Monday, 14 February 2022

The Cost-of-Living Crisis Will Result in Thousands of Entirely Avoidable Deaths.

 


On Saturday 12th February activists from North Staffs Green Party took part in a protest against the raising of the cap on energy prices.

 

The event took place outside Hanley bus station and was organised by Staffordshire People's Assembly. Also represented were local trades unions, and groups campaigning for asylum seekers and disability rights.

 

The protest was part of a national day of action with similar events taking place in twenty-five towns across the county including London, Birmingham, and Manchester.

 

Speaking to the Guardian on Saturday General Secretary of the People’s Assembly and former Labour MP Laura Pidcock said there was ‘real anger’ over the rising cost of living and the government’s failure to take effective action.

 

She added that “Working people could not be working harder and yet life is getting so much more difficult,” and that as a result “Older people will be cold in their homes, people will be struggling to feed their children, when none of this is a crisis of their making”. [1]

 

Speaking at the protest a representative of North Staffs Greens said that poverty was a 'contagion' in our society, and that it had a devastating impact on people's physical and mental health.

 

Zoe Nicholson, the leader of Lewes District Council and Green Party spokesperson for the Green New Deal said earlier this month of government support for people struggling to pay their bills "At a time when millions of people across the country are facing unprecedented rises in energy prices, the government's solution fails to respond to the seriousness of either the cost-of-living crisis or the climate crisis”.

 

She went on to say “Instead of a simple and effective payment to everybody as we suggested, he has put forward a buy-now pay-later scheme which will create an additional burden for those on the lowest incomes further down the line”.

 

Adding that “At the same time he has done nothing to help reduce bills and reduce carbon emissions by insulating people’s homes, and instead opted to prop up the fossil fuel companies whose profits are sky-rocketing at the expense of all of us as well as the environment [2]”.

 

The Green Party has put forward a five-point plan for addressing the cost-of-living crisis.

 

They call for grants to help people at risk of falling into fuel poverty insulate their homes, an extension to winter fuel payments, more investment in renewable energy and for the hike in National Insurance payments to be scrapped.

 

This would be paid for through a windfall tax on energy companies including BP, who this week announced profits exceeding £9.5billion.

 

Speaking at the protest the Green Party representative said they stood in solidarity with 'children having to go to school with holes in their shoes, parents going hungry so their kids can eat and old people who have worked all their lives, and now can't heat their homes'.

 

Speakers from other groups also expressed concern about the impact of rising energy prices and other pressures on household budgets.

 

Blythe Taylor, a member of Stoke and Crewe Socialist Workers Party said it was an 'attack on the living standards of working-class people'.

 

A representative of Staffordshire Disabled People Against Cuts said combined with the difficulties they face due to Universal Credit a rise in household heating costs risked causing 'untold numbers of entirely avoidable deaths.

 

A speaker from Acorn, a group campaigning on housing and other community issues urged people to follow the example set by the Diggers, Chartists and Suffragettes by organising and fighting back.

 

The People's Assembly have announced dates for two further national protests, these will be held on 2nd March and 5th April.

 

A spokesperson for North Staffs Green Party said the event in Hanley had 'shown the depth of public concern around an issue that will have an impact on everyone'.

 

Adding that they party would be 'working with local trades unions and the People's Assembly to make the next two events bigger and better. Things do not have to be like this, through partnership and organisation we can bring about change'.

 

[1]https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/feb/12/uk-cost-of-living-protesters-demonstrate-peoples-assembly

 

[2]https://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/2022/02/03/government%E2%80%99s-response-to-energy-crisis-creates-future-risk-rather-than-future-proofing,-greens-warn/

 

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