Government mustn't punish workers for inflation incompetence
LEAP published the press release below on the costs of rising inflation for workers. The Government's statement that Ministers would forego their annual pay rise is a pointless gesture at a time when the Government is imposing a three year pay cut on public sector workers.
PRESS RELEASE:
Inflation figures released today show that CPI has risen to 3.3% due to rising food and energy prices. RPI inflation hit 4.3% as prices continue to rise. CPI inflation is now at its highest level since 1992.
John McDonnell MP, LEAP Chair, said:"This isn't about pay, and its not solely about the credit crunch, it's about short-term decision making over the last 11 years as New Labour has done nothing to move the UK from a fossil fuel based economy to an economy based on renewable technologies".
Professor Prem Sikka said:"The government now only have blunt tools for managing the economy. The government should use the regulation of gas, electricity and water to impose a price freeze, and also claw back monies through windfall tax on utilities and oil companies to support pensioners and increase tax free personal allowances, so that people at the bottom of the pile have more cash"
Andrew Fisher, LEAP Co-ordinator, said:"Inflation is rising due to the Government's failure to plan for 'peak oil'. Punishing public sector workers for international oil and food prices is economically misguided and will cause further resentment among dedicated public sector workers. It is politically and economically inept."
PRESS RELEASE:
Inflation figures released today show that CPI has risen to 3.3% due to rising food and energy prices. RPI inflation hit 4.3% as prices continue to rise. CPI inflation is now at its highest level since 1992.
John McDonnell MP, LEAP Chair, said:"This isn't about pay, and its not solely about the credit crunch, it's about short-term decision making over the last 11 years as New Labour has done nothing to move the UK from a fossil fuel based economy to an economy based on renewable technologies".
Professor Prem Sikka said:"The government now only have blunt tools for managing the economy. The government should use the regulation of gas, electricity and water to impose a price freeze, and also claw back monies through windfall tax on utilities and oil companies to support pensioners and increase tax free personal allowances, so that people at the bottom of the pile have more cash"
Andrew Fisher, LEAP Co-ordinator, said:"Inflation is rising due to the Government's failure to plan for 'peak oil'. Punishing public sector workers for international oil and food prices is economically misguided and will cause further resentment among dedicated public sector workers. It is politically and economically inept."
posted by John at 11:18 AM
6 Comments:
Why should pensioners have to freeze in the cold or limit themselves to one room this winter and yet energy company shareholders and senior management rake in the exorbitant profits?
Why should young parents struggle to feed their family on the pittance that's left after the massive mortgage on negative equity is paid - yet at the same time commodity traders make obscene profits on oil trades?
Why should the starving third world have even less food to eat because the "globalised market economy" means that anything in short supply to goes to the highest bidder.
Any government should ignore this at their peril - it will lead to revolution.
Why should the starving third world have even less food to eat because the "globalised market economy" means that anything in short supply to goes to the highest bidder.
That's pretty simplistic, to say the least. Try this. Executive summary:
'[...] The point that emerges from this is the cause of what turns out to be a "perceived" shortage is in fact an artificially induced phenomenon, arising entirely out of subsidy and trade distortions, overlaid with a heavy dose of politics.
[...] the lessons are clear. If market mechanisms are allowed to work, agriculture is well able to feed the current world population, and accommodate population growth for the foreseeable future. The only thing standing in the way of that are the politicians. We do not have a food crisis – we have a political crisis.'
While I agree with you regarding wage increase pressures. We have to look at the overall picture.
If we listen to the trade unions and strike, how does this fair for the economy.
Gordon Brown is gonna have to wake up and smell the coffee...his right-wing policies such as getting more oil from Saudi Arabia where women don't even have the vote are going to look pretty stupid not to mention not environmnentally friendly when Obama who has cosnisitently voted liberal in the Senate and who has a liberal and ethical foreign policy wins in November. Michelle Obama was compared to Jackie Kennedy (as a style icon, not physically obviously) today... ok some Americans will vote for anything with any Kenneday connotation at all but McCain really has no chance now I reckon. Michelle is also highly qualified and capable professinally and apparently a great "Mom" and Obama himself says if she even ran for President she'd certainly beat him. So there's your American dream - though they've had plenty of pain along the way such as when the children were smaller if you read Barack's and Michelle's father had MS later in life which wasn't easy to manage for him and his family of course. You can even study the concept of the "American dream" in a Birbeck college postgrad American politics degree by the way.. many Americans of course being miles away from it e.g. with no healthcare (see Sicko by Michael Moore) or native Americans now lnadless who have to work in gas stations etc, women hitting glass ceilings as Hillary Clinton detailed hoping that from now on the way will be a little bit easier for women ,ethnic minorities...also working women on thw "mommy track" (where you work part-time in a less pressured job or "stay-at-home" moms with kids fall further and further behind salary wise often of not preofessionally as well...
So let' s make palns to imporove things for after Brown gets to the bottom of his long, curvy slide into obscurity.
How about a fantasy McDonnell cabinet just for fun now..
PM - McDonnell
Foreign Sec - Jeremy Corbyn
..continue anyone?
and mnay fist bumps to you all till next time we meet.
Apparently NL have just obstructed Berlusconi's, yes that well known left winger,plan to give vouchers to the poor across Europe, and other EU tax relief plans, NL must go now, time for you to call a challenge, JM!
B4L, I think that just about proves my point. The manipulation of rice exports to Japan affecting global prices
And why does the US choose that market and not the needier parts of Asia? Because they have higher disposable income and the US can increase their prices.
Bur somehow I can't see the massive paddy fields of the USA solving world hunger.
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