Fellow workers currently in receipt of a PIP or Universal Credit will no doubt be relieved that the government has been forced to withdraw its plan to directly attack their standard of living.

They might also be thinking that Starmer & Co. would be more honest if they used the term ‘economic imperative’ instead when referring to plans to change the social insecurity system.

Because capitalists everywhere are bound to resist increases in the amount of tax taken from profits to fund the system, in the same way that they are bound to resist attempts to increase wages.

By so doing they reveal their real imperative: the protection of profitability, come what may for the rest of us.

Many workers find their jobs stressful in various ways. But recently the trade union Unison described the problems met by a specific group of workers, those who deal with 999 calls that involve a medical emergency. It is important and rewarding work, but …

They frequently have to take life-changing decisions, sometimes working a 12-hour stretch with limited breaks. One worker had to take time off after dealing with four suicide calls in a single shift. There is a high staff turnover, with over a quarter leaving their jobs in the last three years.

These may be exceptional cases, but they demonstrate the stress and burnout that many workers experience under capitalism.

Inflammatory headlines such as ‘London pays £3.6bn to house non-Britons (Telegraph) and ‘Asylum chaos as migrants housed in 81% of areas’ (Express) have been part of a relentless campaign to foment hatred of anyone living in the UK who is not White British. Keir Starmer has announced that Britain risks becoming ‘an island of strangers’. Such goads to xenophobia and racism could hardly be more blatant.

Instead of making life hell on earth for people moving from country to another, we should be looking towards a radically different earth – borderless, stateless and moneyless. The end of the border system and the nationalism that underlies and sustains it will make the world a secure and habitable place for all.

News that UK water bosses won’t get fat-cat bonuses for polluting waterways might mollify some, furious at the blatant mismanagement and grift. Britain is renowned for being cold, cloudy and wet, yet it’s now projected to run out of water by the mid-2030s, due to lack of reservoirs, and 1tn litres a year in leakage.

Water companies, some nearly bankrupt, push up charges and borrow huge sums not to fix leaks, but to service a £60bn debt mountain, as well as pay around £2bn a year in shareholder dividends.

There’s nothing efficient about capitalism. State or private, it’s always money first, people last. The whole planet needs democratic common ownership. Anything else is just a drop in the bucket.