The uncropped version of this poster is like something from the 1970s. It fearmongers about Labour delivering "a tax bombshell for your family", which someone has helpfully cropped to make it read "hell for your family", which is what you're very likely to get under a Tory government.
Hell for your family
After they came to power in 2010 the Tories oversaw the longest sustained decline in workers' wages in recorded history, meaning that the real value of wages today are still 10.4% below their value in 2007.
Not just a lost decade of wage growth. A decade of negative wage growth.
If you work for a living then the Tories will make things worse as they try to squeeze wages as hard as possible to achieve their dream of competing with China and India on their way up as we pass them on our way down.
If you have kids at school, care about safe policing levels on your streets, want a decent well-funded fire service or an NHS that isn't collapsing from the exhaustion of £billions of ideologically driven Tory cuts, then you'd be a fool to vote Tory too, because their cuts could mean hell for your family in the case of poor education, crime, house fire or illness.
Debt
Surely you know that the Tories have created more new public debt since 2010 than every single Labour government in history combined?
Surely you know that?
Taxes
Only a party as deceptive and disingenuous as the Tories could print up a poster fearmongering about Labour raising taxes when they themselves are the ones failing to rule out tax rises for the poor.
Just look at their record since 2010. Eoin Clarke has helpfully compiled this list of 24 tax rises imposed by the Tories in the last 7 years.
David Davis
The Tory standing in front of the poster is David Davis. Once upon a time he was one of the not-so-bad Tories. The kind who actually seemed to give a stuff about things like civil liberties and the rule of law.
After being beaten to the Tory leadership by the young David Cameron, Davis' gradually surrendered his principles to such a point that he's prepared to stand in front of such a tawdry poster as the Brexit minister in the most right-wing authoritarian UK government in living memory.
10 years ago Davis would have been ashamed to stand in front of such a poster, and he would never have dreamed of trying to introduce an anti-democratic Great Repeal Bill designed to completely bypass democracy and allow his fellow Tory ministers to set about rewriting the laws of the land with no scrutiny over their actions.
A "no deal strop"
David Davis is the one who helped Theresa May come up with her ridiculous threat to strop away from the EU negotiations with nothing if they don't cave into Tory demands.
You don't have to be a genius level diplomat to understand that making the threat of exploding an economic bomb over your neighbours the centrepiece of your strategy before the negotiations have even started is hardly likely to achieve the optimal outcome.
The European Commission President Jean-Claude Junker has said that Theresa May and the Brexiters are so out of touch with the reality that they're facing that the likelihood of a "no deal" Brexit cliff edge will be greater than 50% with them in charge.
If you're worried about the welfare of your family you need to have a good hard think about whether you really want to entrust these Tory charlatans with the nation's future.
Are you prepared for a Tory cliff edge Brexit recession?
The "no deal" cliff edge Brexit strop the Tories are threatening to do would wipe between 6.3% and 9.5% of GDP; we'd face WTO tariffs on imports and exports; the manufacturing industry would be reduced to chaos; 97% of our food and drink exports would be affected; the UK shipping industry would face ruin because of customs checks; Scotland would leave the Union and rejoin the Single Market if they had any sense whatever, the Irish peace process would need settling all over again; millions of migrants (EU citizens in the UK, and UK citizens in the EU) would face ears of uncertainty and turmoil; the British aviation industry would be severely damaged; businesses and capital would flow out of the UK into the safety of the Single Market at an unprecedented rate ...
How could you imagine that this kind of worst case scenario Tory Brexit strop would be good for your family or for the national debt?
Do you remember the banking crisis and the subsequent recession? Was that good for your family? Was that good for the national debt?
Well the post-crisis recession wiped 4.8% off GDP. If the post Tory Brexit recession wipes 7% or 8% off GDP how do you think that will play out?
Maybe you're confident enough in your own financial situation to adopt the "I'm alright Jack" attitude*, but what about your friends, your neighbours, your extended family, your local community. Will they all have the financial means to weather the storm of this self-inflicted chaos?
What about the national debt?
Do you honestly believe that a collapse in GDP that's even bigger than the one after the banking crisis won't lead to the deficit going crazy and the debt getting bigger at a faster rate than it did even after the banks went all haywire and insolvent back in 2007-08?
Conclusion
For goodness sake don't believe Tory propaganda.
And if you do vote Tory don't dare say you weren't warned when it all turns to chaos.
Another Angry Voice is a "Pay As You Feel" website. You can have access to all of my work for free, or you can choose to make a small donation to help me keep writing. The choice is entirely yours.
* = In which case you're obviously not someone who works in manufacturing, food & services, agriculture, shipping or ports, aviation or airports, the import/export business or tourism, or someone who relies on any publicly funded service, welfare entitlement or pension.
No comments:
Post a Comment