'Tax cut' promises for some, thumbscrews for others

Left: General Election propaganda; Right: thumbscrews

The Daily Express front page as reported at today's edition of https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs/the_papers flag-waving toward a Tory General Election victory for December, chimes, "Boris: I'll cut taxes for every worker; and boost welfare spending by £5bn."

"Prime Minister Boris Johnson, is looking at plans to give every employee a tax cut worth up to £460 by raising the National Insurance threshold, says the Daily Express. The paper explains that the proposal would be at the heart of a manifesto designed to win over working-class voters, particularly in the Midlands and the North,"

is what BBC News reports.

At what cost to public services and preservation of 'the commons'? one might ask, in line with Prof. Guy Standing's statement cited at https://newsforwardsfromalanwheatley.blogspot.com/2019/11/prof-guy-standing-expounds-upon-plunder-of-the-commons.html

“The commons have been eroded by neglect, in recent times accelerated by budget cuts due to austerity... Often, the erosion has resulted from the deliberate neglect, part of the strategy adopted by the early Thatcherites in which services and industries were starved of investment in order to induce public indifference to, and support for, their privatisation.”

It should be pointed out, as film director Ken Loach does in his new film Sorry We Missed You, that the majority of claimants of 'Universal Credit' (UC) are the working poor.
https://theconversation.com/ken-loachs-new-film-on-the-gig-economy-tells-exactly-the-same-story-as-our-research-125743

 UC incorporates the 'legacy benefits'

• child tax credit
• housing benefit.
• income-related employment and support allowance.
• income-based jobseeker's allowance.
• income support.
• working tax credit

 Source: https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=universal+credit+legacy+benefits

The working poor are fleeced both by the cruelties of UC and taxpayer-subsidising of greedy landlords and skin flint employers alike.

Thumbscrews

Meanwhile, Taxpayers Against Poverty founder [retired] Revd Paul Nicolson reports [by e-mail]:

SPINNING THE 'RISE' IN BENEFITS

BBC News. "Benefits freeze to end in 2020, government confirms". This is technically a lie @BBCnews ought not publish. An increase at the rate of inflation is by definition not a "rise".

This is like unwinding a thumbscrew a quarter of a wind after it has been wound up a hundred times and implying the pain will be less or like closing the door of a fridge and saying it has stopped freezing without turning it off.

Single adult JSA £73.10 a week equates to UC £317 a month. Increases were limited to 1% pa 2011 to 2015 then frozen. It is worthless The nightmare of debt & hunger continues.

JSA/UC is paid to about 4 milion people.

https://www.ons.gov.uk/…/datasets/mainoutofworkbenefitsben01

It has been losing value since 1979 - yes 1979! (Bradshaw & Lynne). Worth 21% of average earnings in 1979 and 10.5% in 2008.

https://www.theguardian.com/…/letter-jobseeker-allowance-un…

Too low to tax but since April 2013 290 councils of 326 have been enforcing a proportion of council tax against £73.10pw JSA/UC, with Magistrates Courts and Bailiffs costs added to the arrears. JSA/UC of £73.10 a week pays rent because housing benefit is also cut. Hunger and debt are inevitable.

Tax & rent are enforced by local authorities, rent by all landlords against £73.10 pw JSA/UC, regardless of delayed payments, benefit sanctions or zero hours contracts.

http://taxpayersagainstpoverty.org.uk/…/tap-tell-united-nat…The state damaging health by the Imposition of extreme poverty is morally indefensible

 So, there you have a little more 'balanced reporting' than you are likely to get from the BBC or Daily Express!