I just noticed LBC put out this clip of me talking about King Charles' pay rise. The interview was yesterday afternoon and it is apparent I was not expecting them to share it or I would not have been moving about so much:
'A lot of people need to renovate their homes but not a lot get a 45% pay increase to do so.'
Political economist @RichardJMurphy explains why King Charles is getting more money - putting it into context he tells @BenKentish 'this stinks'. pic.twitter.com/umzAK0HD8z
— LBC (@LBC) July 21, 2023
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Tug your forelock and money flies through thin air off the magic money tree straight into the king’s coffers. Why didn’t I read about this in a children’s story book as I grew up I could have trained as a gardener and gymnast? I mean it can’t come from taxes can it the Kid Starvers tell us we are taxed heavily enough already!
The profligacy under the Tories doesn’t stop at the king:-
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/liz-truss-tom-scholar-treasury-budget-b2378776.html
I heard you speak. I was very impressed, then I heard it was you at the end. You sound a bit like Ian Hislop. This was the first public mention I’ve heard of Charles cashing in on green energy and the sea bed. I think he could gain in popularity by giving that money to the state.
Ian Hislop?
That’s a first….
Chapter and verse:-
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/jul/22/royal-secrecy-public-money-crown-estate-king-charles#comments
Rennovate Buck Palace? Surely better to demolish and build a well sized place for homeless people & woman seeking shelter from violent partners.
The fault in all this lies with the Germans. who did their best to re-develop the Uk in the 1940s but signally failed with Buck Palace & assorted other royal residences.
I think it needs to be entirely repurposed – a royal museum maybe, with the grounds as a park
It could still provide a balcony in that case for national events if we still need that – but hadn it and the funds to the National Trust or someone like that.
I know that I have written a lot here about populism and its relationship to Fascism in particular – which I abhor. I’m also aware that by advocating some form of populism for the left/progressives/greens I am being borderline hypocritical too. Because I’m inviting the sort of factionism in society that Fascist like to ferment. It’s an obvious risk.
But information like this – a 45% rise in support for one of the richest (if not THE richest) families in the UK – is a golden opportunity for a progressive/leftist populism to form around.
As are zero-hours contracts, AI-determinism, our addiction to carbon and too slow a reaction to the climate warming, trade union rights, the dark arts of modern political funding, student loans and so many other issues that I think people are naturally concerned about.
The get out clause for a left/progressive populism is an examination of what Neo-liberal anti-democratic authoritarianism populist games would prefer we concentrate on instead:
Lies about government money and the role of tax.
False threats that we face, imagined enemies and enmities.
State control of female reproductive choices.
Celebrity dramas and misdemeanours.
The enduring spectre of the ‘Left’ (that has never been in power in this country).
The totalitarian market – all seeing and wise as the only provider of goods and services.
The depoliticization of key economic decisions and deference to ‘independent experts’.
The deliberate use of misinformation to prevent societal solidarity that can bring about change.
Promoting conflict by getting interest groups to compete with each other for ever meagre resources.
The list could be endless but its buoys me up no end to say that the Left/Labour/progressives should play the same game perhaps instead of merely adopting those issues the Right deems to be acceptable (as ‘Blue Labour’ advocates?).
As one radical and rather dark figure once said ‘Sovereign is he who makes an exception’ (Carl Schimtt).
The Left/Labour/progressives need not repeat or rely on the Right to provide a narrative for the ‘peoples concerns’. They can create new ones or just support the ones that are already there such as ‘Stop Oil’, student loans and yet the farce of more money given to people who simply do not need it.
But no, it seems that we are not going to get that ‘bottom-up’ populism does it? Instead its top down.
It is the Right who are the radicals – not the Left, who can only be described as torpid.
Why?
I wish I knew