Thursday 12 September 2024

No Money For Poor Pensioners, Another £600 million For Zelensky

Starmer and Blue Labour lie as readily, and as frequently, as they breathe. On the same day that they used their fraudulent parliamentary majority to push through a vicious attack on some of the poorest, most vulnerable households, by withdrawing the Winter Fuel Allowance from those not in receipt of Pension Credit, claiming “they had to do it”, because there was no money for it, they also found another £600 million to send to Zelensky's corrupt, oligarchical regime in Ukraine, to continue the war against Russia!

Since 2022, the UK has pledged £12.5 billion in aid for Ukraine, of which £7.6 billion is military aid, with £3 billion in military aid, pledged for this year, alone, and now with this additional £600 million. So, what was that again about there being no money to give a few quid to poor, vulnerable pensioners, in Britain? If we believed Blue Labour, which would be a very silly thing to do given their proclivity to continually lie, the expected savings from depriving pensioner households of vital Winter Fuel payments, would be £1.5 billion, just half of the amount they are sending, this year alone to fund the war being fought by Ukrainian workers, on their behalf against Russia. In fact, as Martin Lewis has set out, if we believed Blue Labour's argument and justification for cutting the payments that they want the 800,000 pensioners not claiming Pension Credit, to claim it, that would also cost around £3.5 billion, wiping out the proposed savings! This is typical of the lies, and just general bullshit that comes out of the mouths of these career politicians, whenever they speak.


In the 19th century, in the days before nations turned towards conscript armies, to fight their wars, they used paid mercenaries. In effect, what we have is a return to those days, at least in part, as wars between imperialist states and blocs, are being fought out as proxy wars, using paid mercenaries. Its not just the role of The Wagner Group in various places across the globe, but also, for example, Ukraine sending troops to fight on behalf of the Sudanese government, the channelling of funds to various jihadist and other terrorist organisations to fight in theatres of war across the globe. The US, UK and EU know that, if they asked their own citizens to go and fight against Russia, in Ukraine, they would rapidly face a rebellion against such a proposal, not to mention that any such action would quickly lead to WWIII, and nuclear extermination of Mankind.

So, they are paying Ukrainian workers to fight as mercenaries on their behalf, subordinated via the hierarchy and discipline of the Ukrainian army, and the Ukrainian imperialist state, with small numbers of British, US, and other European Special Forces, also fighting secretly, as disclosed in the leak of US Defence Department papers. At the start of the last century, the distinction between the revolutionary socialists and the social-patriots was the refusal to vote for war credits to fight such imperialist wars, but, today, we have some who claim to be revolutionary socialists, falling over themselves to demand billions be sent to the corrupt regime in Ukraine to fight such an imperialist war!

At the same time, the imperialists of Blue Labour, who are at the forefront of promoting such wars, and who continue to back, and arm the genocide committed by the Bonapartist, Zionist state in Israel, against Palestinians, claim that there is no money for poor pensioner households, here, and similarly, no money to enable them to remove the two-child limit on Child Benefit, or to finance even a continuation of vital public services at the current abominably low levels! As in Ukraine, the imperialists of Blue Labour, supported by some of the social imperialists that demand more WMD for Ukraine, lyingly talk Israel's right to defend itself, even as its huge military machine literally rolls over the bones of Palestinians, and increasingly attacks its neighbours, in what appears to be a deliberate strategy of annexation, and the provocation of a regional war.


Blue Labour politicians come on TV and claim that the decision to cut the Winter Fuel Payment was “difficult”, but difficult for who? It will certainly be difficult for around 1 million of those deprived of it, who Blue Labour's own figures have previously shown will result in around 4,000 of them dying this Winter! But, it clearly isn't difficult for those Blue Labour politicians that voted for it, or they wouldn't have done so. They are not the ones, with their comfy positions and large salaries and other incomes that will be struggling to pay the bills, heating or otherwise. Even less will all those billionaires and multimillionaires that, now, provide funds to Blue Labour, and gain access to the corridors of power, have any such difficulty. Blue Labour could, if it found the decision so “difficult” have introduced a wealth tax, on such billionaires instead.


Yet, the reality is that once again Blue Labour lies about this “difficult decision”. In 2014, Rachel Reeves stated openly, in the Commons that she wanted to means test the Winter Fuel Allowance, and when the government won the vote on Tuesday, Blue Labour MP's were seen giving double fist celebrations at their victory over the poor, some of whom would have voted for them, but who may not be around next time to do so, as they will have died, even if, at that stage, they would have been so lavish with their vote.


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