US and UK: Together in the War Against the Poor

We can see that capitalism is indeed global and the effects on working class people and the poor are very similar between nations. The UK, with the right wing Tory (Conservative Party) government headed by Boris Johnson is Washington’s longtime friend and partner. The US mass media is so bad, among much of the population the BBC is seen as left wing.

 

From Mike Craig in Northern Ireland UK

 

The BBC has a story on its website today titled, "Deaths of people on benefits prompt inquiry call".

On seeing this I thought, '10 years too late! we need to challenge the BBC on the part it has played in the deaths of an estimated 150,000 claimants.' The death toll due to withdrawing benefits from the sick and disabled has far exceeded that of Covid 19.

This has been going on for 10 years now yet this is the first time the BBC has mentioned it. Does nobody ever ask why this is?

The bogus work capability assessments carried out by private companies, have never been challenged by the mainstream media because its role is to support neoliberal government.

Unspoken neo-liberal policy is to euthanize the old and the sick. The public began to see this during the first months of the Covid pandemic with the inaction of the Government and its policy of Herd immunity. Public outrage was ignored, especially by the so-called Labour Opposition which said that Boris was doing a good job.

Just as with the response to Covid, there was no real opposition to problems with the welfare system. A couple of years into 'welfare reform', a few MPs, like Glenda Jackson, and the late Michael Meacher spelled out the damage which was being done to claimants, but when they asked for changes, most of their fellow MPs abstained allowing the culling to continue. Unless you watched BBC parliament, you wouldn't have heard about any of this.

There are many issues we need to fight on as the Covid pandemic subsides, especially with so many people losing their jobs or being subjected to the 'fire and rehire' tactics of opportunist employers, but the scrapping of Universal Credit and bogus work capability assessments needs to be among our top priorities.

The DWP calls those who claim benefits 'customers'. Customers are consumers, and the proponents of the Market System defend it by telling us that it gives us choices. Some of its defenders have even suggested that our choice as consumers should replace the democratic system entirely.

Next time you go into a shop, ask if they sell poverty, misery, destitution or death. You already know the response you would get, "Who would want to buy those?"