Tories jack up tax

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initially. But as the final recommendation seems to have been unanimous we can only assume that Convenor Jack Adams and the Works Committee majority beat down the opposition.

What is clear from all this is that there is something fundamentally wrong with both the politics of the Longbridge Works Committee and their secretive, undemocratic method of operating. Oppositionists on the Works Committee must in future be willing to break with the "collective responsibility" policy operated by Adams, and militants in the factory must now come forward to challenge the existing leadership in the forthcoming Works Committee elections. Howe TORY Chancellor Sir Geoff-. rey Howe - whose conduct of the economy has done for monetarism what Tommy Cooper has done for the art of conjuring - last week made yet another extended confession of failure.

To nobody's surprise but his own, he unveiled government predictions of an economy plunging further into recession next year -with a 10% rise in unemp1% rise in output; and a further fall in after-tax real income:

Sensation And confirming himself as the Goose that lald, the wooden egg, ne rounded off this latest chapter in the unbroken story of disaster by hitting the working class with a new bundle of taxes, charges and rent increases, together with a savage swipe at those on state benefits.

National Insurance which is, in effect a tax leviedd most heavily on the lowest paid workers - was raised by 1% for all those earning between £29.50 and $220 a week.

Prescription charges go up by a punitive 30% with increases in dental charges and other health charges. Council rents go up by another £2.50, together with cuts in the rate support grant which will drive up rate bills throughout Britain:

And social security benefits are to be cut in real terms by increasing them less than inflation. Student grants too face a cut in real terms of 6%.

Howe's latest proposals must have brought a sinking sensation to the stomachs of many doubting Tories.

Dripping

It is perhaps rather unfair that as Thatcher's obedient lackey he should single-handedly carry the can for the deepening crisis of the economy: but there is no doubt that in electoral terms it is Howe's meas ures which stick most firmly in the minds of alienated Tory voters.

It is this — and the dir consequences for the profits of sections of British employers in a prolonged period of recession - rather than any concern for the plight of the working class or unemployed, which has started vocal opposition within the Tory Party:

The already dripping 'wets' have been joined by an increasingly soggy group of Mps who fear that Thatcher is leading the Party to electoral annihilation.

They point to the success of the SDP in attracting former Tory voters by the thousand in recent by-elections and the level of public opposition to Howe's policy of mass unemployment.

Nor is there any scope to offset such electoral liabilities against more popular measures. Anyone dumb enough to have voted for Thatcher on the basis of her promise to cut taxes, for instance, has paid heavy prive for their mistake.

The latest figures show that workers on average earnings have faced an overall 5% increase in tax deductions as a percentage of gross pay since the Tories came to office, while even the stinking rich on four times average pay have suffered an overall percentage increase in taxation.

But it is those on or below the poverty line that have borne the brunt of Howe's attacks.

Treasury figures released last week in answer to Labour economics spokesman Jack Straw showed a dramatic leap in the share of wages taken in taxation from low-paid workers.

A married couple with two children on half average earnings - £74 a week -are now paying nearly twice as much of their gross income in tax as they were in 1978-9 - the share has risen from 6.6% to 11.8%.

The increase is no accident: it is the result of the Thatcher/Howe strategy of benefitting the wealthy at the expense of the working class.

While right-wing union leaders join Foot in moves to purge the left from the Labour Party, the fight that is needed is for all out working class action to bring down Thatcher and the building of a genuine alternative leadership the labour movement.

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loyment; inflation still in double figures; a miserable