Friday 29 June 2018

RBS sale a disgrace

As Unite national officer, Rob MacGregor says, the sale of RBS shares, at a loss of £2bn to the British taxpayer, is "a betrayal of public finances". It`s even worse than when George Osborne sold RBS shares to Tory friends in the City in 2015, which the National Audit Office calculated cost  a mere £1.9bn!
     Hammond`s sale begs obvious questions, not just about this government`s economic competence, but about its failure to pursue any policy which hints of morality. Notwithstanding its support for privatised banks, selling shares at 271 is bad enough, when closing price the night before was 280.9, but coming after healthy profits of £752m for 2017, and plans to close 162 branches, both signifiers to investors that share prices will rise soon, has to be seen as dubious, to say the least. As soon as the political situation in Italy calms down, shares on the stock market will rise.
    What further evidence is required to show that this government has gifted the City another £2bn, some of which it will hope gets returned as Tory donations, and all of it belonging to the taxpayer!

In a fair and balanced way?

John McDonnell`s description of May`s announcement on the new funding for the NHS as a "publicity stunt" is spot-on, with the health service and social care "in crisis, after eight years of Tory cuts and privatisation" (Morning Star, 18/06/18). Desperate to provide the public with some positive news after months of botched Brexit negotiations and Tory party disunity, the prime minister even resorted to a pledge that all increases in taxes would be done in "a fair and balanced way". When in its history has the Tory party ever imposed fair and balanced taxes? Who can forget that when the first austerity measures were introduced in 2010, they were accompanied by a decrease in the top rate of income tax, with claims that the so-called Laffer Curve demanded it? In Tory eyes, fair taxes mean a reduction in the amount paid by the rich and well-off, taxes that can be avoided and evaded, and taxes on company profits which are amongst the lowest in the world.
 Rather than announcing all-out war on tax evasion, or an increase in income tax to be paid by those earning over three times the national average, or rates of 85% on all "earnings" over £500,000, or an increase in corporation tax to 30%, Hammond, the Chancellor, will fund the NHS increase, using the Tory definitions of "fairness" and "balance".
  In other words, we can expect a freezing of the rise in thresholds and an increase in the basic income tax rate, with the ridiculous idea that this is the only way the NHS can be saved, or some such nonsense which the right-wing press will support. How can people whose real wages have consistently fallen in recent years, whose benefits have been slashed and debts increased, and whose rent to greedy landlords takes up to 50% of their earnings, afford to pay more in taxation? Any further cuts in the spending power of those earning less than average pay will only do more damage to already fragile local economies.

Saturday 23 June 2018

2 letters on Heathrow and the north-south divide

With not only the decision to back a third runway at Heathrow, and the obvious loss of flights and customers thereby incurred by all northern airports, but also the revelations made by Lisa Nandy to the House of Commons about ministers being warned of "impending chaos" on the Northern rail network two years ago, Labour has been gifted another electoral opportunity (Ministers "were warned of Northern rail chaos", 21/06/18). It is imperative for all Labour MPs to stress both that the Tories` preference for massive investment in the south-east is deliberately increasing the north-south wealth gap, and that all constituents in Tory-held areas in Scotland, Wales and northern and western areas of England have been betrayed by the government.
      Even so-called "moderate" MPs should be able to present a united front on this issue, and rally round a leadership demanding investment outside the London area. It`s a no-brainer!

The decision to expand Heathrow highlights once again this government`s insistence on giving investment preference to London and the south-east. Gaby Hinsliff states that "the feeling that the government can`t even be trusted with the basics" is growing around Liverpool and Manchester, but it hasn`t needed a rail crisis to cause that! The number of people in the north of England and Scotland who have to get to Heathrow to catch flights out has grown inexorably in recent years. A "multimillion-pound project to connect London to the rest of the planet" would be unnecessary if some northern airports were expanded, and the number of point to point flights from them increased!

Labour can win, but electoral tactics need upgrade!

Should we welcome the fact that "politicians and sympathetic left-leaning think tanks are looking at" Labour`s electoral problem (Politics: The Tories think that Corbyn can`t win in the British "rust-belt" - but their belief rests on shaky foundations, 15th June, 2018)? After all, their 2015 "solutions" included a pink bus for female MPs and the "Ed Stone"! Stephen Bush clearly agrees with the so-called Corbyn-sceptic Labour MPs who place the blame for the disappointing "position in the polls" on the party leader, but some might see their divisive lack of support for what obviously could become election-winning policies more culpable.
     Support in "small cities and towns, and anywhere voters with degrees are thin on the ground" will not be won by Labour rallies or pamphlets on a rebalancing of the economy, but it could certainly be increased by sensible use of television broadcasts and social media. Anticipating objections from the right-wing press and media to Labour policies, and countering them early, have to be priorities. Tax policies will be popular but only if explained properly, and using actors in roles of characters of varying wealth to explain how Labour`s proposals will only affect the very well-off could prove successful.
Comparing the reactions to Labour policies of a shop assistant with a City broker might not be rocket science, but it beats engravings in stone, and being "intensely relaxed about people getting filthy rich"!

Friday 22 June 2018

The Guardian`s "race card"!

Looking forward to reading expert analysis and discussion about the north-south investment gap, with Labour`s decision not to support the government`s plans for a third Heathrow runway, and Lisa Nandy`s revelations to the House of Commons about ministers being warned of "impending chaos" on the Northern rail network two years ago, I was disappointed to find that there was no mention in my newspaper of the subject at all. There were, however, two pages devoted to Royal Ascot! 
Can we leave the playing of the "race card" to right-wing politicians, please?

Yemen: Tories have "blood on their hands"

With "more than 8 million people on the brink of starvation" in Yemen, and "22 million relying on humanitarian aid", one would have expected any western government with a hint of a sense of decency and responsibility to have voiced massive disapproval of the latest  Saudi bombardment of Hodeida (Morning Star, 13/06/18). Instead, this callous Tory administration not only supplies the Saudis with weapons, but with military training and advice. 
        May and Johnson will say, of course, that the government "said its piece", but the truth is that the Saudis know that as long as their cheque books are open, they have the total support of the UK. Didn`t the March visit of bin Salman to Britain prove it, with all the "bowing and scraping", as Emily Thornberry accurately described the shameful event?
 Now we hear of the US and UK acting together to block a Swedish attempt to get the United Nations to demand a ceasefire. Is any further proof needed that this government has managed to take British foreign policy to depths previously unreached, even by Cameron, Blair and Thatcher.
  Hopefully, Corbyn will use PMQs to stress not only the opposition of his party, but of all civilised people in Britain, to this murderous government, complicit in crimes which deepen the world`s worst humanitarian crisis. They have blood on their hands!

Sunday 17 June 2018

Sob story!

Come on, Barry Glendenning, a list of "the most ridiculous and embarrassing circumstances imaginable". which result in copious male sobbing, has to include the final episode of Friends (There`s no shame in football turning into the crying game, 03.06.18)! Then there`s Father`s Day cards, plus the very occasional time when something pleasant is said about you in public, and, of course, a list of "ridiculous and embarrassing circumstances" which start other people off. Barry`s certainly got me started!

Saturday 16 June 2018

Letter on Niall Ferguson

Peter Wilby wonders whether it has occurred to Niall Ferguson, that historians in US universities might have abandoned the Republican Party because it "has moved so far from evidence-based policies" (First Thoughts, 8th June, 2018). The trouble is that for Ferguson, unlike most historians, history has rarely been "an evidence-based subject". In his biography of Kissinger, he ridiculously claimed that responsibility for atrocities and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people should not influence "how we assess his legacy"! Again by ignoring the evidence, Ferguson was able to claim that British imperialism, despite its greed for wealth, land and labour, its use of weapons, massacres, concentration camps and torture, was a force for good. He has acknowledged that the Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916 made mistakes, but fails to connect it to the earlier British and French intervention in the area!
     So no, Mr Wilby, it almost certainly hasn`t! The British public has been badly served by biased historians like Ferguson, who misuse historical evidence, and by governments which fail to release over a million hidden files of evidence at Hanslope Park. Only by facing up to the truths about the past, and by unpicking the idea of a glorious Britannia, can the country hope to rid itself of its bigotry and racism.

Saturday 9 June 2018

Guardian Weekend letter on Gauke

What a shame David Gauke, when exchequer secretary to the Treasury, didn`t "want to get macho about" tax evasion in the lead up to the 2013 G8 summit, which was focussed on that topic.(Not a resigning matter, 02/06/18). His meetings with the International Financial Centres Forum (IFC) were described in the Panama Papers as examples of the "superb penetration of UK policymakers" by lobbyists, resulting in totally ineffective G8 measures. Being prone to "wobble quite a lot" appears to be a Tory common denominator!

Friday 8 June 2018

2 Letters to NS about Corbyn insult

John Gray`s article is strangely weakest when dealing with liberals in the UK (Age of the strongman, 25th May 2018). When referring to British "liberals", presumably he not only includes the centre-left politicians of New labour ilk, but also the so-called "liberal Conservatives" who allegedly exist in the Tory party. Both groups certainly not only presided over what some call the "recent age of progress", which saw amongst other things, "unending war in Afghanistan" and years of "falling living standards for swathes of the population", but also deny any responsibility for it. 
   Of course, disillusionment with a deregulating Labour government, "intensely relaxed" about people getting "filthy rich", and with Tory-dominated governments intent on austerity policies for purely ideological reasons, has led to massively increased  support for Corbyn`s Labour. But it is Gray`s bias against Corbyn which weakens the article`s arguments. Millions of us will be voting for Labour in the next election, not because "the British conscience is now so lax and coarse", but because only Corbyn has the policies which offer hope that inequality can be reduced, that tenants and workers can be protected from exploitation, and that the health and education services can be defended against further privatisation, and properly funded by a fair system of taxation. How Gray can ignore these policies and opine that Corbyn embodies "morbid politics", and has an "affinity with the politics of conspiracy and hate", beggars belief!

I cannot believe I was the only NS reader to write complaining about John Gray`s unnecessary and deeply offensive remarks about Jeremy Corbyn, yet not one complaint was published in the following edition (Correspondence, 1st June, 2018). What is particularly worrying is that a supposedly left-leaning magazine does not edit out such descriptions of the leader of the Labour party as a "shifty figure whose most genuine quality is a deep-seated affinity with the politics of conspiracy and hate", especially when it added absolutely nothing to the article`s arguments about the complacency of liberals. 
   Last week`s Leader stressed the importance of "shared prosperity", but where was the praise for the policies aiming to end austerity, reduce inequality, and impose fairer taxation and proper regulation on the banks and  financial institutions?  Does the NS actually agree with the ending of the exploitation of private tenants, and with caps on overdraft lending rates, or does it want a return to the ideas of New Labour, when cosying up with the City and being "intensely relaxed" about people getting "filthy rich" resulted in two election defeats, Tory-dominated governments, austerity and Brexit? 
     It is difficult to know where the NS is now situated on the political spectrum. By all means, analyse the policies and criticise some crass decisions, but leave the snidery to the right-wing press.

Wednesday 6 June 2018

Price cap for bank overdrafts needed

Yet another "watchdog" fails to live up to its description. With the Pensions Regulator found wanting "after the crises at BHS and Carillion", the Financial Conduct Authority chickens out on setting a "cap on overdraft fees amid fears of a court challenge by the banks" (Dismay as watchdog vetoes cap on cost of overdraft provision, 01/06/18). If the TPR can be criticised for its "feeble response" to companies underfunding pensions schemes whilst still paying out dividends, and "new leadership" suggested by parliamentary committees, surely it is time for the Commons business select committee to summon the chief executive of the FCA, Andrew Bailey, to explain himself ((Pensions chief resigns after MPs` criticism over Carillion, 01/06/18)?
   If price caps can be "considered" for rent-to-own schemes, but not for banks which do exactly the same ripping-off of their customers, Bailey certainly has questions to answer. If 7 and 8% maximum rates can work in some American states, as Patrick Collinson says, they can be effective here (US-style limit on charges is the answer, 01/06/18)!
     A grilling by Rachel Reeves and the rest of her committee would hopefully be rather a different experience for Bailey than cosying up with John Humphrys on the Today programme!

Monday 4 June 2018

On Afua Hirsch`s article on misleading history

Afua Hirsch rightly says that we must "assess the true legacy of empire" and "unpick the idea of glorious Britannia", but that is easier said than done, when successive governments have made it a deliberate policy to manipulate our  history (Britain doesn`t just glorify its violent past: it gets high on it, 30/05/18). They have  participated not only in the destruction of evidence, which might show, for example, that the ending of the empire was not as peaceful as has been claimed, and that atrocities are not exclusive to our enemies, but also in the secreting away, from the prying eyes of historians, 1.2m files of similar evidence in Hanslope Park.
Until these files are released by a government courageous enough to face up to the uncomfortable facts they inevitably will reveal, and until school text-books are revised accordingly, Hirsch`s hopes for "detoxifying Britishness" will remain unfulfilled. Feeding children lies about their country`s past, as has happened in Britain, has given many a "superiority complex" which verges on outright racism. Teaching about Churchill`s "responsibility for the number of deaths in the Bengal famine" would be a good start, but an appreciation of the fact that wars are never won single-handedly might be a better one!

Sunday 3 June 2018

On Allende`s methods

Salvadore Allende, leader of Chile in the 1970s, nationalised many companies and paid no compensation to the owners, on the grounds that they had been making excessive profits out of the Chilean people. Jeremy Corbyn could make a similar case when returning  major utilities back to public ownership, not only on grounds of profit, but also by reason of many of them denying the Treasury of much needed funds through their tax avoidance and evasion schemes. Why should the owners of Thames Water be paid any compensation when their company has cheated the taxpayer out of any corporation tax in the last ten years, "despite a £1.8bn turnover and shareholders banking £1.2bn in dividends" (Richer Sounds boss launches crusade to expose tax avoiders, 27.05.18)?
"Naming and shaming the guilty parties", as Julian Richer says, is one way to get businesses to pay their taxes, but the threat of nationalisation without compensation might be rather more effective!