Workers Shouldn’t Pay the Costs
The British elite want to make workers in Northern Ireland and Britain pay for the cost of a break with EU by creating a low wage, low regulation economy.
But the Southern elite also want to keep down wage increases and to offer more subsidies to their business friends.
They are already using Brexit to call for a ‘moderating’ of wage increases and to keep FEMPI legislation.
They will also demand that workers pay more in taxes to help fund the EU decline in spending after Britain leaves. The UK currently contributes 12% of the EU budget.
They are moving towards signing up for the PESCO programme which will commit states to spending 2% of their GDP on the military. This means an increase from the current level of €900 million to €4.5 billion.
By contrast they are using Brexit to bring in more tax dodges for their friends in business. They have already
- Used Brexit to slash the Capital Gains Tax on disposing of business assets from 33% to 10%.
- They have brought in another tax dodge for foreign executives who travel abroad. They can claim up to €35,000 in tax relief just for jet setting.
- They have extended the Special Assignee Relief Programme (SARP) until the end of 2020. This disgraceful scheme allows foreign executives to write off the cost of private education from their tax bill.
- They played this game before by arguing that we would all benefit by bailing out the banks but working people have been repaid with a housing crisis and stagnating wages.
People Before Profit insists that working people must not bear the cost of any dislocation that occurs because of Brexit.
- We support an increase in wages to stimulate demand in the Irish economy and the immediate removal of FEMP legislation.
- We want increased investment in public enterprises to create jobs – particularly jobs that help mitigate against climate change, such as those in insulating buildings or developing public transport.