‘UK’s 2012 budget overlooks poor’

March 22nd, 2012

FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda

The comment comes as the British finance minister George Osborne has unveiled the UK’s annual budget for 2012 to the House of Commons, which he said is meant to maintain a tough austerity push.

The new budget comes amid a slow economic recovery and official data showing that the country’s budget deficit hit a record high in February. Quick to show their disapproval protesters rallied outside the parliament against the tough austerity measures and the soaring unemployment rate.

Press TV has conducted an interview with National Co-Chair of Black Activists Rising against Cuts, Zita Holbourne from London for her view on the issue.

The video also offers the opinions of two other guests: journalist and broadcaster, Max Keiser from Paris and Professor of Binary economics Mr. Rodney Shakespeare from London.

The following is a transcript of the interview.

Press TV:The 2012 budget already has its own alias, it’s called ‘the millionaires budget’ that doesn’t sound too promising for low and middle class earners does it?

Holbourne:No, it’s definitely not promising for low and middle class earners and it’s not promising for the poor; effectively it’s a budget for the rich, by the rich and does nothing for working class people, nothing to lift the poorest people out of poverty or actually to help the economy recover.

Press TV: The 50 percent tax rate on earnings, over 150,000 pounds could be cut , Labor are already branding that as a “millionaire’s tax cut” as well. Another case of the rich being rewarded with more riches and the poor are left to window-shop?

Holbourne: Well, absolutely, that’s what this budget is about. It’s about helping their rich friends and not looking at what is happening to working class people on the poorest on the ground.

There are people in the UK that are living off food parcels, handouts from the voluntary sector because they don’t have enough to eat. You know members in my union, Republican Commercial Services Union are struggling to make ends meet.

They’re struggling to look at whether they pay the bill or whether they put groceries in the house and feed their children. This is dire poverty we’re talking about.

In the public sector they want us to pay more into our pensions, get less out, work for longer, so actually lot’s of public sector workers will die before they even reach retirement age because of the stress and how long they’ve been forced to work.

Our pay has been frozen for the last two years and that’s going to be the case for the forth-coming years, which in real terms is a pay cut and what they should be doing is collecting the 120 billion that’s lost each year through tax evasion, tax evaders non-collected taxes to try and beat the deficit

Press TV: Miss Holbourne, tuition fees were increased so the students aren’t happy, the unions aren’t happy, pensioners aren’t happy; families who in comparison generate lower than average incomes aren’t happy. That’s a lot of unhappiness; would you say that the government of David Cameron has failed the British people?

Holbourne: Absolutely, it’s failed the British people. There are so many people that are impacted; pensioners, young people, children. There is a high rate of child poverty across Europe and in the UK and it’s increasing.

There is a disproportionate impact of all the cuts and all the attacks by the Con-Dem coalition on black people, disabled people, women, the young, the old so there is barely anybody that is not impacted of course apart from his rich friends, his millionaire friends and cabinet of millionaires that aren’t impacted and we need to fight back.

You know it’s atrocious what’s happening to people in the UK; we can’t allow this to continue and that’s why there were so many anti-cuts groups, at my own ‘Black Activists Rising against Cuts’; ‘UK and cuts’ and a host of others that are joining with the trade unions in fighting back.

It’s bad enough that families haven’t got enough to eat and they are struggling to pay bills; how on earth are they going to pay for 9000 pounds a year tuition fees.

EMA (Education Maintenance Allowance) was scrapped. So for the children to go on to further education in a college, they can’t even afford to buy books and pay for their lunch and pay for their transport to get to that college, let alone go on to university to do a degree.

Press TV: If more austerity is on the way and the jobless rate is at its highest, what does this mean for an average young man who is out there looking for a way to make a living?

Holbourne: It means that they’re blocked from making a living. At the moment there are over one million young people unemployed. 1 in 2 young black people is unemployed. If you can’t get into education and you can’t get a job what options are there for you?

Actually I want to say something about the aspects of regional local pay that was announced in the budget and whilst there is not much detail at this stage that would be devastating and it would actually drive whole regions within the UK into dire poverty.

It’s a false economy to say we cut the pay of public sector workers to go in line with private sector workers in that particular region.

If people have got no money to spend it’s going to have a knock-on impact on the private sector, on the retail industries and that in turn means that there is no growth, there is no generation of income and the economy doesn’t recover.

VG/GHN