by Tommy Sheridan
The vile Tory bedroom tax was already on the ropes and barely standing under the blows from campaigners, legal judgements, moral outrage and media assaults from papers like the Daily Record. Now a stunning knockout blow has landed in the shape of the United Nation’s Special rapporteur demand that the unfair tax be abolished.
Make no mistake the UN conclusion is a huge embarrassment to the Tories but actually shames the LibDems. The body charged with upholding human rights across the world has investigated the bedroom tax and condemned it as inconsistent with the basic right to housing. When it comes to war crimes we are lectured by Governments about the requirement to respect human rights. Well now we demand this Tory Government and its LibDem poodles respect the human rights judgement which condemns their despised bedroom tax.
The UN report highlights poor and disabled victims of the bedroom tax are trapped in poverty with nowhere to turn. Already on the breadline they can’t afford to pay bedroom tax but smaller homes to move into don’t exist either. Think about the situation in South Lanarkshire alone to highlight the reality of this callous policy. 5,300 poor and disabled people in South Lanarkshire are affected by the bedroom tax but only 40 smaller homes are available. And of those 40 only 13 are one bedroom homes. Non-payment of bedroom tax is not a choice it is unavoidable for those already on means tested housing benefit. We wouldn’t encourage a starving man to eat less so why would we expect poor people to spend less on food, fuel, clothing or anything else to pay the Tory bedroom tax?
The Labour Party must now commit to bedroom tax abolition and the SNP has to change the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 to outlaw bedroom tax evictions and lift the real fear of losing their homes from thousands of poor and disabled households.
The Scottish Anti-Bedroom Tax Federation organised a lobby of the LibDem’s UK Conference at the SECC on Saturday 14 September. We were there from 11am to embarrass this bunch of spineless cowards who prefer Ministerial portfolios to principled opposition to brutal policies like bedroom tax. There are now 323,684 homes across the UK valued in excess of £1 million. A very moderate Mansion Tax of £50 a week, £200 a month would raise well over £700 million a year for public services. It would be a fairer and more practical tax. That’s why on Saturday we were chanting loudly: AXE, AXE THE BEDROOM TAX…BRING IN A MANSION TAX!
Tommy Sheridan is the Chair of the Scottish Anti-Bedroom Tax Federation
The post Bedroom Tax lies in tatters appeared on Socialist Unity.