People Before Profit manifesto looks great, but where’s the magic money tree to fund it?

The manifesto comes with a checklist of 16 policy commitments.

Cost of living, workers’ rights, housing crisis, healthcare for all, education, environment, Irish language and tackling sectarianism are all boxes ticked.

But, like all manifestos, the devil is in the detail and requires drilling down further to see if there is any substance in the PBP wishlist for a sharply Left-leaning society.

PBP polls well in nationalist areas with high levels of social and economic deprivation, which create a welcome landing pad for the ‘Better Way’ brand of politics.

There is a section on how the “establishment parties have failed” looking at the crises of the Executive.

This section is statistics-heavy and examines levels of poverty, the cost of childcare and the average worker’s wage, which it says is £2,000 less here than the UK average.

“We have been told there is no money to fund jobs, healthcare, a fair benefits system, etc. The past two years have shown this to be an utter farce. When the pandemic hit politicians found money overnight for various handouts, not least £155m for retail vouchers and hundreds of millions more on an ‘eat out to help out’ scheme,” the party states.

It pledges to launch a hardship fund with £1,000 per household for those in need, and to freeze local authority rents and increase housing benefits.

It also pledges to increase the minimum wage to £15 an hour (It’s currently £8.91), with government subsidies for small businesses.

Healthcare is one of the biggest issues facing us, with the longest waiting lists in the UK. It has featured heavily in every party’s manifesto.

PBP says it would end privatisation, saying the Department of Health paid £27m to the private sector during the pandemic.

The party says by ensuring all health staff are contracted rather than from agency providers, it would save millions every year.

It also supports a public inquiry locally into the handling of the pandemic. While popular, this would, of course, cost millions.

It favours an all-Ireland health service, a controversial policy for reasons which don’t need explaining.

When it comes to education, it supports the free school meals for all campaign.

The paragraph on the Irish language is from the Trotsky handbook, saying “colonial suppression of the language and our current capitalist system” is to blame for discrimination and delays in implementing an Irish Language Act.

PBP’s stance on Brexit arguably cost it a seat in Foyle at the last election.

The party now says the “Tory vision for Brexit has been a disaster” and uses that to make the argument for a border poll.

Public services need money and that requires revenue raising.

For a shopping list like PBP’s, a hefty increase in taxation would be required.

I imagine if you ask its South Antrim candidate Jerry Maguire to “show me the money” in terms of how the party intends to fund this wishlist, he’d say: “Tax the rich.”

And so “imposing greater taxes on the wealthiest” is proposed as the answer.

Going by the array of expensive manifesto pledges, if People Before Profit ever was leading the government, it would likely bankrupt the place in a month — but what a month it would be.