Liz Truss says she wants to “grow” a bigger pie.
In her first conference speech as Prime Minister, she said there was a “limited economic pie” and the solution is to “grow the pie”.
She actually said: “For too long, the political debate has been dominated by how we distribute a limited economic pie.
“Instead, we need to grow the pie so that everyone has a bigger slice.”
READ MORE: 'We've not had a pay rise for three years': Aslef train drivers picket at Glasgow Central Station
I fancied a slice of that, so I popped to the bakers and waited in the queue.
But they said they didn’t stock ‘limited economic pies’ so I thought I’ll take a leaf out the Prime Minister’s book and grow my own.
So, I went in search of pie seeds in the local garden centre. (I didn’t really, that would just be daft but bear with me).
I couldn’t find them. Then I asked a helpful assistant who told me “yes, you’ll find them in the invisible aisle beside the mixed metaphors”.
So I went home and tried the good old Yellow Pages.
I looked up the National Association of Pie Growers. Nothing listed.
I phoned the local book shops and asked for tomes on pie growing, as I fancied an allotment to nurture my homegrown golden pastry-topped meat delicacies.
They said “no, sorry".
One did however have a copy of ‘Pie Fishing’ by JR Hartley and L Truss.
Ok, so the Prime Minister got a bit muddled with her ‘growing the pie’ metaphor for the economy.
We all know what she means, right?
She means there is not enough wealth to give everyone what they need.
Except there is. There is plenty pie. There is more than enough pie.
The problem is the Government favours giving almost all of the pie to a small select section of the country.
It’s like their trickle-down economics.
At the table, with control of the knives and forks, with napkins tucked into their collars is the 1%.
Sitting proudly, like Desperate Dan with a huge portion of steaming hot cow pie, so big it has horns.
On the floor are the poorest, huddled round hoping the Dans drop a few flaky crumbs of pastry for them to fight over like weans round a wedding car waiting for a scramble.
Data from HMRC, aka the taxman, shows the richest 5% owns 40% of the country’s wealth.
Meanwhile, the bottom 50% has only 7% among tens of millions of people.
So, when Liz Truss, says she wants to grow a bigger pie, who do we think will be gobbling it up?
The tax plans the new Prime Minister and chancellor were hoping to get away with would have handed the richest tens of thousands of pounds a year.
They have thought better of it because it was going to lead to a backlash and they feared it would cost them votes.
But still, the plan they are going to impose on the country will do nothing to give the poorest any more of the mythical pie.
The plans by Truss’ chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, include cutting benefits to “encourage” more people into work.
He also has not confirmed whether benefits will be increased in line with inflation - leaving poorer people terrified of being even worse off than at present.
But fear not, Kwarteng and Truss say they are “absolutely focused on making sure that the most vulnerable in our society are protected through what could be a challenging time”.
This week has been Challenge Poverty Week, the annual event where anti-poverty organisations campaign to highlight the inequality that exists and call for action to prevent it.
It began with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation producing a shocking report that showed one in five households in Scotland were unable to heat their homes or provide enough food for their family.
READ MORE: 'Cupboards are bare, debts are mounting': Call for more action during Challenge Poverty Week
Previously we were warned about too many people facing a choice between heating or eating.
Either they pay the gas and electric bill and skip meals or they feed themselves and cut back on energy and freeze in their own homes over winter.
Now, that choice has been removed and people can’t afford the rising cost of both.
So, as well as turning off the heating people still do not have enough money to meet the rocketing cost of food in shops and are cutting back, with parents going without to ensure their children have a meal.
Glasgow City Council has just approved three-quarters of a million pounds for holiday food and activity programmes or holiday hunger hubs to ensure children have something to eat over the school holidays.
READ MORE: Full list of Glasgow children's holiday food projects. Is there one near you?
That amount of cash is just for three weeks, one in October and another two in the spring.
This is the reality of inequality, where taxpayers' money, the burden of which falls disproportionately on those on middle and lower incomes, is being spent feeding children because their parents do not have enough cash to pay for all the essentials.
Where are they to look for help? A new Government that wanted to give the top 5% a tax cut worth more in one year than many people have to live on for a year?
Yes, the new Government, if it is successful in its endeavours may well, against the predictions of many economists, grow the size of the pie.
The problem remains that for too many people in this country it is still pie in the sky.
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel