18 March 2015

George Osbourne has delivered his sixth budget

Having failed to reduce the deficit as promised, he claimed that “Britain is walking tall again” with faster growth than any major economy, and living standards to match. “This is a Budget that takes Britain one more big step on the road from austerity to prosperity” yet the most basic analysis of his budget shows that all it actually spells is more austerity. Osborne’s rhetoric offers little to the workers who have suffered seven years of falling wages and shrinking employment rights. Here is a collection of responses to the budget that pick apart the Tory spin…

GMB

Osborne has claimed more recoveries in the past five years than the RAC.

If the Tories are re-elected people would have more chance of winning the lottery than seeing police patrolling their streets or seeing waiting lists in the NHS coming down.

Paul Kenny, GMB General Secretary, said “Osborne has claimed more recoveries in the past five years than the RAC.

Even a blind person would see the short term bribes Osborne is offering today.

What he is planning however is the most draconian cuts in services that we rely on for a civilised way of life.

If the Tories are re-elected people would have more chance of winning the lottery than seeing police patrolling their streets or seeing waiting lists in the NHS coming down.

The recovery underway should be much further ahead than it is. The recovery has been the weakest of any in the past 100 years.

The new jobs being created are mainly low skilled, low paid and very precarious jobs. Even skilled workers in the UK face being undercut while wages are stagnant or falling in real terms.

Most workers have seen little or no evidence of any recovery in living standards arising from real economic growth based on investment and productivity gains.

On tax evasion there is too little, too late, and many of the schemes that help the multi- millionaire elite avoid tax remain in place.”

TUC

TUC General Secretary Frances O’Grady said:

“The Chancellor’s Britain, where happy people skip to their secure jobs to celebrate their rising living standards, is not one that many will recognise.

“But it’s what he did not say that is most significant.

“He did not spell out where, if re-elected, he will make the huge spending cuts he plans for the next parliament, nor did he tell Britain’s low paid workers which of their benefits he will cut.

“Nor did he address the big problems faced by those not living in the Chancellor’s Promised Land – the chronic shortage of housing, an NHS in crisis and the huge growth of zero-hours and other insecure jobs.

“For all the warm words, austerity is set to continue year after year.”

Unite

George Osborne’s record is one of ‘long term economic pain’ with today’s budget pointing the way to unprecedented austerity if the Tories win the general election warned the leader of Britain’s largest union, Unite.

Commenting Unite general secretary Len McCluskey said: “George Osborne’s smugness today is utterly out of place for someone who missed every target he set himself.

“He cannot hide the long term economic pain he caused to the decent people of this country with his senseless austerity, run away from the living standards that he levelled back to 2007, or hide from the record levels of personal debt swamping the people of this country.

“People simply aren’t feeling the economic growth and the sun which the chancellor says is beginning to shine is clouded by insecurity and low wages for millions of families.

“Behind the short-term sweeteners and budget bluster, the reality for millions is that their wages won’t last the month. Millions more are trapped in ghost jobs with pay so pathetic they need benefits to make ends meet.

”Osborne’s is not an economy where the gains are shared fairly, and people know this all too well. Take away today’s gimmicks and this budget is a window on to five more years of Tory rule – more savage cuts to essential public services and the deepening spread of inequality.

“If you’re a hedge fund, wealthy retiree, or a business shy of providing fairly paid, secure employment, Osborne’s Britain is the place for you. If you’re looking for decent job, a home in which to raise your kids or a safe NHS, then it is not.”