In an interview with Bloomberg TV last week Saint Rishi Sunak, the now not-so-shining UK Chancellor (Minister of Finance), said that he couldn’t increase welfare spending to help with the inflation-fuelled cost-of-living crisis because the ancient computer systems won’t let him.
A couple of points here:
- Who’s been in charge of these systems for the last twelve years and why haven’t they been maintained?
- If the levers are so stuck they can’t be pulled why are we employing an operator to hold them?
The reality is that the UK Conservative party are allergic to welfare increases. Their base view the poor as parasites sucking off the hard working taxpayer, so their professional electables view welfare increases as career suicide.
Sunak’s talked lately about tax tweaks to fix these problems. The reality is that while inflation can become a chronic problem the effects are very acute. If you can’t feed the meter this week you need help this week. Tax changes take years to effect society.
There’s also a fundamental fault in this (assuming he’s not lying): tax systems are there to take money off people very generically, they’re not good at giving to those who need it. We do have a system specifically designed to do that: the benefits (welfare) system. Even if it’s completely broken he still managed to give an extra £20 a week to welfare recipients during Covid times. Use the tool for the job. You can open beer bottles with axes, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
All in all it sounds like Saint Rishi is talking crap to not do what’s needed because it might effect his political career. Rishi, that career went south when you didn’t resign with your fine. Get used to it.
[20/05/2022]
Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty have just made The Sunday Times Rich List. My apologies to our Chancellor for criticising his welfare policy. He’s probably not familiar with feeding the meter.