pointed out:

When politicians show you they’re corporate capitalist establishment stooges and shameless Thatcher fangirls, believe them the first time. One poster had a handy list of a number of times our new prime minister Sir ‘Kid Starver’ had lauded his idol the late Maggie ‘Milk Snatcher’:

And for that matter, Reeves may as well have had “THATCHERITE TORY ASS-KISSER” tattooed across her forehead in big bold print as well:

Funnily enough, the Canary’s James Wright exposed her neoliberal Thatcher adulation back in March.

Change? In tie colour only

It’s the type of “told you so” that gives the left no satisfaction to point out. That’s because, at the heart of it, Labour’s Tory austerity 2.0 will kill unconscionable tens, if not hundreds of thousands more people. Invariably, it’ll be the poorest, most marginalised groups at the sharp end of this:

This was the inevitable outcome of a Labour landslide:

As with the Tories before, they have the numbers in parliament to put their billionaire and business agenda into action without challenge.

Still, massive raging hypocrite habits die hard with this government. The latest example? An austerity announcement bonanza during the parliamentary recess, so MPs have no chance for scrutiny. As one poster raised, Hoyle had lambasted the Tories for doing this previously:

Less than two months into “changed” Labour, they’ve repeatedly bared their continuity Conservative fangs. At the end of the day, Starmerites are Tory in red tie, tooth, and claw-back cuts from the most marginalised members of society. What was it those gullible – or perhaps more accurately – lying little liberal lickspittles were adamantly telling everyone again?

After fourteen gruelling years, the Tories are out. Here’s to the next five under Starmerite Labour – Tories in all but name.

Feature image via the Canary





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