In dealing with the highest level of inflation since 1982, many comments on unions being stronger to protect their members before the Tories took their rights away. There were other big differences (see Thread). Any analysis of the current crisis has to include all of these.
1/ Housing: most renters were in council homes (effectively rent control). Right to buy introduced by the Tories effectively destroyed council housing and boosted the private rental sector. There is no control on rents.
Source: fullfact.org/economy/social…
2/ Benefits were adjusted by the RPI measure of inflation not the current CPI one. CPI excludes housing cots and is therefore almost always lower. For instance in April '22, CPI was 9% but RPI was 11%. The Tories made the switch from RPI to CPI. Source: researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN06…
3/ Household debt - we borrowed less and therefore owed less in the 1980s compared to now. In 1987 household debt was 56% of GDP, in Dec 2021 it was 91%. The Tories from 80s dismantled limits on financial activity and credit
Source: commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-brief…
4/ Inequality - the top rate of tax was 60% in 1982, it's now 40%. The incomes of the richest have soared since 1982 relative to the average. Look at the blue and red lines in 1982 see how close they were to 2015. This reflects the cumulation of the previous points.
5/ Under Tory governments the richest have disproportionately faired way better than everyone else. Additional Tory cuts and under investment in health, education, transport, council spending have reduced what is publicly available versus what can be privately provided.
6/ The graph is the Gini coefficient, a standard way of international measuring economic inequality. 0% is perfect equality, 100% is perfect inequality. The UK ratio has soared to inequality since the changes the Tories made in the 1980s and after. Source: statista.com/statistics/872…
7/ The current #CostOfLivingCrisis is driven by global factors, yes. But the scale of hardship here has been intensified by the impact of Tory policies (many of which were sadly accepted by Labour 1997 to 2010). This history has to be part of any analysis of the current crisis.
8/ This Thread on the Tory roots of the #CostOfLivingCrisis as a blog post for easier sharing outside of Twitter or if you like reading as a page: dravalblog.wordpress.com/2022/05/18/the…
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