I think it’s safe to say that our government (UK) is basing all of it’s policy on figures by the Office for Budget Responsibility. I could go further and say the OBR effectively runs the government. When the OBR delivers more fiscal predictions, the government acts in accordance, hence the proposal to make further ‘savings’ of 500m from benefits
I paraphrase Ash Sarker, Novara Media’s analogy of a fiscal straight jacket that Blue Labour have put themselves in by giving the OBR such hold over major spending decisions that impact large swathes of the public.
Pure pragmatic logic dictates that a wealth tax would provide better state funding than gutting disability benefits. Seeing as there are plenty of people who believe the disabled are simply faking it, I chose to use this logic because it can’t be debunked, argued,yes but it remains logical and factual.
Disclaimer: I have a severe, lifelong disability so, yes, I have a certain amount of bias. I do believe that the decision to make drastic cuts to disability benefits is going to lead to more deaths and more misery. Welcome to austerity 2.0, it’s going to be cruel beyond the imagination and asides from a small cohort of MPs, it will be rubber stamped and approved by Labour, Reform and the Tories
