Theresa May has been laughing at the poor again
Theresa May thinks pushing us into poverty is a big joke.
Remember when Theresa May dismissed the possibility of raising the salaries of public sector workers, saying she didn’t have money to spend on “this, that and the other”? Some of us do:
Well, in Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday (September 13), she went one step further – and laughed at the plight of the students she intends to leave with an average debt of £57,000 after they leave university.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had said: “The Prime Minister’s Government, with the support of the Lib Dems, trebled tuition fees. This afternoon, will the Prime Minister take the opportunity to vote against another Tory hike in student fees?”
No; she laughed.
Then she said: “Once again, there are a few things about people’s circumstances that the right hon. Gentleman failed to mention—things that the Government have done, such as giving a tax cut to 30 million people. For a basic rate taxpayer, that means £1,000 more in their pocket. That is what sound management of the economy by a Conservative Government delivers for people.”
What utter nonsense.
The tax cut to which she referred was the increase in the basic allowance – the amount people can earn before paying tax – that was prompted by the Liberal Democrats, not the Tories, during the Coalition Parliament of 2010-15. The amount of extra money it provided to people is meaningless when one remembers that real wages have fallen by more than 10 per cent over the last decade.
And in any case, it has absolutely no bearing on the amount of debt the Tories are pushing on students. None at all.
Responses on the social media have been scathing:
https://twitter.com/Parveen_Comms/status/907973603886592001
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They are all liars and divisive hypocrites.
I wonder why they only mention the people at the bottom who get a little extra from raising the threshold, it also has the same effect on high earners who get the same amount, it is a con, just like the percentage wage increases are a con, because those on the least get a smaller raise than those on the most.
Raising the tax threshold by £1,000 doesn’t “put £1000” into anyone’s pocket. It means you don’t pay basic rate tax on £1,000. If the tax rate is 20% that makes you £200 better off. Mayhem must think we’re stupid, or she doesn’t understand how income tax works.
But the point is UK wages are below the level of pre-2008 crash along with the £. One of the most risible pieces of journalism this week was headlined “why is the iPhone x the same in £ as it is in $?” The actual answer is the £ is the same as the $, it’s dropped by 30%. But we don’t see THAT headline, do we?
Well reminded. Cheers.
Increasing the personal tax allowance wasn’t a bad thing in itself, the problem is that it did nothing for all the people who never had enough income to pay tax on in the first place.
Instead we have the 20% Tory Tax (VAT) imposed on virtually everything including most foodstuffs with only the staples escaping. The Tories have always used VAT to screw over the poor as no-one can escape it.
and with food/gas/electricity prices going up and up on a weekly(possibly daily in some cases)basis (which few people seem to add in when talking about the above issue)it makes debt of any kind that the poorest are getting into that much worse. my weekly shopping bill now is twice what it was a year ago and i struggle to keep my food shop down in costs. anyone receiving less money than me must be either only eating one meal a day or missing meals altogether on one or more days a week.