We’re being fleeced and still Tories do nothing

THE cause of the inflation we’ve got has nothing to do with wage rises. This was initially caused by the poorly planned reopening from Covid.

That led to a sudden increase in demand for energy and severely disrupted supply chains. Then we got an unexpected war, which has led to massive increases in fuel prices, and a big impact on food prices.

When it comes to wage rises, the reality is amongst people on average and lower earnings pay rises are leaving people much worse off than they were before Covid. What there most definitely is not is a wage rise spiral. Pay is dragging way behind inflation and most definitely not fuelling it. In that case where is the money everyone is paying for higher priced goods and services going, because it’s not going to employees? The answer is it’s going to firms, banks and speculators in oil, gas and food. It’s giving them additional profits.

It’s worth noting the boss of BP said late last year he was running “a cash machine”. So are all his competitors. This is why we have inflation. The country is being fleeced.

And the Government is doing nothing. It should cut VAT and duty rates of fuel and energy to cut the inflation rate. It would be easy to do. But it would rather more tax paid by us poured into the Treasury instead, stripping us of money so Rishi Sunak (above) can balance his books.

That means the Government is itself profiting from inflation and it’s doing nothing to stop large companies and landlords increasing their prices. Nor is it increasing taxes on the investment income of those gaining from rising interest rates.

But then it turns round and says it’s wrong for working people to ask for pay rises and it must stop them because these are what is fuelling inflation, when glaringly obviously that is not true.

Richard is a chartered accountant and campaigner. He blogs at taxresearch.org.uk/ Blog/ and tweets @RICHARDJMURPHY.