Labour’s Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell delivered a damning verdict on Universal Credit (UC) during an interview with Sky News this morning – and signalled a significant and, for many, long-awaited shift in Labour Party policy.
As the SKWAWKBOX covered yesterday, DWP Secretary Esther McVey has told ministers that millions of families with children will be £200 a month worse off as UC continues to roll out – yet the Tories are charging ahead with it anyway, even though McVey had to lie to Parliament multiple times to cover the huge damage it is doing.
Labour’s policy up to now has been to pause the roll-out and try to fix the system, but McDonnell told Sky News that he and his colleagues now consider it beyond fixing – and ‘iniquitous’:
SKWAWKBOX comment:
Once again, Labour is setting out a clear vision for the future path of this country and is ready to grasp the nettle and do what needs to be done to end the misery inflicted by the government on this country’s most vulnerable people – including our children, millions of whom are now in poverty under Tory policies.
The SKWAWKBOX needs your support. This blog is provided free of charge but depends on the generosity of its readers to be viable. If you can afford to, please click here to arrange a one-off or modest monthly donation via PayPal. Thanks for your solidarity so this blog can keep bringing you information the Establishment would prefer you not to know about.
If you wish to reblog this post for non-commercial use, you are welcome to do so – see here for more.
This is a welcome policy shift.
At last.
No ifs, and no buts about it. It HAS to be SCRAPPED. They were told even from it’s preconception what UC would do; and so it’s proved – and more.
No effing wonder there’s no money in the coffers when the likes of dummkopf-schmitt can write of £££hundreds of millions; spend the same (or more) on frivlous legal appeals upon appeals and even spend as much AGAIN on implementing and outsourcing Govt programmes that ended up being WORSE than if they’d not made any change whatsoever…
And then there were abject pr*cks like leslie, bryant and the piss-ant liam byrne who actually wanted to HELP the toerags with the feckin thing.
Un-f**king-believable.
The only thing that I predicted that hasn’t come to fruition, is mass civil unrest.
…But while they’re still nonchalantly pressing ahead with this idiotic policy, there’s still time
As McDonnell says: “The IFS say 75% of welfare cuts are still to be rolled out over the next two years.”
I doubt the toerags will see that long out; but expect things to get rather hairy if they do, and continue.
More great news from John McDonnell. UC is an absolute disaster and is inhumane. We can’t keep treating people this way. Let’s get rid of the Tories and UC!
At last! This realization that UC is unfit is long overdue in my opinion.
It seems it is not LP policy to scrap UC after all…
http://home.freeuk.com/clpd/181012ncc-slate.html
Universal Credit is a carefully constructed stick which is being used to deliberately inflict suffering upon the working class.
It fits into the whole austerity agenda which in turn is designed to squeeze more drops of value out of the working class in the effort to garner more profits for the ruling class.
Meritocracy is a carrot. Austerity is a stick. Both result in everyone working harder for less and those at the top benefiting.
Of course the mainstream media have turned a blind eye. The Guardian published an article written by Theresa May yesterday entitled ‘Labour Voters Should Look Afresh At The Conservatives’. The option to comment was switched off of course.
Know thine enemy.
Oh, the grauniad was at it years ago…
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/apr/29/iain-duncan-smith-welfare
The Guardian published an article written by Theresa May yesterday entitled ‘Labour Voters Should Look Afresh At The Conservatives’
The Tories are reduced to appealing to the bourgeois (RW) element in the Labour party for help, whom, they guess correctly, might be receptive to such an idea. They’d be doing us a favour taking them off our hands!
In the same way, it’s been noticeable how the Fraudian has been courting Tory readers with editorials concerning Tory matters, in an attempt to arrest their declining readership figures.
They’re both symptoms of an institutional death spiral…
‘Labour Voters Should Look Afresh At The Conservatives’
ROFLMFAO !!!! bag of shite the Graun now is
RIP Guardian/Observer. The right wing neoliberal elite have finally taken you over. I do hope they give you all what we’ve been suffering with, a huge dose of austerity.
If I weren’t so jaded it would amaze me that the Tories’ con trick to blame the unemployed for their unemployment and the uneducated for their lack of education – after all these years – still persuades so many when the reasons for both are so glaringly obvious.
In my view a society that fails to respect and provide for all those constrained by its laws is without legitimacy and its leaders forfeit their right to the protection of law.
In other words, when it collapses and they skip the country to spend more time with their stashes they should be declared outlaw and hunted down.
Right on John!
One of the best things I have done (and continue to do) politically in the recent years is with my small Unite Community Trade Union Branch to campaign against UC and sanctions etc.
But most importantly we have also been trying to counter the dominant Right wing narrative on welfare.
It could be argued that the Tories have deliberately set neighbour against neighbour re welfare to distract from tax cuts for millionaires and big business corporations as the rich and powerful are invisible from most peoples lives.
It could be argued that there are 2 welfare states – ours the working class one which is under attack and and the upper class one which flourishes with the rich and better off being subsidised in a massive state intervention to the hilt with tax reliefs and tax subsidies on practically everyhing.
There are about 2,000 tax reliefs for the rich and better off and for example corporate welfare is £79b a year (Chakrobaty) which is the equivalent of £3,500 per household!
My Unite trade union branch have leafleted door-to-door in poorer areas and on high streets sharing this information to politicise and empower working people including the victims of vile Tory welfare policy.
We need decent welfare for all and to treat citizens with respect as well as taxing the rich, stopping tax avoidance, and closing illicit offshore banking and to in essence stop the rich and powerful and the Tory Champions of the Rich from stuffing the mouths of the rich with gold!
Some people who are wealthy and healthy can be cocky and arrogant but remember we are all really vunerable human beings and anyone of us could need welfare one day! JC4PM!
My thoughts on how UC discriminates against people with disabilities.
https://www.reasonableboy.com/new-blog/2018/10/9/uc-austerity