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Madeline and I walked to the shops on Upper Parliament Street, just up the hill from our office in Toxteth Library. Outside of one of the shops sat a pensioner on her walker, asking for money. The woman inside told us that the pensioner lived around the corner, and was embarrassed to be there, but she can no longer make her money last for the whole month. We helped the best we could, walked away feeling heartbroken, and angry.
The Labour Government’s cut in winter fuel payments, one of their first acts after being elected, was the first shot across the bows. Now they have unleashed the full salvo, with the poorest, most vulnerable in society taking the full hit. They weighed up their options, and opted for bombs instead of bread, literally taking food out of the mouths of the poor and handing it to the arms companies and their voracious shareholders, who will fill their glasses and raise a toast to Starmer and Reeves as they feast on the spoils gifted to them by the new party of austerity. The Labour leaders’ faces should be as red as the claret being slurped in their honour, but they’re having none of it. Instead of being shamefaced, they try and hide behind fiscal responsibility. If they want to discuss fiscal matters, let’s start with these:
According to Oxfam UK, ‘UK billionaires saw their collective wealth increase last year by £35 million ($44m) a day to £182 billion ($231bn) – enough to cover the city of Manchester in £10 notes almost 1.5 times over. Four new billionaires were created last year, taking the current total to 57.’
The TUC reports that they estimate that, ‘the average worker has lost £14,800 since 2008 as a result of their pay not keeping up with pre-global financial crisis real wage trends.’
In 2024 The BBC reported that, ‘The energy price crisis caused the sharpest increase in UK absolute poverty in 30 years, new figures show. Steep price rises, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, meant hundreds of thousands more people fell into absolute poverty. The figure jumped to 12 million in 2022-2023, a rise of 600,000. This means the rate of absolute poverty in the UK now stands at 18% – a rise of 0.78 percentage points.’
Award-winning Liverpool Echo reporter Liam Thorpe, writing in 2024, revealed that ‘almost two in three residents are living in areas ranked as within the 20% most deprived parts of England. In terms of rankings, Liverpool is the third most deprived local authority in the country.’ and that, ‘In Liverpool right now there are 24,000 kids living in relative poverty. That’s 28.9% – nearly a third – of all children in this city. Of those children, one in two (43.5%) have dental decay by the age of five, the second highest nationally.’
These figures should raise bigger questions, but the minimum ask is that you would at least try and hold things as they are. But Labour isn’t wasting the opportunity to kick people while they are down. Because, you see, it’s not the fault of government that they are in poverty (even when in work due to poor salaries and gig-economy jobs), it turns out, it is the fault of the poor, the economically inactive, the sick and disabled, who, as against our upstanding venal millionaire and political class, lack morals, and the moral fibre to work.
If you believe there is a ‘moral case’ for these devastating cuts, then you have no morals whatsoever. Those on benefits, claiming Pip, Universal credit, etc., have been hit with both barrels – the financial impact, and then, the true face of the bully that Labour now is, the name-calling, labelling them as a burden, who pretty much have themselves to blame, who are holding back the country.
The Guardian reported that ‘Severn Trent Water and United Utilities were responsible for 1,374 raw sewage spills from sewage treatment works in apparent breaches of permits over a two-year period in more than 80 watercourses, according to an analysis of previously unpublished operational data…The two firms were both given the four-star rating by the Environment Agency this year for their performance in 2023. Over the past five years, the firms have paid out a combined £2.8bn in dividends to shareholders and millions of pounds in bonuses to bosses.
The Office for budget responsibility estimates Labour’s welfare cuts will save $4.6bn over the next decade. Compare that figure to the dividends paid out by just two failing water companies and imagine if Starmer and Reeves really had some morals, and a bit of gumption, and decided to claw back some of the transfer of wealth in this country to protect the most vulnerable and make real investment in the economy.
Why are we making these points -you could hear someone whimper – ‘surely you should stick to the arts and not be so political’.
We work with local communities, delivering creative projects that do many things – develop writing and other artistic skills, building confidence, community engagement, publishing new writers, creating pathways to publication and careers, working with school children and young people, celebrating and supporting diverse representation, and linking creative engagement to health, employment, and heritage.
In all our projects our focus is on our communities across the Liverpool City region, with a focus on those most in need. And we know that these cuts will have a devastating impact upon them. Let’s not forget that everyone is still coping with the rise in energy bills, which again disproportionately impact on the poorest. The impact of these cuts on health, and mental health, will drive people towards the services that are already overwhelmed.
We invited some of the people who attend our Write to Work courses and writer’s Bloc sessions, to send in their responses to the welfare cuts. If only Labour would truly listen to these voices and many more, from all the major charities and those across the country shocked at this latest outrage, then maybe they’d have a change of heart. But, as the saying goes, ‘when someone shows you who they are, believe them’.
When you attack the very communities we come from and work with, then those of us in the arts and culture sector who are socially conscious and connected to communities, must make our, and their, voices heard. Writing on the Wall will continue to offer a platform to amplify the voices of those being dispossessed. We all want roses, but we can’t live without the bread.
