WORKING FOR YOU Not the time for back slapping

Despite what the UK Government would have us believe, now is not the time for celebrations; nor for hyperbolic praise or reassuring pats on the back.

As desperate as the front bench ministers are for such undeserved platitudes, this prospect is far from their reach – and rightly so.

Let me make this abundantly clear: the Prime Minister is living in a fantasy world if he truly believes he has protected the public during this pandemic.

Time and time again, Tory media mouthpieces have claimed this country has delivered the greatest package of assistance since the Great War.

The supreme support package in Europe. The ultimate form of citizen care. An unprecedented deal of a lifetime. This is just spineless spiel.

And it’s simply another smokescreen for the sheer incompetence of this UK Government.

Indeed, the furlough scheme has supported many employees to maintain their position on company payrolls. Likewise, many employers have been able to keep their workforce in place until such a time that they could reopen.

Yet, what commentators are failing to question is why, in the 21st century, was such support necessary, particularly when our European counterparts have provided – and survived – on less?

The question, although complex, has a simple answer: 10 years (and counting) of Tory austerity.

The Tories have utterly failed to recognise that their consistent approach of cutting services, stagnating wages and increasing taxes for the poor, whilst bailing out banks, rewarding big businesses and turning a blind eye to wealthy tax dodgers, is exactly why the furlough scheme is not fit for purpose.

We are living in a society of exacerbating inequality, with a large portion of the population for whom furlough pay was not enough to survive on.

Those on zero-hour contracts. Those not even earning a minimum, let alone, a living wage. Those in work but reliant on foodbanks and charity shops for survival.

The very people the Tories have been metaphorically slapping in the face since their very first day in office.

Do those on the frontline of this virus, the care workers, cleaners and shop workers – all barely earning a living wage – not deserve some dignity and assurance?

The answer is yes and the only way to do so is if we start having a grown-up conversation about a universal basic income. A level pedestal to economic equality.

Let us liberate citizens to work, not simply as a means to exist, but as a way to progress their own ambitions and experience personal fulfilment.

Let us make food insecurity and fuel poverty a demon of the past, and volunteerism a sign of the future.

If a global pandemic that has crippled this country’s economy and caused the deaths of tens of thousands of people is not the reason to have a stern look at how the government supports its citizens, then what is?

Deluded Mr Bonnar says the Prime Minister is “living in a fantasy world if he truly believes he has protected the public during this pandemic”