Chancellor Rishi Sunak was careful to remind everyone about the war in Ukraine when he presented his Spring Statement on Wednesday.

    But the rising cost of living, which he claims to be addressing, isn't due to this war, even if soaring oil prices might be, due to sanctions on Russia and the opportunistic profiteering by the whole industry...

    It's worth mentioning in passing, how good this war is for Russia’s rival oil producers, like those linked to the homicidal Saudi Arabian royals, who Johnson thought fit to ask to increase their supply...

    So, with inflation the highest in 30 years and with energy bills going up by 54% from April, what did Sunak offer to alleviate the current dire cost of living crisis?

    In his usual silver-spoon and boastful manner, Sunak claimed he was cutting taxes more than any other Chancellor in history, which of course was pure porky.  Against most predictions, he didn't do the obvious, by cancelling the April rise in NI contributions.  Instead, he increased the threshold above which NICs are paid.  So it’ll go up to £12,570, which will only partially reduce the hit, and only in 3 months' time...

    As for rising oil costs, only motorists might benefit (somewhat!) from his 5p/litre cut in fuel duty, but that depends on what happens at the pump.

    As for Labour, it asked for "more than tinkering around the edges".  But its "more" is that windfall tax on the oil and gas companies which it has been advocating ad nauseam.  This might bring in a few billion, but changes nothing fundamental.

    Of course Labour doesn't dare to demand public ownership of the energy industry, nor even statutory price controls.  But even such “radical” reforms, in the context of the quadruple economic whammy of ongoing world financial crisis, pandemic, Brexit and this latest war would have little or no impact - when all the ruling capitalists want to do, is to increase their profiteering!  Indeed, the only answer is for the whole rotten, profit-first, class system to go - including the oil and arms’ merchants and the degenerate political leaders behind them!

    It was they who stoked the war in Ukraine by provoking Putin. And it is they who "glory" in the fuelling of nationalism - yes, in “Brexit” Britain, in the US and in Ukraine - and their piles of bank-notes are already soaked in working people's blood.