We’re not all in this together, but it’s time we were
Staff members outside the Royal Derby Hospital hold a minute's silence to pay tribute to key workers who have died during the coronavirus outbreak
4 min read
In 1945, the working class insisted that if we could care for everyone in a crisis, we could do it in peacetime too. When we emerge from this pandemic, let's look to them for inspiration and build a world for working people
The Chancellor has repeatedly said that “we’re all in this together”. Working people are making huge sacrifices through this crisis and we should expect the same from the super-rich and big businesses.
Bailouts are necessary to protect jobs and living standards, but if companies want access to them, it’s only fair that they contribute to the public purse. It's not right for businesses that dodge taxes and deprive our NHS of funding to get public support. And while the public are tightening their belts, it’s only reasonable to ask executives and shareholders to do the same. Even the Financial Times says bailouts should be conditional on firms placing moratoriums on dividends, share buybacks, and which curb excessive executive pay.
So at Prime Minister’s Questions this week, I asked if the Government would do this: Would bailouts come with conditions, forcing companies who want them to ditch tax havens, dividend payouts and share buybacks? Denmark has done this, so why not the UK?
Instead of answering my question, Dominic Raab said we should drop this “partisan baggage” – as if it was “partisan” to ask big businesses to pay their fair share.
To be honest, I wasn’t surprised by the answer. Making big businesses and the super-rich pay their fair share seems partisan if you’re on their side. And the last time the economy crashed, we saw that’s whose side the Conservatives were on.
After bankers sent the economy into freefall, the Conservatives cut public services of the working class and the taxes of the wealthy. The result was the longest peacetime wage squeeze since the Napoleonic era for working people, but soaring incomes for the super-rich. Inequalities were deepened and now the effects of the Coronavirus pandemic risk entrenching them further.
In response to this crisis, by international standards the Government’s Coronavirus measures have been slow and limited. Record numbers of people have been forced to apply for Universal Credit, meaning the effects of the gutted social security system will be felt by more people. The income retention scheme has too many gaps and the Government failed to require companies to protect jobs. And while a mortgage holiday has been given to homeowners, the Government has refused to suspend rents for tenants.
We’ve seen that the state can intervene to protect livelihoods, so let’s do this all the time, not just in emergencies
As we begin to think about life after the pandemic, urgent questions have to be answered. Two are key: First, who will pay for the emergency economic measures? Second, what world do we return to?
The likes of George Osborne are already itching for more years of austerity, but this has to be rejected. A rerun of austerity years is not inevitable. Instead, we can look to previous generations for inspiration.
In 1945, the working class insisted that if we could care for everyone in a crisis, we could do it in peacetime too.
This is what we should demand: We’ve seen that the state can intervene to protect livelihoods, so let’s do this all the time, not just in emergencies. We’ve seen the harm of people hoarding goods, so let’s break the power of the billionaires who hoard society’s wealth. We’ve seen that the homeless can be housed, so let’s ensure no one ever again sleeps on the streets. And we’ve seen the devastating consequences of cuts, so let’s never underfund our public services again.
More than anything, we’ve seen who our key workers are. It’s not people who our economic system has been richly rewarding – it’s not bankers, city traders, or hedge fund managers. Instead, it’s the nurses, carers, cleaners, supermarket assistants, bus drivers: in short, it's working people, in all their diversity.
It’s people the Government classed as “low skilled”, but they’re not low skilled, just low paid.
They’re the backbone of society, but they’ve been let down for too long. The world we return to after this crisis should be built for them. That’s a world where we tax the richest, invest in our public services, and raise the living standards of the majority. That’s the world our key workers deserve.
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