Mandelson still wrong!

"Arch-Blairite" Mandelson, rightly described by Momentum founder, Jon Lansman as "desperate", claims 30,000 "real members" have left the Labour party since Corbyn was elected leader, even though membership overall has risen by 180,000 (Morning Star,18/12/15). His definition of "real" clearly veers away from any known dictionary! What he means is that people who never should have been in the Labour party, whose right-wing views saw substance in the Blair years, when huge opportunities were missed to regulate industry and the financial institutions, and when inequality soared, now disapprove of Corbyn`s policies.

 Mandelson is the one who infamously declared that his version of the Labour party was "intensely relaxed" about people getting filthy rich, with results which have been disastrous for our society and economy. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has now provided results of its research, which shows that high pay for chief executives demotivates the rest of the workforce, which then is reflected in productivity levels. Hardly surprising when the High Pay Centre`s research shows that CEOs are being paid 183 times more than their average employee, compared with 47 times in 1998. Median pay for CEOs in FTSE100 companies has risen from £1.4m in 2003 to £3.3m in 2014.

   What the country clearly needs is for the ratio between average worker and boss`s pay to be limited by legislation, and for all boards of directors of companies above a certain size to include workers` representatives, a system good enough to be imposed on West Germany after the war, but seemingly inappropriate for 21st century UK! Over to you, Mr Corbyn.