Rishi Sunak the cry-bully is wrong about inflation

Rishi Sunak is wrong for citing public sector pay as an inflation risk, and he's wrong to accuse ordinary workers of "bullying"

After months of threatening to ignore the recommendations of public sector Pay Review Bodies Rishi Sunak has finally agreed with their recommended pay rises of around 6% or 7% for most public sector workers, saying that it's a “final offer”, and that there will be no more negotiations.

The first thing to note is that these pay offers still constitute real-terms pay cuts, with inflation running at 8.7%, and food inflation much higher still, meaning lower paid workers will feel the pain of Sunak's real-terms pay cuts the most.

Then there's the caveat that these pay offers will be funded by making cuts to Britain's already austerity-devastated public services.

More pay cuts and more austerity ruination.

After thirteen years of economic stagnation, failing public services, soaring poverty rates, and a tripling of the national debt since 2010, all the Tory party has to offer is "more of the same".

But what's most infuriating about Sunak's statement is the bitter, hyper-partisan conclusion that "this country will not be bullied into higher taxes or higher borrowing to fund unrealistic pay demands, risking higher inflation".

The bully is telling people that he will not negotiate on the real-terms pay cuts and austerity ruination he's forcing on them, and is painting them as the bullies if they object.

Classic cry-bully tactics.

And he’s claiming that workers are being “unrealistic” if they ask for their wages just to keep track with rising prices.

Sunak knows perfectly well that capitalist profiteering and the Brexit economic sanctions we imposed upon ourselves are the main causes of inflation, but he's unwilling to do anything about either of those problems, so he's cynically insinuating that not imposing real-terms cuts on public sector workers' pay risks higher inflation.

He won't intervene to scale back the corporate looting because he's a free-market fanatic who vehemently opposes market interventions (unless they benefit the already wealthy), and he's terrified of doing anything to fix the obvious problems with Boris Johnson's shambolic Brexit bodge, because he knows the hard-right Brexiteer faction of the Tory party would dynamite his already shaky and unstable leadership in retribution.

The fact is that UK workers, and especially public sector workers, have endured an unprecedented period of wage stagnation, so it should be absolutely obvious to anyone that rising prices aren't being caused by workers flush with excess cash, but by other factors.

Then there's the fact that public sector wage increases are the least likely of all wage rises to cause inflation.

If private sector workers achieve significant pay rises, then capitalist bosses can and will pass the increased labour costs onto consumers through price increases to maintain their profit margins. But when people like teachers, nurses, and emergency services staff achieve pay rises, there's no associated price increases, because you don't pay fees for hospital visits, state education, or calling out the police or fire brigade.

Rishi Sunak is a cry-bully and an austerity wrecker who is accusing anyone who dares stand up to his bullying of being bullies!

And he's either economically illiterate, or outright misleading people when he tries to portray inflation-matched public sector pay offers as a significant inflation risk, when he can't not know that the real inflation causes are things he refuses to intervene in.