UN poverty expert condemns UK coronavirus response as ‘utterly hypocritical’
Philip Alston: he warned us all about the Tories before but they were voted back in because people didn’t listen.
How else would you describe the way the UK’s Tory government threw away austerity the instant the well-being of the rich was threatened?
Philip Alston, the UN rapporteur on extreme poverty, made a good point when he pointed out that the harm caused by austerity policies of the last 10 years cannot be undone – but the policy itself was reversed the instant it seemed likely to harm the rich.
He told The Guardian:
“My thoughts of course hark back to the sense of how utterly hypocritical it is now to abandon ‘austerity’ with such alacrity, after all the harm and misery caused to individuals and the fatal weakening of the community’s capacity to cope and respond over the past 10 years.
“And of course, many of the worst and most damaging aspects of ‘austerity’ cannot and will not be undone. The damage caused to community cohesion and to the social infrastructure are likely to prove permanent.
He said that globally “the most vulnerable have been short-changed or excluded” by official responses to the disease:
“The policies of many states reflect a social Darwinism philosophy that prioritises the economic interests of the wealthiest while doing little for those who are hard at work providing essential services or unable to support themselves.
“Governments have shut down entire countries without making even minimal efforts to ensure people can get by.”
The Tories would undoubtedly argue that they have indeed made efforts to ensure people can get by… but some would argue that those efforts have indeed been minimal.
Across the UK, people who claimed Universal Credit because their income dried up in the lockdown have found their five-week wait for benefit cash has culminated in a cheque for no money at all.
Others have been unable to claim the benefit because they don’t meet the government’s criteria.
And of course Boris Johnson won’t agree to a Universal Basic Income that will help everybody – and will be cheaper to administer than UC. Why? Because he likes to keep people poor and – if possible – push them into debt.
Look at the other coronavirus-related policies and you’ll find that most of them aren’t working – at least, not the way we were led to expect.
And now there’s huge pressure to sway public opinion in favour of lifting the lockdown so we can all go back to work, making profits for the rich again – before their income is harmed as that of the poor has been.
Put it altogether and it seems Mr Alston has a very good point.
Source: UK coronavirus response utterly hypocritical, says UN poverty expert | Politics | The Guardian
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It was all a lie the peasants didn’t lose any monies it was the rich who lost out through dodgy banksters is about it but the peasants gets the austerity bit while the rich made more while we were screwed by them lives list far far too many by these charlitans
Philip Alston: he warned us all about the Tories before but they were voted back in because people didn’t listen.
…To Labour, after starmer & watson colluded to renege on the party’s promise to respect the referendum result.
Starmer’s already alienated the leave voters who were lifelong labour voters, and he’s alienating those on the left within and without the party just as quickly.
Oh, and there’s little to no difference between starmer’s ideas for the poor or the toerag’s. It’s back to 1994 again, except the toerags are now in the ascendancy, rather than terminal decline. Nice one sir quiff.