I have just posted this thread on Twitter:
To pretend that the world is anything like that we lived in two or so weeks ago. War in Ukraine poses threats that are unprecedented with many now wondering what the risk of nuclear annihilation might be. Some thoughts on this and many other issues that we face in this thread…..
It is the ultimate paradox of life that we must live it based on the assumption that we will live forever knowing full well that we will not. Right now many are questioning how long we have because of the renewed threat of nuclear war.
I can offer no answer to that question. I have no more idea what Putin might do than anyone else. So I carry on with the assumption that life will continue, albeit differently. I can offer no other useful working assumption.
What does interest me instead is how things might change, and most particularly, how we might want them to change. Nothing does, after all, alter our right react to what is happening.
There are many things we can change as a result of this war. One is our attitude to nuclear weapons. As someone old enough to have gone on CND marches 40 years ago my position on these has always been unambiguous. Surely when this is over we have to seek their elimination?
We have too to decide what to do about nuclear power. War involving nuclear power stations is dangerous, as we have now seen. The world is vulnerable whilst we rely on nuclear power. There is a decision to be taken. No more, I suggest, is the minimum requirement.
But there is another decision to be made regarding power, and that comes down to our dependence on oil and gas. Russia's economy relies upon the sale of them. Without them it would not be a power. Our carbon dependency has to end for that reason too.
If we are to live in a world where we cannot be held to ransom we are learning that there is real merit in putting a focus on local energy. If ever there was a reason for local renewable energy other than tackling climate change, this is it.
The bedrocks on which our economies are built - across Europe and beyond - all have to change as a result. Nuclear power and the burning of carbon cannot be the foundations of our lives in the future if we are also to have security.
Of course, we already knew that. Climate change demanded the change with regard to carbon. It also challenges so many assumptions with regard to nuclear power - most especially when so many nuclear power facilities are in vulnerable locations.
But the changes that are required that this war makes very clear go very much deeper than this. The whole of our political economy - which is term to describe how power relationships influence economics rewards - is now open to question.
Let's start with the politics, and then move to the economics.
First, we now know (beyond reasonable doubt) that Russian influence has been deeply destructive of UK politics. Brexit was funded by Russia. The Tory party has been funded by Russia. It seems very likely that major think tanks are Russian influenced.
The media is heavily Russian influenced, and some of it is oligarch controlled. More may be than we know.
I think it very likely that some policy agendas, e.g. the deeply disruptive No. 10 policy on Northern Ireland that makes no rational sense in isolation does when viewed as an instrument for Russian influenced disruption.
The fight against climate change is, I suspect, as heavily funded by Russia as it is by the US far-right. Indeed, it is hard to spot the difference in interests.
And because of the UK first past the post electoral system and the inclination of some to vote Tory because their parents and grandparents always did at a time when that did not involve voting for agents of Russian policy, Russian influence is deep in our hierarchies of power.
There is corruption at the heart of the UK in other words. For more than twenty years a far-right Russian regime has cooperated with far-right funding from the USA to take control of the Tory right-wing in UK politics and make it an instrument for anti-democratic activity.
The goal of this activity has been very straightforward. It has been to create an economy whose interests are aligned with those of a global kleptocracy serviced by a state where the supposed rule of law can be used to oppress opposition.
First, they came with the libel writ. Then they bought the politician's silence. Next, they controlled the media. Then they bought the political narrative, and won a referendum. Then they came for us with the demand that we protest no more. This is the creeping takeover of power.
In between all that, they showed their indifference. From austerity, to the bedroom tax, to not caring about Covid deaths, every now and again they showed the reality of their contempt for the rest of us.
This they reinforced by bringing their friends into government, or by transferring their politicians into the media. The web of control was, they thought, theirs to spin.
We now know all this. It is plain to see. The question now is whether this is enough to finally induce the required action from all other political parties to act together to rid us of this corruption for good?
The fighting, so far, is in Ukraine, and our hearts and thoughts are with those who suffer. But this is a war on many fronts. And one is here in the UK, where right-wing, mainstream politicians are at war on us.
They can be beaten, but only by political alliance to rid us of corruption and to create a democracy to withstand any further assaults by being truly representative. Will all our democratic politicians, including the few remaining decent Tories, now cooperate to deliver this?
This is our war that we have to win, or Russia wins, whatever happens in Ukraine.
Then let's look at the economy, because there will be so much to do there too and many issues to resolve.
There will be calls for more spending on defence very soon. Maybe they will be appropriate. Maybe when this is over we could alternatively ask what the remaining threat might be? It will require soul searching to answer that.
What we can say for certain is that defence will be far from the only priority when this war is over. Do not listen to anyone who claims that this will be the issue for a new era: it is not. The causes of war are.
In that case the energy revolution I have already referred to will require as much funding as any defence measures. Energy is the cause of conflict now. That is why it must have priority.
But the economic reforms required go much further. This is an economic war. There's no real surprise to that. They almost invariably are. The desire is to command resources. In this case it is land. But what drives it is the economic structure of Russia.
Russia is a kleptocracy. It can be claimed that this is an accident. When the Soviet economy collapsed it was claimed that it could transition to capitalism. An ultra-free market logic was introduced into a situation of chaos.
Without the checks and balances that markets require if they are to operate with any degree of fairness that failed attempt to create capitalism delivered kleptocracy, and Putin.
London has been reorientated to serve that kleptocracy. From the libel lawyer, to the corporate lawyer working in cahoots with accountants and bankers to hide the ownership of assets, London has worked to destroy fair markets.
When this war is over we need to call this out. We need to say that markets in the UK are rigged, as is the UK legal system. They are stacked against fair competition, justice and the equality of opportunity that capitalism requires if it is to work.
Only the politicians and think tanks in hock to Russia, but who have never engaged in real business, now suggest that markets work when it is glaringly obvious that as they stand they do not.
This does not mean I am opposed to markets. Far from it. I see no other way that the entrepreneurial spirit of many can be turned to the common good. But the unaccountable market has become our enemy, as much as corrupt politicians are.
So transparency is the requirement. Company law must be heavily regulated. Those who cannot prove their right to limited liability must be denied it. Corruption - including on tax - must become a personal responsibility for all who permit it.
We can deliver markets free from corruption. It just requires political will to do so. That political commitment to transparency has to be our reaction to this war. Our contribution to ‘never again', if you like.
And we have to ask what is everything for? The kleptocrats are the personification of a school of economic thinking that says the accumulation of wealth is what the political economy should be about. Note, I said ‘should', not ‘is'.
The refugees from Ukraine and those dying in shelled apartments are the clearest evidence that this is not true. Most of us are not wealthy. Most of us survive because of networks of families, friends and communities that support us.
The political economy should not be about supporting wealth for its own sake. The political economy should be about supporting our networks of community, wherever and however we find it.
Don't get me wrong. I am not saying economic well-being does not matter. It does. But wealth accumulation at cost to others -which is the political economy we have had - is about oppression of most, and can lead to the indifference towards people we are now seeing in Ukraine.
To summarise, this war does change everything. Or at least, it should, or it will continue. And given how key the UK is to the delivery of Russian policy if life here does not change after it then something will be very seriously wrong.
We need to change our defence and energy policies. We need to transform our politics and political systems. Transparency must become normal. Corruption must be treated as the offence it is. And people may be the priority now.
Is that too much to ask for? I hope not, because I cannot see us surviving with anything less.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Brilliant article Richard but i struggle with one paragraph … ” This does not mean I am opposed to markets. Far from it. I see no other way that the entrepreneurial spirit of many can be turned to the common good. But the unaccountable market has become our enemy, as much as corrupt politicians are ”
i am way above my pay grade here ! and maybe i misunderstand your point but What if the ” Common Good ” was the yardstick of Economic Success rather than the other way around ? It seems the market is easily manipulated and corrupted like you mention and the result is a situation where everybody knows it’s not working – from the UK housing catastrophe, to climate change, to financial instability , and Energy Crisis etc .
Christian Felber wrote a book a while ago called Change Everything .. Creating an Economy for the Common Good . While his ideas are not new we know In a capitalist society the regulation of the markets would be the best option. However free marketeers want no regs and allow the markets to price the commodities. They always say without regs it would be a better system. However, we know that capitalists want one thing and that is a return on their investment in the form of profits .
I’ve made a video in response to this
If your Safe Haven is actually a Pirate Port that can act inpunitively with your Wealth – it is not a safe haven.
I totally concur that “this war does change everything.”
(Though we must wonder why Zelensky hasn’t claimed a state of war? Afaik )
Russia has claimed the Economic ‘War’ has been escalated upon it.
Visa/MasterCard today, many ordinary customers of banks doing their entrepreneurial business with small scale Russian self employed and businesses last week.
The official cleavage of the Western Banking System from the Rest of the World is underway – I doubt if it will protect it/us for more than a couple of years extra. Maybe not even months.
It does seem to indicate that the West has decided to let China have its way and the Old Money has decided to go into purdah.
The safe haven, financial security in the western banks, bricks and mortar investments, major business ownership etc , has just blown both its own legs off – there will be flight not just of Russian Oligarchs but every dodgy customer that the City nurtures and many many more others, wholly innocent, who will feel harassed by the banking cleavage and loose confidence in the independent legal protections supposedly offered by the English Courts.
The Chinese and Russians will be ecstatic their capital flight issues are suddenly and unexpectedly addressed!
Many other countries and their mini-me oligarchs and movers and shakers too will see this and reconsider the ‘gilt edged’ fools gold U.K. and Western Banks promises.
————
On the actual actions on the ground in the Ukraine regions I will not say much at this site. There is much to understand and many experts who are supplying that – they are not in the mainstream Narrative channels except by accident.
The fake News is massive and censorship is on the spread.
It makes me nauseous.
The overt racism rising from the xenophobia against all things Russia that I long worried about is manifest daily more egregiously. Are we really not seeing nazis?
Yesterday the Ukrainian negotiator in peace talks was executed by the Ukrainian nazis.
The MSM Narrative hasn’t been able to spin that bit of news as yet.
————
The absurd levels of Russophobia – handicapped Olympians! I can with contortions just about understand – but Russian CATS!!!
We Have Totally Lost The Plot.
———
I just have to point out that as Covid positive numbers suddenly spiked by THIRTY % yesterday, we appear to not care much anymore about it, is the Omicron mutated in the U.K. through our lax measures through the winter? Are we going to have 4/5th wave now? Does anyone care? We must ask is Ukraine being used as the dead cat on the table to divert us yet again from our own domestic issues?
Covid is still there…..
I love the way you very plainly call out how Russia is influencing this Government through it’s money. Well done.
Now, all we need is for that 30% you speak of who support the Tories to realise that through their acceptance of Russian money and the granting of titles to Russian citizens (and a few other actions no doubt), the regime they are supporting can only be described as seditious and traitorous.
I don’t think that that is going too far either. Nor is it even using fascistic language: it seems to me to be the truth of the matter.
If only we could have a legitimate investigation into these matters to at least codify what is highly likely to be the truth.
Putin has exploited our Western weaknesses. Even now I wondering how the association of Trump with Russian cash is being dealt with in the U.S. by the Biden administration? Surely now is the time on both sides of the Atlantic that these dodgy links are exposed?
We need as a culture to stop producing people wired up so wrong they delight in the destruction of the world for their short term profit. We need to examine how they come to be in the first place and do what we can to stop them from ever coming into being. I’d also suggest we need to take care to stay healthy as, in a society where some associated with authority profit firstly from selling us so-called food which makes us ill and secondly from selling us medication which keeps that way, that being healthy is in itself an act of revolution.
The international crisis should not allow us to forget that the failure to address both the invasion of oligarchs, and the effects of the tsunami of ‘dirty money’ flowing through Btitain in recent decades have allowed both to be deeply integrated in into Britain and British culture and society. Watching the Government flapping helplessly; trying to tell the public it is acting to fix the problem, but that it will take eighteen months or more to have much effect is a devastating admission of have been sleeping on the job; and still not acting with sufficient detrmination.
Johnson was quick to claim that not all Russians are pro-Putin; but abjectly begs the question. The problem for the public is not only that they know nothing about the business and financial activities of oligarchs, or the origins of the money arriving here, but the financial structures that make ‘Global Britain’ attractive are not functions of British genius, but the facility with which our commerce and laws have facilitated secrecy; and that law may ruthlessly be used to protect the privacy of hidden activities and hidden wealth. Transparency has become purely a corporate choice that may be ignored. ‘Open for business’ in Britain is an invitation to all and sundry to run riot,’ provided only that they possess suffcient wealth.
What I find particularly offensive is the Conservative line of opportunism from a European War oozing out of their media apologists, to dismiss the catalogue of catastrophic failure by Conservative Governments to protect Britain’s security (the Conservative Guilty Men – and Women); using the crisis to save this miserable failure of a Government. They have failed both to learn the lessons available to understand Putin’s Russia (not established by Donetsk, 2014 or Crimea – but as long ago as 1999-2000; the Battle of Grozny, and the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko in London, 2006); and now they are exploiting a War to advance the obnoxious claim that Johnson’s ‘leadership’ failings should be overlooked because of the international crisis. The crisismerely confirms how badly Johnson and Conservative Government has failed the British people over the twelve years thay have been continuously in power to fix this, or even stand up for Europena or British security.
For the avoidance of doubt, international money and finance is virtually the only key area where Britain’s place in this crisis allows it to claim leadership; and as we can see, we are still failing to fix or even adequately grapple with the oligarch information problem, or the ‘dirty money’ disasterthat engulf us; that we must know and recognise has undermined the very fabric of Britain’s society and security.
We should now be bringing forward emergency corporate legislation in Parliament to enforce total transparency: no excuses. The oppostion would ensure support for a more decisive leadership. the leadership the Conservatives have totally failed to provide. The British Government’s ramshackle, spineless position – raddled by legal paralysis and weakness of will – is unacceptable, untenable, and cannot be allowed to stand. Johnson must fall.
I agree with your conclusion – rather strongly!
Just some numbers to add to John’s comment (courtesy of the most recent Private Eye).
Since the Crimea invasion in 2014 and the end of last year some 406 Russians with £2 million to ‘invest’ have been granted ‘golden visas’.
To this can be added another 699 people listed as ‘dependants’.
Only 20 were refused.
Indeed, in the last quarter of 2021 – when Putin’s forces were massing on the border with Ukraine and the plans for invasion had presumably been made, another 8 ‘golden visas’ were granted.
Meanwhile (and to illustrate one of the main points in your blog), the same article in Private Eye also highlights the recent activity of a law firm by the name of Harbottle and Lewis (apparently the royal family’s lawyers of choice) and the fact that they’d been threatening to sue The Sun if it ran a story alleging that the British government considered Roman Abramovich a person of interest.
Thankfully for the great British public (and the cause of transparency) Chris Bryant MP used Parliamentary privilege to read out the 2019 document that had been leaked to The Sun, and which said, that: ‘As part of of HMG’s (Her Majesty’s Government) Russia strategy aimed at targeting illicit finance and malign activity, Abramovich remains of interest to HMG due to his links to the Russian state and his public association with corrupt activity and practices.’
Well, fancy that!!
Indeed…..
“We now know all this. It is plain to see. The question now is whether this is enough to finally induce the required action from all other political parties to act together to rid us of this corruption for good?”.
Sadly Labour, SNP and the LibDems are all compromised – perhaps not to the same extent as the Tories but compromised nonetheless. What hope is there if the majority of the UK political establishment (in and out of government) are funded and influenced by the Russians and other hostile players?
Short of a revolution and/or complete economic collapse, I can’t see any sign of the conditions required for the monumental upheaval and societal change needed to restructure the political landscape that’ll facilitate the kind of transformation you prescribe. Or is an insurrection the only answer?
I hope not
Dominic Raab has just informed Matt Frei, C4 News that Russian money accepted by the Conservative Party was declared, and therefore met the required standards of transparency. This is a typical, Raab, evasive lawyer’s cheap deflection that begs the question, because ‘transparency’ is not a location to be identified, but a trail to a source. It is tranparency of money’s ultimate origins, not the transparency of the destination transaction that matters.
The problem of the Oligarch problem in Britain is not solely whether or not someone is a Putin stooge; would it was that easy to identify them. They do not have a flag painted on their forehead. The problem that Raab fails even to address, is how would the public know who is a stooge or who is a Russian refugee fleeing Putin’s Russia; because British corporate law is so secretive, so heavily protected from prying eyes, so cushioned by the power of wealth to buy the best legal representation, so convenient to the London Laundromat that nobody could possibly legitimately know anything about oligarch money flowing through Britain? Raab really is a disgrace, when what we need is a Government that rises to the crisis. Instead we have a low-grade, pompous legal pedant.
Agreed
For the first time ever I approached this blog with trepidation. The barrage of ill informed MSM coverage of this crisis has made me weary and wary of reading any more uninformed jingoistic tripe. I am pleased to say that the blog and replies so far have restored my faith in its usual perspicacity. I don’t agree with it all but what I don’t agree with comes under reasonable debate. Thanks to all contributors for a measured response.
Thank you
“There is corruption at the heart of the UK in other words. For more than twenty years a far-right Russian regime has cooperated with far-right funding from the USA to take control of the Tory right-wing in UK politics and make it an instrument for anti-democratic activity.”
Isn’t it worse than that in that there has been a co-ordinated campaign to promote a nazi -like version of extreme populist nationalism across the USA/Russia/UK and elsewhere to defeat multinationalism(defunding the UN, America First); the EU (brexit); and democracy itself (rigging the system to make it more difficult to vote/ withdrawing rights to information/ secrecy/ reducing regulation). Culturally it promotes violence, (invasion of the white house, intolerance , and self assertiveness ), military spending and apportioning blame to the other.
There seems to be an unwillingness to call out our enemies and the conspiracy because to do so is to be labelled a conspiracy theorist.
Personally I’m beginning to think to not speak out in the face of the obvious manipulation going on is an act of wilful blindness.
We should be highlighting the links between Johnson and Russian money. The City and Russian Money . Trump and Russian money. Farage and Russian money.
The Conservative Party and Russian Money. Think tanks and Russian and US oligarch money. The push to create “emergency powers” to increase secrecy and to restrict protest.
I know you are, but we all can do our bit.
We all need to do this
I am grateful some do
The Home Secretary is currently presenting Second Reading of the Economic Crimes Bill. It is a staggeringly bad performace for this reason: all the issues Priti Patel is describing are in fact a comprehensive summary of the reasons we can conclusively judge that the Home Secretary, and this feeble-witted Government, have been asleep on the job for the whole period of their office. They have already failed the country, beyond forgiveness.
The mess being described by the Home Secretary is catastrophic, and the Bill still requires scrutiny of its weaknesses, and the complete lack of proper Enforcement in the Bill. The bill is next to useless without ruthless, fast enforcement. I have written often enough here – legislation without enforcement is utterly useless. The Budget required to enforce even a small part of what is being described in the Bill, and the resources to man it, would be colossal. Where is the Budget? Where is the Enforcer? I hear nothing relevant; nothing. What a mess!
The Home Secretary’s most effective decision would be to resign immediately, because she is transparent in one thing only; she is, frnakly and obviously – not up to the job.
There is quite literally no company law enforcement of any consequence in the UK right now
And that will be the case with this Act as well
Below is the amendment that Labour are putting forwards to The Economic Crime Bill.
Commitment to bring forward reform of Companies House
New clause
[38A] Further reforms to Companies House
(1) Not later than 28 days from when Part 1 of this Act comes into force, the Secretary of State must publish draft legislation for the purpose of making further reforms to Companies House, including to support the effective functioning of the register of overseas entities.
(2) The draft legislation must include –
New powers for the registrar to aid the verification of foreign entities applying for registration as set out in section 4 of this Act;
New powers for the registrar to better share data with enforcement agencies;
Reforms that will improve the quality and veracity of the information on the register.
Explanatory note:
This new clause would compel the Secretary of State to publish draft legislation on reforms to Companies House, including reforms that would support the operation of the Act.
Reducing the transition period
Labour will amend the Bill to change the grace period in which foreign entities must apply to the register from 18 months to 28 days except for property bought before 1999, which are currently out of the scope of the Bill, to give the Government time to find a way of making sure pre 1999 purchases are also included in the final Bill to ensure all foreign owned entities are included on the register
Thanks
But still not tough enough
https://labourlist.org/2022/03/what-are-they-trying-to-hide-labour-asks-after-axed-dirty-money-meeting/
Labour has asked what the government could be “trying to hide” after a meeting between the opposition party and Companies House was cancelled at short notice – apparently on the advice of the Department for Business.
The shadow Treasury team had been expecting to discuss reforms to Companies House, including its plans to hand new powers to the government agency amid concerns over Russian dirty money in the UK.
Interesting….
Perhaps it is beginning to dawn on this hapless crew in Downing Street just how bad the mess has become, how deeply the oligarchy has drilled down into the roots of British society and culture? After all, there will – sooner or later – be a political price to pay for this disaster.
Priti Patel was still wittering on about the ‘world beating’ nature of her Bill in her peroration, even when everyone could see it was a chihuahua, taking on a legal rottweiler (its best chance of success is that the rottweiler will choke on it when it swallows). Patel, true to her form, even managed to finger wag as she accepted interventions; a graceless, thoughtless, trivial figure; covering her retreat in awkward ambiguity, hapless confusion in her final residual bluster; under Yvette Cooper’s simple determination to stick to the basic facts available.
Patel must go, we can’t afford this level of inadequacy to the task.
Patel was never competent enough to be an MP, let alone a minister
Oops – Here is the link for my comment above
https://labourlist.org/2022/03/labour-proposes-law-changes-for-uk-to-take-fast-action-against-russian-money/
Yvette Cooper is now demanding clarification of the mess Patel made of her statement, which is causing total confusion over refugees. The Home Secretary also had the affrontery to play games around the ‘tense’ she used to describe her “bespoke” visa office in Calais that nobody who is there can find. This has to stop: now. Patel must go.
Incidentally ,Gordon Brown on C4 News was claiming to Matt Frei that he and Labour were “tough” addressing Putin over the Litvinenko assassination. They expelled a few diplomats. For the avoidance of doubt that isn’t tough, it is a standard diplomatic Pavlovian response: it is a weak response, straight out of the Renault (police chief, ‘Casablanca, 1942 film) playbook; “arrest the usual suspects”, was the famous line. For that appalling assassination – in a London hotel, with radioactive polonium in a public lounge – we should have closed the Embassy, suspended diplomatic relations altogether, and re-written our policy on Russia. This was six years after the Battle of Grozny. How bad does Brown believe it required to be, to draw a line, and how many clues to Putin’s way with geopolitics does he need – when the attack is lierally in our own backyard?
Brown appeared to take no responsibility for oligarchs coming in on Tier 1 visas, either. He said he would have acted, if a problem with entrants had been brought to his attention. Another weak argument: Tier 1 visas were an irresponsible policy if you do anything more than just count the money; weakly drafted and open to abuse, I would have thought Brown could figure that out now, even if unfortunately for the rest of us, he needs the help of hindsight to observe the obvious. Second, not only was the policy weak and open to abuse, but there was no enforcement; and no enforcer resourced to carry out the task. Brown’s interview in short, was pathetic.
Why are we here, in the mess now? I give you the neoliberal politics, the elected politicians – and the so-called “leadership” – of the last wenty five years.
I was very annoyed during the Brown interview, for much the same reason as you
Confirmation of the shambles Priti Patel has made of the Home Office brief was given today in the House of Commons; following up yesterday’s debacle of a statement the Home secretary, presumably in a blue funk, cravenly failed to come to the House to answer the onslaught against the Home Office performance in Calais; well, not actually in Calais, nor in Lille, some 70 miles away, nor even in Paris either; we seek it here, we seek it there, we seek than damn’d elusive visa office everywhere.
A clearly angry Conservative, Sir Roger Gale MP pointed out the flagrancy of Patel’s disastrous performance the day before. He quoted the Home Secretary yesterday as saying, “I have already made it clear in terms of the visa application centre that has now been set up en route to Calais, that we have staff in Calais”; then added, “This was untrue and under any normal administration that would be a resigning matter.” He then tweeted these two sentences. Yvette Cooper MP also pointed out that the Home Secretary had given “wrong information several times” yesterday.
Patel must go.
Brown laughed – he actually laughed at the suggestion he and Bliar and started the whole thing – even after all that investigation and many books about the subject.
I refuse to believe that even then, both the UK and U.S. did not know where the Putin’s and other oligarch cash was coming from.
All because we chose to be blind as to where the money had come from under the auspices of ‘inward investment’. We/they decided to overlook this.