The Tory budget: they're all wrong, Jack

[la_marquise]

My parents were both born into poor families before the second world war. That's before the welfare state, before the NHS, before a mandate for decent education for everyone. The war -- and rationing -- provided families like theirs with access to better nutrition than many of them had previously been able to afford, and the Attlee government after it gave them access to health care and better (if flawed) schooling. Both my parents climbed out of poverty by taking advantage of the educational opportunities provided: they trained as teachers. My mother's family in particular had an existing tradition of a love of learning and of trade union activism. My mother's family are amazing.
My father was the first person in his family to go to university -- as a mature student, after he'd been teaching for about a decade. I was, I think, the second in the family to do that. I went to Cambridge.
That's the girl from the ordinary housing estate, from the families of agricultural workers and miners, the girl who is 100% state educated, in schools with classes over 40, quite often, from the huge comprehensive school in rural Leicestershire. I am certainly the first person on any side of my family to gain a PhD, though there are others, notably on my mother's side, who could easily have done that, had they had the opportunity and the money. I was lucky enough to get a grant, though only a partial one. My family were able to make up the difference through a deed of covenant. Remember those? Back in the early 80s, they helped ordinary families -- and my family was pretty ordinary lower middle class -- to pay their share of their children's university education. The covenant paid a certain amount net of tax monthly and in April, tax paid by the parents was refunded to the student to make up the total amount of the covenant. The Thatcher government put a stop to that in the mid 80s, because students don't deserve help.
Not all students are rich. Most students aren't rich. I had a friend whose mother worked two very low-paid jobs (her father was retired on a low pension) to fund her grant: the family were poor, but Thatcher's metrics still judged them able to pay. I got summer jobs when I could, as my friends did.
And I was lucky. I emerged after 6 years of study with two degrees and no debts. I was one of the last. The Tories introduced loans, fees, all in the name of saving the poor taxpayer. And the taxpayer paid out more and more in indirect taxation and in supporting their children. New Labour did nothing to ameliorate this and much to exacerbate it. Both claimed to widen access to higher education while making it costlier and costlier, and less and less satisfactory.
I was raised socialist. Old-fashioned, pro-Union, anti-Big Money socialist. I was out leafleting for (old) Labour with my mother from the age of 7. I believe in social fairness and the welfare state. I believe in 'From each according to his ability, to each according to his need'. I don't believe that the rich deserve to hang on to every penny, that it's 'not fair' to tax them on what they've acquired. We are all too acquisitive, too selfish, too inward looking.
I don't have a huge income by British standards. But I will pay more income tax if it will help those who are worse off than me and I won't feel robbed. To me, that's part of the contract I have with my society. I am an adult, I know that to have universal health care and decent education, we all have to contribute. I'm happy to do so.
Thatcher preached that greed is good and that 'I'm all right, Jack' is a moral and valid life strategy. I hated it then and I hate it now. I hated that nu-Labour were so in thrall to the idol of the free market that they let it all ride on and on, and that so much of what happens now seems to be set to the agenda of the right wing press and its hysterical mob.
But despair and 'all politicians are the same' is no answer either. Heaving a sigh of relief if one's own little corner is safe is okay, but settling back and doing nothing to help anyone else is no answer. We need a better future than the one we're being offered. And to get it, we're going to have to stand up and be counted.

Comments

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

I was going to write a long post, but I can't because your post isn't friends locked. It is, however, a matter of record that Iain Duncan Smith, who is largely the architect of the benefit reforms, has spent a substantial amount of time working closely with poor people and the charities that work with poor people. He returned to Government because he was convinced that reform of the benefit system would make the world a better place, and he cares passionately about it. He may be wrong, but he's not stupid, mean or heartless.

For those people on my friendslist who are also on yours, I refer you to my post of 6 May.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

Maybe IDS needs to work harder to convince Gideon. This budget does not look good for many, many people at the bottom end of the scale.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

It rather depends whether you consider benefit receipt to be dynamic or static. Previous Government believed that higher benefit rates reduced poverty. Current Government believes that lower benefit rates reduce poverty for everyone who's capable of working, because they increase the incentive to work.

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

As long as there's work to be had...

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

And, of course, I have never voted Tory in my life. I don't think I could.

[bohemiancoast.livejournal.com]

I didn't mean you! But I do have Tories on my friendslist.

[annafdd.livejournal.com]

People don't need to be evil to do evil, they just need to be wrong. I actually quite like IDS and I think he's got good ideas, but even for the most wrong-headed and, I think, deluded and ignorant of them, I don't think they want to do evil. The evil is not in individuals, it's in the system.