"I'm a neoliberal, get me out of here."

[Thinking Man's Idiot]

Plain barefaced cheek

(Wednesday 26 November 2008)

VINCE MILLS
Voices of Scotland

VINCE MILLS looks in on the latest edition of I'm A Neoliberal, Get Me Out Of Here.

YOU may have noticed that world leaders previously loud in their praise of global capitalism are now taking part in a variant of a popular reality television series. Their version is called "I'm a neoliberal, get me out of here."

How about the French President Nicolas Sarkozy, friend of the billionaires, as a possible winner. Here he is eating some of his own toxic words last September.


"The idea of the all-powerful market which must not be constrained by any rules, by any political intervention, was mad. The idea that markets were always right was mad."


But perhaps the winner of the show should be our very own Gordon Brown, the man who told us that he had ended boom and bust. Here he is talking about the financial crisis to that terrifying jungle of sycophants and professional cheerleaders that is the Labour Party conference last September:


"You know, each generation believes it is living through changes their parents could never have imagined, but the collapse of banks, the credit crunch, the trebling of oil prices, the speed of technology and the rise of Asia - nobody now can be in any doubt that we are in a different world and it's now a global age.


"In truth, we haven't seen anything this big since the industrial revolution. This last week will be studied by our children as the week the world was spun on its axis and old certainties were turned on their heads."


Not much evidence of your much-vaunted stability there then, Mr Brown.


Not a hint of contrition either - no acknowledgement that the root cause of this crisis is the drive for profit, the very soul of capitalism.


Instead, in his speech, Sarkozy goes on to argue for capitalist renewal.


"The financial crisis is not the crisis of capitalism. It is the crisis of a system that has distanced itself from the most fundamental values of capitalism, which betrayed the spirit of capitalism.


"The present crisis must incite us to re-establish capitalism on the basis of ethics and work."


And Brown tells us that "we are and will always be a pro-enterprise, pro-business and pro-competition government. And we believe the dynamism of our five million businesses large and small is vital to the success of our country."


Yet, despite this barefaced cheek and the escalating unemployment, repossessions and ruined lives, the left, in Britain at least, has yet to lay a glove on Brown's government.


'The winner should be our very own Gordon Brown.'

Indeed, Brown's popularity has recovered somewhat, as witnessed by the Glenrothes by-election. I believe that this is based on the naive belief that the remedies that he is advancing will work and, in Scotland, on the reasonable assumption that a country the size of the UK is better equipped to weather a global slump than one a 10th of the size.


Alex Salmond's Scottish National Party hardly managed to inspire.


In August, Salmond was calling on Scots to join northern Europe's "arc of prosperity." This comprised Ireland to the west, Iceland to the north and Norway to the east - small countries but in the top six richest nations in the world.


With the onset of the crisis, Ireland went into recession and Iceland had serious difficulties keeping its financial system afloat, provoking the inevitable media jibe that Salmond was inviting us to join the "arc of insolvency."


Meanwhile, the great Scottish capitalist financial institutions looked decidedly weak and Scotland's economy hardly able to sustain them in crisis. The £32 billion bail-out for HBOS and the Royal Bank of Scotland was more than the total budget of the Scottish government - accepting that Scotland's potential income is a matter of contention.


Faced with this, Salmond seemed more interested in retaining the totems of Scottish financial capitalism than attacking the real causes of the crisis.


And it wasn't the only problem that the SNP had. As this column argued back in August, the SNP approach to local authority funding was likely to lead to local cuts and that these would produce a working-class backlash.


This is exactly what happened in Glenrothes. The SNP found itself fending off Labour Party attacks from the left on a range of key local issues, including the funding of free school meals which the Scottish Labour Party had refused to introduce while in office.


Since Glenrothes, Brown has sought to capitalise on success by camouflaging the massive switch of resources to Britain's financial sector by minimalist taxing of the ultra-rich while the rest of us glory in a few pennies off VAT.


The intention of the manoeuvre is clear. Working people are supposed to be assuaged because the wealthy, at long last, are paying a bit more, which is meant to forgive them for the gross financial incompetence and even grosser greed.


Perhaps some will be naive enough to believe it, at least for a time.
It should not be forgotten, however, that there was still a swing to the SNP of around 5 per cent in Glenrothes, a solid working-class constituency.
That swing reflects a depth of disillusionment which tells us that Labour remains vulnerable and that its social base continues to crumble.


There is little sign that the new Scottish Labour leadership is prepared to countenance the socialist renewal necessary to counter this or, indeed, that there is as yet any significant grass-roots movement within the Labour Party demanding such a change of direction.


The naïve optimism cannot last. It will evaporate and is likely to be replaced by anger and frustration. This anger will be wasted and may well be self-destructive for working-class communities if it is not directed into building a movement that challenges the basis not just of neoliberalism but of its capitalist progenitor.


And that is our job, comrades. It is our solemn duty as committed socialists to work collectively to build the widest possible coalition to expose the roots of this crisis and promote a socialist alternative.

Vince Mills is on the Campaign for Socialism executive.

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[Thinking Man's Idiot]

Top earners 'to share sacrifice'


Cutting VAT was "quick acting" Mr Brown said.

The prime minister has defended raising the tax bracket for top earners, saying that they must "share the sacrifice".

A new 45% higher income tax rate is proposed for earnings above £150,000 from April 2011.


The move was made "not on the basis of envy but to share the sacrifice that's necessary to take us through difficult times," Gordon Brown said.


He also said that action to get banks lending to small firms again would come "in the next few days".



This is the biggest new Labour project of all, giving people confidence and hope that we can get through this downturn into a better economy and society





Banks, some of who are set to share in a £37bn government bail-out, have been choosing to hoard cash to bolster their balance sheets, rather than offer loans at affordable rates.


Sharp falls in interest rates have not been fully passed on to consumers because the costs for banks to borrow money themselves have remained high.


'Quick acting'
Speaking at a conference held by think-tank Progress, Mr Brown defended his £20bn stimulus package aimed at kick-starting the economy and getting people through the crisis.


"This is the biggest new Labour project of all, giving people confidence and hope that we can get through this downturn into a better economy and society," he said.


And the stimulus efforts were not just about cutting Value Added Tax (VAT) but also investing in public works, pensions and child benefit, he said.


Reducing VAT from 17.5% to 15% for 13 months from Monday was the right move, Mr Brown said, because it was "quick acting, everybody benefits and things can start straight away".


Charity role
Speakers at the New Labour group's conference are urging the government to radically overhaul the benefits system - including making more single parents work, funding universal childcare and providing higher maternity leave payments


Other plans include giving private firms and charities the right to bid to run more public services.

Among other speakers are cabinet ministers Lord Mandelson, James Purnell and Hazel Blears.


The organisation is launching policy reports in five different areas - public services, welfare, immigration, crime and justice and foreign policy.


Under the plans, which have been devised by former cabinet minister Alan Milburn, 10-year "franchises" for services such as GPs and colleges would be up for tender.


Others proposals include making grant-funded students who drop out of university pay back part or all the money.


Also, forcing local authorities to spend more money on youth services and the creation of civilian security force consisting of military trainers, civil servants, police officers, judges and other logistical staff.


'Not enough'
It is believed Work and Pensions Secretary James Purnell will use his speech to deny accusations that the government's economic rescue package represents "the death of New Labour".


He is also expected to say: "Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling have rightly been congratulated for helping lead the world's response to the credit crunch. But if we think that we will be rewarded in the long term for that fact alone, we will be making a mistake."


The audience is due to hear him describe New Labour slogans such as "For the many, not the few" and "Education, education, education" as "stale" but still inherently correct in their message.


"Far from being abandoned, these ideas need to be renewed by applying them to today's changed circumstances, " he will say.


TUC general secretary Brendan Barber is also due to speak at the conference.


He is expected to tell the audience it was "time to ditch the New Labour discourse" with deregulation, privatisation and liberalisation now all "brought into disrepute".


Instead, he wants a commitment to "the language of equality, fairness and social justice"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7756027.stm

Originally Posted by Thinking Man's Idiot

"The financial crisis is not the crisis of capitalism. It is the crisis of a system that has distanced itself from the most fundamental values of capitalism, which betrayed the spirit of capitalism.

Huh!?

[Thinking Man's Idiot]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Huh!?

That's the most intelligent thing on this page!

I think Sarky thinx that Capitalism has some moral conscience controlling it. If you find the moral of profit, post a link here for us!

Sarky is barking [up the wrong tree]!

[Thinking Man's Idiot]

Western Europe has been since about 1610 and the founding of the Dutch East India Co.

Roll on (R)Evolution.

Indeed ... I imagine you tuned into "The Ascent of Money" tonight.

Maybe re-aligning of the markets is evolution. Payment is now due for the fruits of the false economy. Maybe we'll learn!

[Thinking Man's Idiot]

Yes I did.

Strangely drawn to the repellent.

Check this.....

That is a rather concise overview of the monetary system [sans conspiratorial tangents for once] although some reference to the market makers/central bank owners may have been educational.