The claim from the Tory government and its army of media supporters that the latest Budget has ended austerity is completely false. It is very important for the left and the labour movement as a whole that they grasp the character of the new attacks to come, so that they can resist them.
The party on which Johnson is relying to deliver Brexit and austerity is not the Tories. It is the LibDems.
For months Blairites in the Labour Party, in alliance with the Lib-Dems, using the Guardian as their central publicity machine, have been spectacularly unsuccessfully attempting to persuade the British electorate that the most important issue in British politics is not defence of the population’s living standards but Brexit.
The claim for the latest Tory Budget is that ‘austerity is coming to an end’, and has been dutifully echoed by the Tory press and the BBC.
In reality austerity policies will continue long into the future, extending the longest recorded fall in living standards in this country.
By Brian Jackson
The new policies announced by Labour on the EU Single Market confirm further positive moves to defend living standards and jobs by Labour under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. The decision to accept membership of the Single Market for at least a ‘transitional period’, while not excluding it as a permanent arrangement, is correct from the point of view of working class living standards. It was, for interrelated reasons, also immediately followed by a further strengthening of Labour’s lead over the Tories to five percent – 43% to 38%. Unfortunately, this move by Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership was incorrectly attacked by some on the left. It is therefore necessary to understand clearly why Corbyn’s position was correct.
By Jane West
Labour’s successful campaign, in comparison with the Tories’ set back, at June’s General Election was due to the growing rejection of austerity, which trumped May’s assumption that a mandate for Brexit would be the decisive issue. The fact that defence of living standards, not the EU, is the biggest issue in British politics was also at the root of the setback for both the SNP and the Lib Dems in the election.
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