{"id":11745,"date":"2017-03-08T17:12:45","date_gmt":"2017-03-08T17:12:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=11745"},"modified":"2017-03-09T11:05:22","modified_gmt":"2017-03-09T11:05:22","slug":"the-failure-budget","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=11745","title":{"rendered":"The \u00e2\u20ac\u0098failure Budget\u00e2\u20ac\u2122"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Chancellor Philip Hammond brushed Brexit under the carpet as he laid out the last Spring Budget today, delivering paltry policies that will do nothing to alleviate austerity, low wages or job insecurity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hammond said the Office for Budget Responsibility\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s economic growth forecast for 2017 had increased from the 1.4 per cent predicted in November to 2 per cent. However he was forced to admit that growth was projected to slow next year and would not recover until 2021.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Despite failing to announce a single Brexit<\/a>-related policy, the Chancellor did use the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impending exit from the EU as an excuse not to use an increase in tax returns to cut back on austerity<\/a> measures that have devastated public services.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAs we start our negotiations to exit the European Union, this budget takes forward our plan to prepare Britain for a brighter future. It provides a strong and stable platform for those negotiations.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Dearth of basic initiatives\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey, said the dearth of \u00e2\u20ac\u015bbasic initiatives\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 that would stimulate British industry as they weather Brexit, showed that the Budget provides the opposite of a \u00e2\u20ac\u015bstrong and stable platform\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe biggest challenge facing the UK economy for generations, Brexit, and the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s preparedness for dealing with it, only received a passing mention.\u00c2\u00a0It was absent of any sense that the Chancellor or the government grasped the enormity of the shock that Brexit will bring to core manufacturing industries,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 McCluskey said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere were none of the basic initiatives needed to demonstrate that the government is serious about making its industrial strategy<\/a> work. There was not one word of reassurance for the car industry or the tens of thousands of workers reliant on it for their job. The carmakers who are daily voicing their fears about a future in the UK will not have heard anything to soothe their fraying nerves.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He added, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWorkers and employers have been left none the wiser as to how this government will prepare the economy for the seismic changes that Brexit will bring.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hammond promised to \u00e2\u20ac\u015bhelp ordinary working families\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 in the Budget with a scheduled 30p rise in the minimum wage<\/a> from April as well as tax breaks for childcare.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

No move to end public sector pay freeze<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

But despite wage growth being revised by down by the OBR \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with levels barely above stagnation over the next four years \u00e2\u20ac\u201c there was no move by the Chancellor to end the pay freeze for public workers<\/a>, increase the minimum wage to keep up with inflation or row back on welfare cuts.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Nor did the Chancellor offer any policies to tackle the epidemic of insecure work<\/a> \u00e2\u20ac\u201c with one in 10 employees now in casualised roles \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but instead boasted that more than \u00e2\u20ac\u015b2.7m people (are) enjoying the security and dignity of work than in 2010\u00e2\u20ac\u0165.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Speaking in Parliament, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said the Chancellor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s budget was \u00e2\u20ac\u015butterly\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 complacent.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He said, “This was a Budget of utter complacency about the state of our economy, utter complacency about the crisis facing our public services and complacent about the reality of daily life for millions of people in this country.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Who is reaping the rewards of this economy? For millions, this economy is simply not working.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“This is a Budget that lacks ambition for this country and lacks fairness, it demonstrates again the appalling priorities of this government, another year, tax breaks for the few public, service cuts for the many.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“It’s built on unfairness and it’s built on failure to tackle unfairness in our society.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The Chancellor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s promise to spend \u00c2\u01412bn on social care<\/a> in England over the next three years was also met with derision from opposition MPs, who jeered at the announcement. Only \u00c2\u0141100m will go directly to the NHS<\/a>, to improve emergency triage services, while \u00c2\u0141325m has been allocated to controversial Sustainability and Transformation Plans<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Independent estimates put the amount needed to reverse the NHS and social care crisis at between \u00c2\u01418bn and \u00c2\u014112bn.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

McCluskey said the government had failed to take into account the needs of working people.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe only thing we remain sure of is that this government remains wedded to the senseless austerity that hurts working class communities hardest. The only promise we have is that of yet more cuts to our public services, which are already at the point of crisis because of years of Tory austerity.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe called upon the Chancellor to show that he has listened to the concerns of working people, to prove that he is determined to create an economy based on decent, secure, well paid work. He failed.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chancellor Philip Hammond brushed Brexit under the carpet as he laid out the last Spring Budget today, delivering paltry policies that will do nothing to alleviate austerity, low wages or job insecurity.   Hammond said the Office for Budget Responsibility\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s economic growth forecast for 2017 had increased from the 1.4 per cent predicted in November […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3539,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[76,704,184,595,573],"wps_subtitle":"Budget of \u00e2\u20ac\u0098utter complacency\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 slammed","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11745"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11745"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11747,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11745\/revisions\/11747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}