Sun 15 Mar 2020, 10:53 AM | Posted by editor
LETTER from Tom Smith, Newport West Labour Party
At the end of the Second World War, the economies of Europe were shattered. America was the strongest economy in the world, perhaps accounting for fifty percent of global GNP. It was also the world’s biggest lender. Now it controls 25 percent of GNP and is the world’s biggest debtor.
The virus will have a bigger impact on the world economy than the Second World War, with America reduced to being an onlooker on world events. The figures mentioned in the budget will become a fiction. Hotels, railways, sport, restaurants, aircraft travel, holidays even my local doctors has shut down. The economic impact will so great that the spending plans of this government cannot overcome the devastation.
At the moment it seems society is passive. However, private hospitals are expected to gain £2.4m a day to make beds available for the sick. How will that go down with the population, seeing a Tory plans to privatise the NHS? The fact of the matter is that many elderly will be left to rot in isolation, and families made destitute by having to stay at home.
At the beginning of the First World War, there was an uproar as private landlords increased rents. What is going to happen when families cannot pay the rent now? Workers have not felt the full impact of this looming economic crisis. The truth is nobody knows how far this will go. My local bank might close. Chemists are threatened. My local cinema might close, the local library shut. The list is endless.
This shocking scenario will be with us with in weeks, even before mass numbers are struck by the virus. Capitalism cannot defend basic living standards. How will children be fed when millions live in poverty? Brexit will become a farce. Britain will be hammered by a world economic downturn with Europe holding all the cards.
When I approach workers in the supermarkets, pubs, in the street or even brief chats in the bank or other places I go, two things stand out for me. Most workers I meet are not interested in figures for the economy. First there is a mood of ‘see how it goes, it might not be so bad’. On the other hand, there is bewilderment about the future. One put it like this. “With the state of the NHS, Boris has promised us lots of deaths”.
