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Spending Review: The working class should not be made to pay for this crisis
The government is frivolous when it comes to handing money out to Tory donors or private companies, but penny-pinching when it comes to bailing out communities, says CLAUDIA WEBBE

LAST week, the Chancellor made one of the most important Spending Review statements in recent years. 

Due to the government’s negligent handling of the pandemic we are facing the worst of both worlds: the highest number of excess deaths in Europe, one of the worst Covid-19 death rates in the world, and our worst ever recession — which is nearly twice as severe as in comparable nations.

The 11.3 per cent slump in UK GDP forecast for this year will be even worse than the recession of 1921, when Britain’s economy shrank almost 10 per cent in the aftermath of the first world war and the Spanish flu epidemic. 

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