photo Dan Moyle/CC, photo Dan Moyle/CC

photo Dan Moyle/CC   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

Households suffering unemployment during the pandemic will get £1,600 per year less in benefits than in 2011. Families with kids will have been robbed of £2,900 due to Tory benefit cuts, reports the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

And bosses could use Covid-19 to throw over a million more workers on the scrapheap, according to Bank of England projections. May estimates foresaw official unemployment doubling to 8% this summer, approaching the 2010 peak after the Great Recession.

Never mind paying down our debts, or even going on a modest holiday. How are working-class people even to keep up with racketeering rent and utility costs, on top of a killer virus?

Meanwhile, the Telegraph reports that “a new item has been added to the wish list of ultra-wealthy homeowners: their own private hospital.”

One super-rich house buyer specified on-site quarters for not one, but two full-time registered nurses (in case one gets sick). Buying agent Mark Lawson commented that “if you’re spending £10 million or more, you’d expect it to come with large grounds and a few small cottages” to fit out and staff a personal clinic!

And there are no cancelled trips away for the super-rich! Shy Aviation, a private jet firm, reports a 300% rise in new client bookings compared to last year. Some are even “booking 13-seat aircrafts for one person, and they’re running at £8,000 an hour.” Private Islands Inc reports a 30% growth in enquiries about private islands.

Fight for a decent job, a living wage and living benefits for all. Take the wealth off the 1%. Nationalise the banks and big business – and turn them from cash siphons into planned providers for all.