The Tories and the Love of Money

St Paul once wrote that “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil” and it seems that the Truss government are determined to prove him right.

 really don’t know where to begin with my disgust at the Conservative Party and some of its policies following Liz Truss becoming party leader and especially since the so-called ‘mini-budget’ last Friday.  I use the term so called because it was, according to economic experts, a seismic shift in British financial policy.

First of all the help with energy bills.  This is welcome and I accept the reasoning that it would have been more  time consuming to introduce a graduated scheme based on income and delayed implementation.  However, I find the idea that the cost will be added to future energy bills to be unethical when it could have been covered by a price cap that would have significantly reduced the profits of energy suppliers instead.  Indeed it seems morally wrong that any profit should be made from essentials like domestic energy.

The best thing the government could have done is to nationalise the domestic energy industry (bad water whilst they are at it) and to provide our gas and electricity at cost price, focussing ever more on renewable energy rather than climate destroying fossil fuels.  We have a duty to love future generations as we love ourselves and not leave them with a polluted, dying planet.

There was some good in the ‘mini budget’, and credit where credit is due, the removal of the recent increase in National Insurance is a welcome move since it will help with the rising cost of living, though as with most Tory policies it helps the wealthy a lot more than the poor.

There can be no reasonable justification whatsoever for the proposed removal of the 45p tax band next April, especially if it is to be paid for by cuts in government spending which seem likely to be targeted, as least in part, on social security benefits.  To give those who really don’t need a tax cut more money to take home and spend, whilst denying it to the very poorest, is simply immoral, it is evil!   As Sadiq Khan tweeted today, “Balancing the books on the backs of the poorest after cutting taxes for the very richest is morally bankrupt.”

Then there is the immediate adverse effect the ‘mini budget’ has had on the economy, and when ever a country faces economic difficulties it is those at the bottom who suffer most.  The pound plummeted against the dollar and if it wasn’t for the intervention of the Bank of England some pension funds could have been decimated.

Another unfathomable move was the scrapping of the cap on banker’s bonuses, which could potentially lead to another financial crash along the lines of that in 2008 as bankers take ever greater financial risks in the hope of securing higher bonuses.  It’s also perverse in the sense that bankers receive a generous salary for the jobs they do; why should they receive extra for just doing their job?  As somebody observed on Twitter, “Firefighters don’t get a bonus for saving lives, Nurses don’t get a bonus for saving lives, Doctors don’t get a bonus for saving lives! Teachers don’t get a bonus for teaching children, so why should bankers get a bonus for making money?

Various people have suggested different motives for the Tories doing what they have, but they all have the same root, greed: greed for more money and a total lack of care and understanding for those they are effectively stealing it from, the poor and underprivileged people of Great Britain.