Yesterday saw another UK parliamentary set-piece – the Spring Statement - but we are well aware that many of its projections may change dramatically even in the next six months before a full budget in the Autumn. It is clear that what was actually announced in terms of raised National Insurance tax thresholds or the promise of a future tax cut for example may have more to do with the Government’s future electoral strategies. The failure to offer a vision of intervention that would be necessary (such as a windfall tax on the energy companies) to deal with the scale of the reality of a cost of living crisis (inflation at a thirty year high, real terms cuts in pensions/benefits etc.) is striking.
While the last 2 years have been overshadowed by events as historic as a global pandemic or more recently by geo-political tension that inevitably compound economic disruption and costs, the immeasurable personal losses and economic freefall of these times and its daily crises must not hide the fact that the long-term war on all of us has been an economic one, decades long. This is a class war by the haves against the have-nots on workers and their families and the inadequacy of yesterday’s statement shows why the Office for Budget Responsibility expect real household disposable income to fall this year at the fastest rate since records began in the 1950s.
The outworking of this economic attack whether delivered by Westminster or Stormont is shown by its adverse effects on our members. It reinforces the point that while the word “austerity” may not be as commonly heard as it used to be, its agenda lives on and NIPSA working with our allies in the wider Trade Union Movement must continue to organise the resistance to this.