Lindsey German on a week of attempted resets by the political mainstream

You would think from the reaction of some that Rachel Reeves’s budget really was going to squeeze the rich until the pips squeak, as Labour Chancellor Denis Healy claimed to want to do in the early 1970s. That’s not what is on the agenda. Instead this is a plan which poses as heavy on spending but which in reality maintains a considerable amount of Tory austerity. And while spending in real terms rises over the next year, it will fall again after that. The NHS and education are set for big increases, but local government, transport and the justice system less so.

Neither will it address the calamitous fall in working class living standards which has fuelled widespread discontent with the main parties. Indeed, forecasts from the Jospeh Rowntree Foundation show that living standards will have fallen again to the depths of the cost of living crisis by the end of this parliament.

There has been an increase in the level of taxation but this has not been anything like a general taxation on the rich, which would be extremely popular with most people. It’s true there have been measures aimed at grabbing more money from the non-doms, increasing the duty on private jets, raising inheritance tax, and charging VAT on private school fees, but none of it sufficient to seriously generate the income required or to cause more than minor discomfort to the rich.

This is true despite the cries of rage and despair from Kirstie Allsopp and Jeremy Clarkson, echoed across the right-wing media and at the BBC, at the temerity of a Labour government raising the levels of inheritance tax and the impact it will have on farmers. You would think this was the collectivisation of the Kulaks under Stalin rather than a fairly modest attempt to raise tax from some of the richest people in the country who have done nothing for this money other than inherit land and property.

Investment increases will largely benefit big private corporations who will make billions from contracts. The economic situation looking medium to long term also does not bode well for British capitalism.

And the vicious attacks on some of the poorest remain: the cut in pensioners’ winter fuel allowance, the two-child cap on benefits, and the hike to £3 for bus fares, an increase which will require nearly three hours’ work of the new minimum wage to pay for. So the poor and the working class overall will get poorer and the rich will hang on to nearly all of their wealth.

The increase in employers’ National Insurance contributions is also mixed: again it evades squeezing the big companies through a higher corporation tax, but it hits small companies plus large sections of care such as hospices and GP surgeries which are privately run.

The budget has already begun to unravel, since the cost of National Insurance to effectively NHS operations was clearly not factored in. Workers will not for the most part feel better off – especially since the freezing of income tax thresholds will mean many pay more tax as a result.

And the right are waiting in the wings. Reform is doing well in council by elections at the expense of Labour, a recent poll put the Tories ahead of Labour in what should still be the government’s honeymoon period, and Kemi Badenoch has just become leader of the Conservatives. Anyone who thinks this marks a challenge to racism and sexism should think again. She is against reparations for Britain’s role in slavery, and thinks empire had little to do with the wealth of British capitalism. She opined last month that payment for maternity leave was ‘excessive’.

Her election marks an unsurprising shift to the right in the opposition party. Badenoch shares much of the political analysis of Reform and it will be interesting to see how close the Tories get to Farage’s party under her leadership. We do know however that, like Reform, she will use the most divisive politics to undercut Labour and rebuild the feeble Tory party.

Labour under Keir Starmer has a large majority, but it has little popular support. The left needs to fight against the low wages, poverty, austerity and lack of growth presaged in the budget in order to present an alternative.

The US and Israel – change will only come from below

In the last week the Israelis have bombed Iran, bombed Lebanon – including the UNESCO heritage site of Tyre, have announced they are forcing UNWRA out of Israel, are committing war crimes daily in the north of Gaza, including the latest strike on a polio inoculation clinic. This barbarity receives barely a raised eyebrow from politicians and media. Indeed, our appalling foreign secretary David Lammy this week agreed with Tory MP Nick Timothy (a hard line ideologue if ever there was) that there is no genocide in Gaza – on the basis of no evidence whatever other than prejudice.

The US elections take place on Tuesday with the outcome very uncertain. The truth is, the Palestinians will get nothing from either candidate. Trump is an increasingly deranged monster, but Harris has followed in lockstep with Joe Biden’s craven support for Israel, and has lost the support of many Arab Americans, especially after she refused to hear a Palestinian speaker at the Democrat Convention in August. The US has this weekend sent B52 bombers to the Middle East to prepare for any Iranian response to Israel’s bombing last week.

So expect support, justification, evasion and pure lies about what Israel is doing from the White House whoever wins. Which puts even more onus on the movement from below in solidarity with the Palestinians and against imperialism. This has been extensive and courageous in the US, and it will need to redouble its efforts whoever wins. Our best support for it here is to do the same. Two very important events coming up are Stop the War’s anti-war convention and the workplace day of action on 28th November, now backed by the TUC. We need an even bigger movement to fight US and British backing for genocide.

Read all about it

Counterfire’s monthly free paper has just expanded from 8 to 12 pages, a sign of our growth and of the need to urgently increase the spread of socialist ideas within the Palestine and anti-war movements, the unions and among students. We want to increase the numbers of people who read it, give it out, and support it both financially and in writing and production. If you can do any of these things, get in touch.

A fine revolutionary

My good friend and comrade, John Rose, died on Wednesday. I will miss him very much as will so many people. He was a good socialist for almost 60 years, made important contributions theoretically, was an anti-Zionist Jew who campaigned for Palestine, and was one of the London Recruits who supported resistance actions in apartheid South Africa. Read my obituary here.

This week: I’ll be awaiting with great interest the outcome of the US election, and speaking at a book launch for Monstrous Anger of the Guns on Friday. I will also be trying to catch the Peter Kennard exhibition at the Whitechapel Gallery which has such great reviews.