My weekly Comment Column for the daily Plymouth Herald (27.10.26), anticipating the Budget whilst knowing we’ll be lied to once again. Below is the unedited version (longer than the 600 word limit imposed by the Paper), and including the words “lie, lied and liars”, each and all edited out or replaced with words like “misled” before publication. It appears that exposing lies is seen as rude or aggressive rather than a fundamental requirement of democracy. We really must challenge and reappropriate the Press.

We are Paying the Price for the Rich to Ge Richer!

Why oh why must we be constantly lied to? And why oh why do politicians, especially when in power, think the working class is so stupid that we’ll always believe them?

This week’s Budget…sorry, Autumn Statement…will give with one hand and take much more with the other. In essence, Healey will tell us there’s no more money for our health and welfare whilst snatching away billions for rearmament in pursuit of war. A sleight-of-hand will offer crumbs to the poorest as a show of generosity.

We live in a polarised society, politically and economically. Britain is richer than it’s ever been. It’s just that the richest 5% and their private corporations have hoarded it all. 50 years of continuous privatisation has cost the majority of the working class wage cuts and a full-on crisis across our vital services, alongside a huge government deficit.

Be clear, to maintain the exact same standard of living you had in October 2022, your household income would have needed to increase by 20% to 30% just to break even with the increased costs of living. Your household has lost £3,000pa in value since 2022.

If your pay rose by 10% over the past 4 years you have suffered a signifiant “real terms” pay cut. Your spending power has decreased and you are effectively poorer than you were in 2022. The 35 million wage-earners in Britain would need a 25% rise in cash income to have roughly the same spending power we had in 2022.

If your income remained flat, as has most reliant on Benefits, your £1 today is now worth roughly 70p – 30% less in terms of what it can actually buy at the supermarket or spend on energy bills.

7 million, the richest fifth of wage earners, saw a 8% increase in wages while the poorest fifth saw a 7.5% fall in wages. Money flows upwards. Meanwhile the incomes of the top 5% of society whose wealth comes from not working – private profit from the work of others, rental income, stocks and share dividends – rose much higher. We’ve seen a 16% rise in the number of UK billionaires!

So “Tax the Rich!”, as the French protesters are chanting! And yes, a surcharge on the banks based in the UK would be a start. After all, they surcharge us to an exorbitant if not wholly exploitative extent, making record profits rising to a predicted £60BN by year end. The rising gap between our income and essential expenditure has been filled by credit – that is, we’re all deeper in debt and crippling interest repayments.

Workers wages are 30% below what we would have expected were it not for the great banking crash in 2008, caused solely by corruption. Meanwhile, the four largest UK banks (HSBC, Barclays, Lloyds, and NatWest) made combined pre-tax profits. Each of those billions is a thousand millions!

Taking a one-off 10% off that wouldn’t cause a ripple, but the real tax claw-back should be 25% or more on top of their general tax-rate, and end all their allowances, tax credits and deferments!

How do the banks make such colossal profits? Inflation helps them keep interest rates high. Inflation is over 4% per annum in Britain right now once owner-occupier housing costs are included as part of the Retail Price Index. High interest rates are good for banks, whilst high interest rates are no good for governments, the UK paying £111.2 billion in debt-interest spending for 2025–26 and further sucked dry through speculation in the Bond Markets.

So inflation must be taken into account when we see headline figures for cash increases to health and welfare. In real terms, anything less than a 20% increase in NHS income over the past four years is a cut – that would be an extra £25BN in this year’s budget (about the same as the declared increase in military “Defence” spending since 2022). Actual planned government health spending for England is expected to increase by an average of 2.7% per year in real terms.

Inflation hits the working class like a double-whammy, reducing our spending power and reducing the public services governments choose to afford. And those with all the money shout-out against raising their taxes! They would, wouldn’t they.

Inflation includes global food prices, currently at a three year high, wheat up nearly 10% in a year. Sugar 10%. But consider your weekly shop over the past year and we all agree food inflation is far higher, because the corporations use the higher prices to increase their profit margins, and governments allow them to do so.

The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) blamed climate change, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and disruption to Black Sea shipping and infrastructure due to the proxy war in Ukraine.

The Iran war is pushing up energy prices. At the same time, we are facing what’s expected to be the most powerful El Niño weather system in 1,000 years.

No wonder they’re telling us to “stock-up”. But that’s the opposite of the response of a government that expects to protect and care for its citizens. They’re not there for us.

Economic crisis does not excuse protecting corporate profits over the needs of the working class. The corporations are sucking us dry. The billionaires set the rules of the game, to their extreme advantage. They own the media that broadcasts their lies. And they’re scapegoating the least powerful, blaming the “work-shy” and “boat people” for all our pain. They lie, don’t they!