17th September 2022
Not my King – anti Monarchy protesters in Edinburgh
As the state media frenzy surrounding the death of Queen Elizabeth II builds to its conclusion with her funeral on Monday, a salutary reminder of the realities of life for many of the new King’s subjects has been delivered in a report by the Living Wage Foundation.
In a poll of 2,000 workers earning less than the real living wage of £9.90 per hour, 78% said that this was the worst financial period they had ever faced. More than a fifth (21%) said that they had no disposable income after paying out for essentials such as rent and food. Over half had used a food bank in the past year and over 40% had skipped meals as they could not afford them.
According to the Resolution Foundation thinktank nearly 5 million British workers earn less than the real living wage. With the cost of living crisis only set to get even more severe there is every likelihood that many will join them in sinking into poverty and desperation. With inflation still at 9.9% according to latest figures there is little on the horizon to mitigate the threat to Britain’s poorest families. The energy cap announced by Prime Minister Liz Truss, at £2,500 a year, is still higher than the current £1,900 and twice as high as bills were this time last year.
Meanwhile, newly appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng, has moved quickly to endear himself to the bankers and the City of London by suggesting that the cap on banker’s bonuses, put in place after the 2008 financial crash, may be lifted. Kwarteng argues that the cap restricts the recruitment of the best talent into the City of London, failing to acknowledge that it was the risk taking gambling of such ‘talent’ that brought about the financial crash and heralded over a decade of austerity in the first place!
Still, the Tories are nothing if not consistent in defence of the privileges of the class they are bankrolled to support. With a mini-budget earmarked for the 23rd September it will be interesting to see how Kwarteng proposes to address the pain and poverty 12 years of Tory government have brought to the British working class. Little if anything is expected for the poor, while further tax cuts for the rich are already being trailed.
The pound is currently trading against the dollar at its lowest rate for 37 years. Given uncertainties around energy costs and the war in Ukraine, investors are defaulting to the world’s main reserve currency to protect their assets. The US Federal Reserve decision to push up interest rates also makes the dollar more attractive to the international money market gamblers, as higher rates mean a better return. The fall in the pounds value may make British exports cheaper but also makes imports dearer, adding to the pressure on inflation.
The drop in consumer spending last month, both in shops and online, is largely a result of consumer anxiety about inflation and higher costs, including rising energy bills.
Nevertheless, the BBC in particular continues to feed the world a rich diet of revelry in the social progress made during the reign of Queen Elizabeth II. Such progress as there has been in the past 70 years however is in spite of, not because of the Monarchy, which has never played any part in advancing life for the working class.
The establishment of the NHS, initially opposed by the Tories; the post war nationalisation of key industries; the establishment of comprehensive education; the building of affordable Council housing; the achievement of legislation on Equal Pay and Sex Discrimination; none of these things were achieved as a consequence of the Monarchy. By the same token the Monarchy has played no role in trying to defend such gains, as they have been swept aside by successive Tory governments. On the contrary, the Monarchy has been more concerned with ensuring its own privileges are protected, such as the exemption on payment of inheritance tax for example.
The reality is that social gains are made as a result of struggle by working class political, trade union and community organisations applying extra-parliamentary pressure upon the establishment. Once the manufactured suspension of everyday reality created by the period of so called National Mourning is over, that struggle will continue. No amount of fake bonhomie on the part of the Royal Family, as the figureheads of the British ruling class, will change that.
What must change are the terms on which the struggle in Britain is conducted. It is not about regional disparities as the apologists for levelling up suggest. It is not about national disparities as the Scottish Nationalists and Plaid Cymru insist, other than in the north of Ireland, where the six counties should become part of the Republic of Ireland. It remains always and everywhere about class distinctions, class disparities and class struggle.
The outpouring of emotion from some sections of the population over the death of Queen Elizabeth II does not change the fact that the Monarchy is an embedded part of the ruling class. In the 21st century the Monarchy is, like capitalism itself, an anachronism which serves no purpose other than to perpetuate the privileges of the few over the rights of the many. The struggle to change that does not stop with the death of a Monarch.
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