The Guardian View on the Tories’ Autumn Statement: Wrong to Reward the Rich and Punish the Poor

THE GUARDIAN – EDITORIAL: The deepening cracks in the country’s social structure are a clear sign that voters cannot just be left to face the cold winds of the market on their own

Jeremy Hunt will appeal to voters next week, if the leaks are true, on behalf of the Tory party’s worst instincts. The chancellor’s “autumn statement for growth” is said to include inheritance tax cuts that benefit the rich, reduced welfare payments which the poor rely on, and the withdrawal of free medical care from “coasters” who want to “take taxpayers for a ride”. To push the idea that the state should, in a cost of living crisis, reward the rich and punish the poor reveals an appalling disregard for social justice.

The five giants of poverty first identified in the second world war – want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness – are returning in new forms. MPs warn that the babies of poor families are dying for want of a cot as the benefit rules don’t provide for safe sleeping provision for the homeless. Diseases caused by malnutrition and associated with destitution, such as scurvy and rickets, now appear in doctors’ surgeries. With food prices 30% higher than two years ago, the ranks of the hungry are growing. The former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown warned only this week that “poverty, as distinct from neglect, parental addictions or domestic violence, is now a principal cause of children being forced into care”. » | Editorial | Friday, November 17, 2023

The Tories have turned sour and toxic. The party is no longer fit to govern the nation. This government must therefore be turfed out of office. The sooner, the better. – © Mark Alexander