by Rab Bruce’s Spider

Mastodon: @RabBrucesSpider1@Mastodon.Scot

X / Twitter: @RabBrucesSpider

When Chancellor Rachel Reeves proclaimed that she was cutting the Winter Fuel Allowance for pensioners, it was explained that this was vital to help plug the £22bn black hole in the UK’s finances which she had inherited from the Tories. She claimed to have no prior knowledge of this enormous deficit despite several commentators and the SNP pointing it out before the election. It also later transpired that she had previously stated that one of her ambitions in life was to cut this Winter Fuel Allowance, so her more recent claims to being forced to make this difficult decision ring very hollow indeed.

Then we have Labour’s refusal to scrap the 2 Child Benefit Cap introduced by the Tories, using pretty much the same excuse about this £22bn black hole. It seems that letting ever more kids fall into poverty is deemed acceptable by the Labour Government.

Last week, though, we heard the remarkable news that the UK Government had magically found £22bn to invest in a Carbon Capture & storage (CCS) scheme in the north of England. This caused some discontent in Scotland where a CCS project has now been denied promised money three times, going all the way back to just after the 2014 IndyRef when we were promised that only voting NO could save this scheme. To be honest, Scots should have realised the futility of believing Westminster promises by now, and there is also the very important point that CCS is viewed by many people as little more than a con trick. The best that can be said about it is that it is a highly controversial scheme, and there is a video produced in Australia which has been doing the rounds on social media highlighting just how ineffective CCS is at capturing anything except Government grants. It is, in fact, an idea promoted by fossil fuel companies which not only persuade Governments to give them billions of pounds, it also allows them to continue making huge profits from fossil fuels which the majority of people know need to be drastically scaled back if we are to save our environment. And, by a huge coincidence, only a few days after the Government spending on CCS was confirmed, BP announced that they had decided to scrap their plans to reduce production of oil by 2030. Perhaps coincidence is not the right word, since it has emerged that the CCS funding was announced after some very strenuous lobbying by the fossil fuel industry. It seems the major oil companies are in favour of anything which lets them keep operating and amassing ever greater profits, even if that thing is viewed by many as a complete waste of time and money. Who could have guessed?

But even if CCS was a viable idea, isn’t it funny that the UK Government can find £22bn to keep their pals in the fossil fuel industry happy, but can’t find £1.5bn to keep pensioners warm in winter. If you think something doesn’t quite add up here, you’d be right. In case you haven’t worked it out yet, these decisions are political ones, not economic ones. The only reason there is a "Black hole" in the finances is because UK Labour are so right wing that they have voluntarily committed themselves to sticking to Tory fiscal policies which were introduced in order to justify Austerity. The truth is that, if you control a Central Bank, you can’t have a black hole in your finances, as many expert commentators have pointed out. In particular, see Richard J Murphy’s many articles on this topic. Deficits actually prove that the Government is putting money into the economy to encourage growth. If the Government wants to eliminate a deficit, it means taking money out of the economy, which usually harms the poorest in society.

Labour promised change, but there is precious little of that in sight. They are continuing to target the most vulnerable in society while pandering to monied interests, and they are using flimsy excuses to justify their choices.

As ever, Scotland really needs to escape this madness.