In 2017 House of Commons researchers demonstrated that an appalling 86% of the economic burden of Tory austerity has been loaded onto the shoulders of women.
The people who have suffered the worst consequences of Tory austerity dogma have been low-paid and part-time workers (mainly female) and single parents (overwhelmingly female), while the people who have done by far the best out of the austerity years are the (mainly male) mega-rich who have have literally doubled their wealth.
Once it became absolutely clear that Tory economic policy was highly discriminatory against women, the Tories were left with a very simple choice; do something to reverse the discrimination inherent in their economic agenda, or carry on with the exact same sexist policies and prove beyond doubt that they are a bunch of misogynists who wholeheartedly believe in trampling down low-income women while they shovel tax breaks and handouts at the mega-rich.
It was always obvious which direction the Tories would choose given that they're completely bankrolled by the mega-rich.
Despite their constant identity politics game-playing over the fact that Theresa May is a woman, the Tory party were never actually going to lift a finger to help the poor and ordinary women they've been misogynistically grinding into destitution.
So the fact that the Tories' latest budget is yet another ideologically driven assault on the economic well-being of low income women and single parents is completely unsurprising.
Neither is their complacency. The Tories know that their chums in the mainstream media won't bother to highlight the evidence that their economic policies continue to be profoundly misogynistic, just as most of the mainstream media have given them countless easy rides in the past over the constant stream of court defeats for their malicious welfare and employment legislation, the two damning UN reports into their systematic abuse of disabled people and their ruinous austerity agenda, and the fact that despite all of the economic misery they've inflicted on our people, and on our communities, they've continually missed their deficit reduction targets by miles.
Literally the only newspaper to have picked up on the IPPR evidence of the Tories' ongoing assault on low-income women and single parents is the Guardian. The rest of the media have simply ignored it as if the UK government continuing to wage a profoundly sexist economic war on women is an entirely unremarkable facet of British life!
The Tories know perfectly well that their austerity agenda is profoundly misogynistic, they know that targeting the bulk of their cuts at low-income workers and single parents is inherently sexist, yet they continue to do it because of their unwavering confidence that their mates in the mainstream media will draw as little attention to it as possible when this kind of institutional sexism should actually be a massive national scandal.
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According to the IPPR Future of England survey 2014, I'm in a small minority of Englishmen who support Scottish independence. Just 19% of respondents to the Future of England survey were in favour, which makes me one of the few English people who support the idea of greater autonomy and increased political accountability north of the border.
The findings of this survey paint an ugly picture of England as a land filled with bitter, resentful and vindictive people, seething with anger at the audacity of the Scots for even daring consider an escape from the misrule of the Westminster establishment.
What is much more concerning than the fact that the majority of the English oppose Scottish independence, is the fact that a clear majority believe that the Westminster establishment should punish the people of Scotland with huge funding cuts should they vote against independence in the referendum. The mainstream media has described this attitude as "the English" seeking a "heavy price" for the independence referendum.
The motivation behind this common English desire to have Scottish funding cut by some £4 billion to bring per capita spending down to the UK average, is the pervasive media narrative that the Scottish are a bunch of "subsidy junkies".
A brief look at the actual facts reveals that Scotland does indeed benefit from slightly higher per capita government spending than the UK average, however Scotland also has a much higher per capita GDP than the rest of the UK, thanks largely to the revenues from Scottish oil and gas. Once the proceeds from oil and gas are added into the equation it turns out that tax revenues in Scotland are nearly 20% higher than the UK average which would make slightly higher public spending seem pretty fair.
Once the supply of North Sea oil begins to dwindle, Scotland also has huge renewable energy potential, including some 25% of EU offshore wind potential, 25% of EU tidal potential, and 10% of EU hydroelectric potential.
These vast supplies of actual and potential energy reserves make Scotland a very wealthy country indeed, however a great swathe of the English public seem to believe that the Scottish people should be denied the benefits of all of this Scottish energy wealth so that it can be distributed to the people of England instead.
One of the most absurd things about this English bitterness towards Scotland is the way that they completely overlook the fact that government spending in London is much higher than the levels of public spending in Scotland that the mainstream media have whipped them up into a frenzy of bitterness and jealousy about.
The disparity in public spending between London and the rest of England is so enormous that more than half of England's infrastructure budget is spent just in London and the South East. To put this into perspective, the annual investment in transport infrastructure in the North East of England is just £246 per person, while the annual amount in London is £4,895!
You'd have to be a particularly one-eyed Englishman to allow the mainstream media to whip you up into a frenzy over the fact that average public spending in Scotland is slightly higher than the average for England, without realising, or caring, that vastly more public money is poured into London than anywhere else, including Scotland (and that's without even adding the £1.5 trillion in public money that was sunk into the City of London financial sector to save the bankers from the consequences of their own reckless gambling into the equation).
When the majority of English people demand that the level of Scotland's per capita government spending is reduced to the UK average, what they are actually demanding is that the Scottish public be denied the economic benefits of their own abundance of natural resources, so that the benefits can be redistributed to England instead. In order to adopt this absurd "It's not fair that Scotland gets more" position, they have to completely ignore the elephant in the room, which is the vastly bigger disparity that exists between government spending in London, compared with the rest of England.
What makes this common English "punish them if they vote no" attitude so much worse is the fact that the majority of respondents to the IPPR survey also want to see the Westminster establishment use its powers to obstruct an independent Scotland by trying to force them out of the EU and other international institutions, and by attempting to prevent them from using the pound (even though that would be impossible because the pound is a fully tradeable international currency).
This "punish them whatever they decide to do" stance actually makes a very strong argument in favour of Scottish independence. Not only do a majority of my fellow Englishmen want Scotland to vote no to independence because they feel a sense of entitlement to the revenues from Scottish natural resources, they also want Westminster to attempt to severely punish the people of Scotland for their audacity, should they dare vote yes to independence.
It seems that the majority of my fellow Englishmen are not very nice bedfellows at all. The fact that most of my countrymen oppose Scottish independence isn't all that much of a problem, after all, everyone is entitled to their opinion. What is completely unacceptable is the ridiculous sense of entitlement that so many English people seem to have towards the proceeds from Scottish natural resources, and the blatantly vindictive "punish them whatever they decide to do" attitudes they hold towards the people of Scotland.
All three of the Westminster establishment parties have been offering Scotland "jam tomorrow" promises of more decision making powers for Scotland should the people of Scotland vote no to independence, however the results of this survey show that the English electorate are baying for Scottish blood. It seems extremely likely that any further devolution of powers would also see massive cuts in Scottish public spending, imposed in order to appease the much larger English electorate.
The only way for the people of Scotland to ensure that the economic benefits of their abundant natural resources are not redistributed to England is to vote in favour of independence. The majority of my fellow Englishmen want to see the people of Scotland punished whatever they decide to do, and should the Scottish people vote against independence, it's quite clear that it would come at a "heavy price".
The results of this survey are an embarrassment to England. They paint us as a selfish, resentful and vindictive bunch with an intense loathing for the Scottish, however I'm proud to be one of the minority of English people who support the idea of Scottish independence, and wish the people of Scotland all the best for the future, no matter what the outcome of the independence referendum.
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