Remember austerity? When they said all we had to do
was sack a few teachers close a few libraries
and tighten our belt and everything would be fine?
Now we have pensioners riding buses all day to stay warm
and 1 in 10 parents using a food bank.
"I went to bed and I felt lovely and then about two o'clock
in the morning... The heating I've left the heating on.
So I've had to come all the way down on the stair lift
to turn the heating off and then you wake up freezing cold.
And it's getting even worse now."
In one of the richest countries in the world.
The cost of living crisis is nothing new it is
austerity on steroids It is a political choice.
Most people accessing a food bank are people
who are in work.
Most people having their wages subsidised
are in low paid work and in precarious work.
How does it feel as a working class person
to queue up a food bank.
How does it feel to be in that queue,
everybody knowing that that means you've run out of food.
Not because of personal fault,
individual failings, money mismanagement
but because of the capitalist system that we live within.
500 000 children being plunged in absolute poverty is the most dominant indictment anyone
with children knows the pressure and the anxiety around them being fed and feeling nourished and
their bellies being full the anguish that an individual person would feel when that food runs
out the system has created all of this tension a failed system essentially where people run
out of food you have to queue up for food and then be grateful for what you get and there is just
such nonchalance to that suffering you go through any community now you will see
cues of people at food banks but it didn't used to be normal that people had a cure for
food because they'd ran out and yet there was a political shrug that is a price that's worth
paying for their system it's interesting how the richest people in society feel like they have
any right or any knowledge or experience to pass comment on how some of the poorest people
in our society should live whether it's andrew bailey the governor of the bank of england he
earns 575 000 pounds a year telling people on about 1 200 pounds a month that they have to
think about pay restraint mps it is just so unbelievably painful to hear government minister
george eustis telling people to buy the basic brands people are already doing that
people are already buying the basic products people have cut back people have cancelled
subscriptions to netflix and disney or whatever it is that they tell us to do it shows us that
they know nothing of how people actually live 68 year old michael who's worked all his life
on the london underground and says he has 25 pounds a week in spare cash i thought he was
going to live comfortably what i have to do is boil water every time i want to shave or
have a proper voice the food bank can trigger a range of emotions are you struggling
too much none of the tension exists in parliament it all exists in our homes it exists in our
communities the actual tension of people feeling tense about a letter coming from the dwp about
being sanctioned or a bailiff knocking at the door or in relationships people concealing
the level of financial difficulty from one partner to another think about all of that stress and all
of that tension simultaneous to that there is a huge strain because of years and years of
cuts to mental health services the inability for people to often access the care that they need a
cost of living crisis leads to other kinds of crises and actually you can't cheat your way
and trick your way through this crisis the cost of living crisis can only be tackled by looking
at power and wealth and the redistribution of both unfortunately you have a set of politicians now
in the opposition who are scared of their own shadow they're kind of running after this mythical
stereotypically constructed working class who in my view don't exist whose votes are they really
trying to win when they won't talk about a wealth tax or they are scared to talk about being in
solidarity with working class people withdrawing their labour a really concrete and tangible way
that working class people are increasing their own pay the labour party will never get that time back
in my view it's a really dangerous political orthodoxy where you are opening up a huge vacuum
and that vacuum is going to be filled and it's going to be filled quickly unless we and i mean
collectively the left the trade union labor movement get our act together to talk about
the tangible and concrete alternative that is possible there is no need to push an entire
nation into a recession there is no need to call for pay restraint there is no need to restrict the
civil liberties of working-class people who want to organise for their own trade union freedoms and
right to withdraw their labour all of these things are ideologically driven to protect the status quo
to protect the wealthiest people in society then human beings are turned into the commodities
within the system for the sake of the profits of the richest for the sake of the status quo
and always about trying to quell any kind of resistance to that system setting expectations
it's all about limiting our imagination isn't it these rich and powerful people who hold very
important positions telling us what is possible and actually it's a load of nonsense the money
is there right now to do whatever is necessary for working class people in this crisis the nhs
was born from the ashes of a world war where our towns and cities and communities had been
ravaged by war and yet that was possible food houses clothing employment leisure and social
security for all must come before the claims of the fuel we have shown we can organize the
resources of the country to win the war we can do the same in peace so as saying now inside this
crisis that we have to set our expectations that there has to be pay restraint that the invasion
of ukraine will have a economic cost here is all about telling a story it was to limit our
imaginations about what is possible it is possible that we have luxurious beautiful community spaces
where people can go swimming play tennis everybody has access to all of the musical instruments that
they could ever wish time and space to write if they want or sing if they want or act if they want
watch performances in communal spaces nothing is out of limits for working class people
if there was a will for that to exist and it's up to us to to demand all of that what campaigners
have been doing for the last decade is trying to explain how the cost of living crisis is a
political crisis so often that is concealed by the mainstream media double down news are constantly
trying to get closer to the truth and read love it if you join double down news on patreon