Them & Us

Lethal loan sharks

Payday loans are lethal. Mentally ill teenager Kane Sparham-Price died by suicide on the day loan shark Wonga emptied his whole bank account.

Desperate Wonga clients can end up paying 1,509% of their original loan per year due to compound interest.

Meanwhile, failed bank Northern Rock paid only 2.7% interest on its state bailout in the 2010-2011 financial year. The government paid around 4.2% interest on the debt incurred to buy it!

It's banks like Northern Rock which caused the financial crisis. This gave establishment politicians the cover for cuts which force vulnerable people like Kane over the edge.

A blameless 18-year-old was left destitute - and died. Since 2007, casino cokeheads at the top of UK finance have taken home over Ł100 billion in bonuses.

Get out of jail free

If one of us terrorised, tortured and dismembered a harmless animal, we could expect prosecution. Rightly so. Even if it was a pest, there'd be general disgust at flamboyant cruelty.

Unless you're a toff huntsman, of course. Then you can just ask David Cameron to write to the police and get you off.

The latest claim from disenchanted Tory donor Lord Ashcroft is that Cameron intervened to save huntsman pal Julian Barnfield. Aschroft says the Conservative leader told cops to drop a case against Barnfield for illegal fox hunting.

The super-rich pay establishment MPs to make laws in their favour. When one slips through they don't like, they just tell their lackeys to ignore it.

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Finance appeal

The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.

The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.

The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.

The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.

Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.

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