Poverty among elderly people in Tory Britain is currently sky high. But as ordinary citizens continue to suffer, opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn has announced that his party is working on a “comprehensive plan to stop big money buying up our democracy, and to empower people and communities”.
Labour pledges to ban political contributions from tax avoiders
Speaking at a rally in Bolton on 17 August, Corbyn said:
Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party are captured by big donors, who are corrupting democracy.
And he insisted:
We have to stop the influx of big money into politics. Politics should work for the millions, not the millionaires.
He continued by stressing:
We are funded by workers through their trade unions and small donations, averaging just £22 in the last general election.
That’s why we will be able to drive big money out of our democracy….
So today, I’m announcing that we will ban donations or loans to political parties from people who are not registered for tax in the UK, so are not contributing to our public services and infrastructure.
We have to stop big money running our politics.
Labour will ban donations to political parties from anyone not registered to pay tax in the UK.
If you don't want to contribute to our public services, you shouldn't be able to influence our democracy.https://t.co/E4CCBBSOfr
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) August 18, 2019
Big money in politics is corrupting our democracy. That's why @jeremycorbyn has announced that we will ban donations from those who avoid tax. I'll be setting out our vision to clean up politics with further measures shortly. https://t.co/EOGZHIXZL5
— Jon Trickett MP (@jon_trickett) August 18, 2019
Tories serve the rich and leave the poor behind
On 18 August, the Observer quoted University of Oxford professor Bernhard Ebbinghaus talking about “relatively high severe poverty rates among the elderly” in the UK. He also said:
The lowest poverty rates among older people are found in the relatively generous Dutch basic pensions and Nordic welfare states, while the UK, but also Ireland and Switzerland, with basic old-age security, had the highest poverty rates.
The proportion of elderly people living in severe poverty in the UK is five times what it was in 1986, the largest increase among western European countries. Neoliberalism, austerity, income/wealth inequalities, low pay take their toll. https://t.co/MZyd5IyK8F
— Prem Sikka (@premnsikka) August 18, 2019
Meanwhile, a thinktank chaired by Iain Duncan Smith is calling for further increases in the pension age. According to the Mirror, the right–wing Centre for Social Justice “proposes raising the eligible age to 70 by 2028 and 75 by 2035”. And as some people pointed out, this would mean people in some areas of the UK would die before collecting their pensions:
https://twitter.com/ToryFibs/status/1163014899791998976?s=20
https://twitter.com/davidschneider/status/1163083975478382592
The Tories have plunged millions into poverty, sent millions to food banks, resurrected Victorian diseases & reduced our life expectancy & now they want us to work until we are dead. The nation must rise up against this insanity https://t.co/8Zzmr9zf7C
— Peter Stefanovic (@PeterStefanovi2) August 17, 2019
Get big money out of politics
Time after time, we see the Conservative Party serving the rich and powerful while leaving ordinary people to suffer. And when it’s the wealthy who prop the Tories up, that’s no surprise. Labour, meanwhile, is “funded by workers” – and it has its biggest membership since the 1970s.
Corbyn’s pledge to “stop the influx of big money into politics” could see a radical shift in British politics. And for all the ordinary people who continue to suffer under Tory rule, that couldn’t come soon enough.
Featured image via screenshot
