ONE of the key tactics used by the Tory Government is to turn the public against one another by setting up key sections of the population as scapegoats for their spending cuts.
In order to minimise the risk of people realising that their attacks on the public sector and public spending harm everyone, the Tories pick out key sections of the public – be they immigrants, pensioners or young people – and hope to focus disillusionment on the “extravagant” spending within these sections of society.
The speech by Home Secretary Theresa May at the Conservative party conference highlighted this.
According to May, immigration brings little benefit to the UK and therefore the immigrants bring little value to our society.
Try telling this to anyone who relies on the NHS, where some reports estimate that 26 per cent of doctors are “non-British” and may be subject to any Tory attempt to limit the number of immigrants working in the UK.
Although these doctors might be spared from such a purge based on their income level, that will not be the case for other workers in the NHS such as nurses, auxiliary staff and cleaners, who won’t earn enough to allow them to remain in the country.
This attack on immigrants could see many jobs simply left unfilled in a wide range of both public and private sector organisations who would struggle to find a replacement workforce.
In the end this will harm the economy as less tax is paid and essential public services would find it difficult to maintain services.
Yet the Tory Government see their claims as useful in deflecting attention away from their abysmal record of creating sustainable, high quality training and jobs.
Rather than having to accept their cuts to public spending are having an impact on job creation it’s easier to pin the blame on someone else and hope the public falls for this smokescreen instead.
The same old scare stories about immigrants stealing jobs was pushed to try to make those who can’t find a job or are stuck in an unfulfilling position blame it on immigrants, rather than on the UK Government which controls the economy.
This Tory tactic shifts your concerns from a government that couldn’t care less about workers to a token enemy.
If you can’t find a job – blame the immigrants; if you don’t like your job then it’s all those immigrants taking the good jobs stopping you from getting something better.
Just as long as you don’t question why you – and so many others, including low-paid migrant workers – are living a hand to mouth existence or why, despite being in work, you need to visit a foodbank to feed your family.
And of course it’s not just immigrants that are to blame according to the Tories.
They are lining up pensioners as one of the next groups for public vilification.
Apparently all pensioners are rich in the Tory mindset, fecklessly wasting our cash on free bus passes and winter heating allowances.
Not for them is the notion that pensioner poverty is a serious issue which needs addressed. While they see a bus pass as a freebie that is exploited, those who actually use it see it as an essential lifeline helping them get about in their communities.
Similarly the Tories’ failure to control rises in utility bills makes the annual winter heating allowance essential for the many pensioners dreading the approaching winter, knowing full well that they will once again have to choose between a warm room or a warm meal.
Their other favourite target is young people. We’ll hear stories of how young people leave school without being able to read or write properly, that they require too much training and are apparently a drain on employers’ resources. Tory logic therefore dictates that they shouldn’t get the same wage as an older worker – anyone over 25.
They have extended this penalisation of the young to the benefits system and decided that younger people don’t deserve the same level of welfare support either. I raised this issue in my maiden speech in Parliament, when I highlighted that due to the fact that I’m a Member of Parliament and am allowed certain expenses in order to fulfil my job, I am the only person in Britain under 25 who will escape the Chancellor’s cuts on housing support for young people.
Of course the line used by the Tories is “we never got such benefits when we were younger – so why should younger people get them today?” In the Tory mindset young people don’t deserve the same rights to a living wage or housing benefit as the rest of society.
The common thread is the fear that Tory austerity will mean real cuts to everyone’s living standards but by trying to put your focus on one group at a time – be that immigrants, pensioners or young people – the Tories hope to divide and rule the public.
It’s easier to be outraged at these political and economic scapegoats if cuts to what they receive may mean that you don’t have to face any reductions in your income.
Demonising sections of the public allows them to take the rap for the Tories’ economic failure rather than letting everyone – immigrants, pensioners and young people – to come together and realise that we all have one common enemy when it comes to being denied a decent standard of living.
And that’s the current Tory Government.
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