Workers' "war" against the cost of living crisis isn't over by any means. While the "official" Consumer Price Index (CPI), is apparently back down to 3%, prices remain 25% higher now than they were 4 years ago!

    Energy costs continue to skyrocket, with the price cap rising by 6.4% next month, meaning an average increase of £9/month. Council tax is going up by the maximum - 4.99%. In fact, struggling councils will increase it by even more - like Newham by 9% or Bradford by 10%. Tube and rail fares just went up by 4.6%, and bus fares outside London by 50%! And all these increases hit the poorest the hardest.

    We're told that wages have risen by an average of 6%, so we should be OK... But where and for whom? Transport workers had a 2-year-long pay freeze, so the recent 4.5% pay increase doesn't even catch up. Postal workers got only 2%; a multi-billion giant like BMW is offering a "0% pay deal", while Ford offered 1%! And these are cuts in real pay and they're even more obscene when compared with the record profits some of these companies made last year.

    The Living Wage Foundation says that "2024 saw the largest annual rise in the number and proportion of jobs paid below the real Living Wage ever recorded". 4.5 million! So nearly 16% of the workforce doesn't even earn enough to live on.

    But guess what? With Starmer now re-arming "the nation" and claiming he and the EU's leaders must "save" Ukraine, they think they have a perfect excuse to cut public services, jobs, wages, you name it. In fact these political leaders all sit in the same sinking capitalist boat. They're all making huge public spending cuts, in the name of increasing military budgets.

    So workers everywhere must tighten their belts in the "national interest" and apparently feel proud because they're "standing up to Putin"! Rachel Reeves will now announce a Spring Budget, which will cut essential welfare, after having cut the International Aid budget to fund Britain's rise in warfare-spending. Of course we all know she intended to make the welfare cuts anyway, but never mind that!

    Targeting the most vulnerable, like pensioners and the poorest is Labour's new play-book: ministers even boast about it. At least this most right-wing of governments will shatter any remaining illusions that "Labour" represents labourers, let alone peace!