As I have noted in another post this morning. Labour apparently thinks that the biggest crises that it will face that will have the power to disrupt it when coming into office are:
1. Potential collapse of Thames Water
2. Public sector pay pressure
3. Prison overcrowding
4. Universities going under
5. NHS funding
6. Bankrupt councils
As I also noted, all of these can be easily solved by spending the necessary funds and then taxing the wealthy more. If Labour thinks these issues are the problem, that is solely because Rachel Reeves is making them so. As a consequence, the logic behind this last is totally flawed.
So what are the real crises that Labour might face? I suggest they are (and these are not meant to be in any order of priority as all of them need to be addressed):
- Climate change caused by big businesses.
- Obesity caused by the big sugar industry.
- Diabetes caused by big pharma failing to point out that this is a treatable condition.
- Mental ill health caused the the stress on people created by the deliberately created neoliberal climate of fear.
- The lack of social care due to deliberate underfunding.
- Child poverty due to deliberate underfunding of support for families in need.
- The crisis in education due to underfunding at all levels.
- The stresses in society due to Tory fuelled culture wars.
- Interest rates that are far too high, causing untold problems to households, businesses and the government itself.
- A lack of government investment in our economy.
- Inequality, requiring additional taxation of those with wealth.
- The failure of democracy that requires electoral and parliamentary reform.
- The failure of the country that requires that the people of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland need to be given the option to leave the Union.
- The failure to regulate business to ensure that fair competition free from fraud and exploitation takes place.
- The failure of local democracy and accountability.
- A lack of confidence in the police and the judicial system.
I am sure I have missed some out. But, I stress, migration is not on the list because it is not a problem: this country has never been able to survive without a steady inward flow of people.
These are my top issues needing action from Labour.
I am not hearing their promises.
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Based on reports in The Guardian this week might I add
16. Costs imposed on the NHS by poverty
17. The impact of alcohol and its social and economic costs
Thanks
While labour continues Thatcher’s neoliberal framework, and pretends that everything needs “funding”, nothing will change. They need to be challenged on this every day until people see that the emperor’s new clothes do not exist.
@ Ian Tresman. As long as mainstream media continue to support the Neoliberal ideology including so called progressive media like the Guardian, Independent and Observer the challenging will remain muted. The UK is a very conservative country because the educational system doesn’t teach analytical thinking when it comes to economic ideology or precepts. Teaching Comparative Government is not a mainstream topic in schools either.
Thank you.
I prefer to call the Grauniad, Observer and Indies oligarch owned media, which is what they are.
You may need, as I will, to chill out in nature if and when the motley crew of third-raters currently masquerading as Labour gain power, and steadily gaslight the disappointed populace. One’s blood pressure needs deflating.
Might it be that Neoliberal economics has minimal to no inherent indicators or metrics which indicate its (beneficial) effects on a society as a whole?
Are the main/only indicators of its performances (questionable) calculations based on (questionable) data which background data and calculations which represent real-life actualities more accurately/realisticallly?
I suspect the issues you raise will have to get a lot worse in the UK before sufficient voters will get their heads out of the sand and realise the Labour Party no longer acts in their general interest but that of the super-rich. Thank you though for raising them.
Thank you.
Please see my comment when it comes out of moderation.
Agreed. Excellent points.
On point 14, I’ve just ordered the book by Cambridge academic Michael Kenny “Fractured Union: Politics, Sovereignty and the Fight to Save the Union”. Having a flick through before reading it, Kenny makes the point that the UK is amongst the very few countries in the world that there is no bar on constituent parts from leaving (as Britain does not have a codified and written constitution). This is in stark contrast to Spain with its clear constitutional boundaries regarding Catalonia leaving.
Therefore, it is entirely within the eeb and flow of political circumstance that a governing Westminster party (if it so wished) could enact an act to simply abolish the union (by repealing the Act of 1707) without specific stipulations attached via a constitutional framework.
In other words, a more distinctive SNP offer (rather than the same old neoliberalism and ‘everything stays the same’) that becomes popular, and pressure from winning again in Scotland through that, could pave the way for a granting of a referendum, as there are no constitutional constraints in what some have called a ‘prison’ of union. (Of course, Tory voices such as David Frost, want to legislate so that no part of the union can ever legally break away. And – in their heart of hearts – most Tories would (given the chance) abolish devolution altogether.)
…My apologies it was point 13!
Thank you and well said, Richard.
Crises are also opportunities not to be wasted. As per https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-uk-us-trade-deal-trump-brexit-b2548760.html, capitalists are mobilising.
I often read Richard’s tweets and note the Starmerite responses. I don’t know if these critics are deluded, stupid or venal, but if deluded and stupid, they are in for a shock. Tufton and K Street, the latter in DC, are as ensconced with Labour as they are with the Tories. Just as Brexit was funded to achieve their aims, Brexit, albeit from a remainer angle, was used to torpedo Corbyn, along with anti-semitism.
Readers should note the Heritage Foundation. This front funded by the Koch family, amongst others, fronted the insurance industry’s proposals that became Romneycare in Massachusetts and, later, Obamacare countrywide. This privatised form of healthcare comes from big pharma dominated Switzerland. It’s easier to get so-called moderates / centrists like Romney and Obama and now Starmer to achieve capital’s objectives. Democrats like senator Bernie Sanders and governor Brian Schweitzer of Montana who wanted a US NHS were sidelined by Obama. That was not a surprise as per https://wallstreetonparade.com/2016/10/wikileaks-bombshell-emails-show-citigroup-had-major-role-in-shaping-and-staffing-obamas-first-term/.
I was never surprised about Obama after I found out that his grand-mother who was active in raising him in Hawaii was a banker there.
Thank you.
His maternal grandfather was also in business.
Obama and his Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner were both born in August 1961 and went to the same school in Jakarta. Geithner’s father and Obama’s mother were colleagues. Obama did not come from obscurity.
“Brexit, albeit from a remainer angle, was used to torpedo Corbyn, along with anti-semitism.”
Colonel Smithers,
Sorry but I am a Yank who is “Lost in Space”; What did BREXIT have to do with with anti-Semitism?
It didn’t
But both were used to attack Corbyn
Richard,
Thanks for clarification. I have not had enough coffee this morning.
Thank you.
Richard has kindly replied.
Fun fact: On the Monday before the Thursday general election in December 2019, Corbyn rushed to Brussels to meet Michel Barnier. A Norway plus deal was under discussion. This was one of many meetings. Output was often personally shared with May, but not with Johnson.
One of Corbyn’s constituency officials is a dear friend and former colleague. Said friend is no longer a member. With regard to regulatory alignment and the supervision of financial services firms, I suggested, by way of my friend to the Corbyn camp, using the colleges of supervisors set up after 2008 to facilitate cross border oversight of banks. The home state regulator provides the secretariat and host state supervisors join in. The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and the Committee of European Central Bank Governors, which meets in Basel, could also facilitate.
Centrists, remainers etc. royally stuffed up by not supporting Corbyn.
Add to number 1: The imperative that Government and the press educate and inform the public of the immense climate dangers, and necessary changes – some of which could lead to significant improvements.
Perhaps number 2 might be: Minimising the dangers of nuclear war. The public rhetoric is about increasing funds and weapons to Ukraine – where the Russians have suffered enormous setbacks: their own troops killed and injured, ships sunk, huge financial costs – all with ever more suffering for ordinary people. President Kennedy said that no nuclear-armed nation should be so threatened by defeat or humiliation that they might be tempted to try a first nuclear strike. Around the time of the Cuban missile crisis, his speech pointing out some of the interests of Russians – such as ‘they care about their children as much as we do about ours’ was printed in full in Pravda on Khrushchev’s instructions. American missiles were removed from Turkey as well as Russian weapons from Cuba and better US-Russian relations ensued.
Later, western leaders repeatedly promised Gorbachev that NATO would not advance eastwards as the Soviet Union dissolved … It is easy to see why Putin is angry. His fifth-term inaugural speech two weeks ago, he made a big point of being ‘open to dialogue on equal terms.’
Difficult but courageous diplomacy about both Ukraine and the middle East is, and will be, a major issue
Thanks
Thank you and well said, Joe.
@ readers: Further to Joe’s mention of Russia, please read and watch what Kissinger, the late academic Stephen Cohen, academic Jeffrey Sachs, former US ambassador Jack Matlock, former ambassador Chas Freeman, and journalist, academic and descendant of white Russian emigres Anatol Lieven say rather than chicken hawks funded by the MIC.
Putin’s speech to the Munich Security Conference in 2007, what was proposed at peace talks in Istanbul in April 2022 and Boris Johnson’s talks with, or rather talk to, Zelensky after the April talks are particularly interesting.
Further to Joe’s final sentence, I should have added that the MIC, zionists etc. have ensured Arabists and, for want of a better word, doves and realists have been forced out and / or sidelined at the Foreign Office, State Department and the airwaves.
Have readers noticed how few British former military and diplomatic professionals are on the airwaves? We tend to get Americans. One reason is that our retired officials tend to be more moderate and clued up, Michael Rose being a particularly good one, but he thinks Blair should face trial for war crimes. It’s the same with Richard with regard to the economy and other issues.
Good lists … And additions.
Can I suggest another:
Xx) introduce clearer transparency and accountability in both private and public sector organisations.
We need to stamp out piss-poor governance and increasing corruption.
Xx+1) tricky but essential… A method of stamping out lying and misleading statements that undermine the rule of law and the democratic process.
Useful
Today’s Private Eye outlines that substantial office and campaign funding for both Streeting and Reeves is coming from the business consultancy sector – health for Wes, and City lobbyists for Reeves.
Of course, this funding is all because of commitment to Labour’s aims and objectives, and not some cheap inside track influencing..
Ot would seem that there are just so many ways for companies to dodge taxes one could be forgiven for thinking its been a government policy……
This from byline times…
Interest payments on Global’s borrowing are so large that the company has made a pre-tax loss in every year but one since its founding. In 2018 it delivered a pre-tax profit, but then borrowed lots more money from its parent to fund the acquisition of two outdoor advertising companies. The profit disappeared, never to be seen again.
Until 2017, Global was able to set off almost all of its losses against tax. As a result, it paid no UK tax. It even recorded tax credits, known as “deferred tax assets”, on its balance sheet. By 2016, these were worth over £5.2 million.
However, in 2017, HMRC restricted corporations’ ability to offset interest payments against tax. This was to discourage “base shifting”, the practice of using debt and intercompany transfers to squirrel away profits offshore, thus avoiding UK corporate taxation.
Global was caught by this legislation, and since then has incurred corporation tax on its pre-tax losses. But it is still finding ways of not paying tax. In 2017, it used the £5.2m tax credits built up prior to 2017 to offset its tax liability. In effect, HMRC paid these taxes. And by 2023, Global was reporting nearly £38.8 million of deferred tax liabilities (that’s “unpaid taxes” to you and me), mainly arising from the way it chose to calculate the future value of intangible assets.
Some of the shareholders’ loans have been issued as tradeable notes on recognised stock exchanges. In 2013, Corporate Watch pointed out that these notes were a vehicle for tax avoidance:
I take this report at face value
I have not checked it
Please go back to original data to check accuracy
The most immediate problem the Labour Party could face is the potential for unseating a number of key Labour MPs, including the Labour Leader Keir Starmer, primarily for their inhumane stance on Gaza. The myriad of other failings with their lack of intention to focus on poverty, homelessness, inequality and the climate crisis lend weight to their campaigns. Just yesterday Andrew Feinstein solidified his declared intention to stand as an Independent against Keir Starmer in his Holborn and St Pancras constituency. Former South African MP Feinstein, a life-long anti-apartheid peace activist who served under Nelson Mandela in the first ANC Government, is the highly credible Jewish son of a Holocaust survivor. After publishing a book on the Arms Trade, now executive director of Corruption Watch UK, he has dedicated himself to exposing the corruption of the arms industry and their horrific manipulation of our political systems to promote ‘forever war’ for profit.
The Labor leadership team were dismayed by the election of George Galloway in Rochdale, but there are a few more Independent challengers lining up ahead of the next election. Outspoken Scottish independence blogger, historian, author and former British Ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray has also declared an Independent candidacy in Blackburn, Lancashire. He stood here once before against his former boss, Jack Straw, then the MP for the constituency. As a highly principalled former diplomat, who suffered persecution in the UK after exposing torture in Uzbekistan, Murray was also targeted by the Scotish Government and imprisoned in an atempt to stiffle his journalistic freedom. He has been a passionate supporter of Julian Assange, attending and reporting on hearings, he also traveled to the Hague for the ICJ case bought by South Africa.
Although the press are bound to try to paint these two highly principled individuals as single issue candidates exploiting public sentiments over the Gaza Genocide, both men have an extensive history of progressive political views that they have clearly articulated over many years. Contrast that with the obvious deceptions demonstrated by Keir Starmer and his team of right leaning interlopers who have transformed the once Socialist Labour Party. There are a number of other credible candidates preparing to step forward in the hope of rescuing our inadequate and biased democracy from further neoliberal exploitation. If this is the high caliber of integrity and commitment to genuine Socialist democracy that has been presented among Independent candidates so far, Labour could see their majority shrink and their leadership team eviscerated.
Labour are so out of touch with the British public that they are solely focused on the need to pracate Muslim voters with additional false promises regarding Gaza, but any action now will be too little, too late to revamp their tarnished reputation. The ‘problem’ goes much further than the disillusioned Muslim community as many non Muslims are equally outraged and Labour’s lurch to the right with numerous broken promises has totally destroyed public trust in the current leadership team. Wes Streeting is another target, as are many MPs with Muslim communities larger than their majority at the last election. ‘The Muslim Vote’ website has a list of vulnerable candidates who failed to support a ceasefire in Gaza and the ‘No Ceasefire, No Vote’ movement is also gathering pace. To many voters both the Tory and Labour position on Gaza is emblematic of their disdain for human rights and the dire needs of impoverished and ignored UK citizens.
I admit I do not think as highly as you do of Craig Murray, who seems to lack wise judgement on occasion, in my opinion.
Craig Murray was jailed for contempt of court after due legal process and not on the orders of the SG and after an appeal before 5 judges.
Craig Murray was prosecuted and jailed on the rather dubious confected charge of ‘Jigsaw Identification’ of a group of women who made unsubstantiated allegations about the conduct of Alex Salmond. At least one news outlet clearly identified these individuals by name and was not prosecuted by the courts. Murray was indicted for obliquely mentioning certain characteristics that obscurely hinted at their identities in a way that the public might have been able to guess who they were… if they had not already read this information as printed in a Scottish newspaper! What a grotesque and biased abuse of the justice system.
I am inclined to be supportive of whistleblowers, especially those who have the courage to talk truth to power and defend the most vulnerable victims like Julian Assange. I am not sure why you might not trust him as I have found Craig Murray to be a man of considerable integrity. I read through a lot of the well presented evidence in the case against Alex Salmond and it absolutely stank of a witch-hunt. I consider the jailing of Murray a targeted gagging of the one honest journalist who had the determination and daring to present the facts in support of Salmond’s innocence. He was proven right because the case against Alex Salmond was lost, not on a technicality, but on the lack of any credible evidence: he was cleared of all charges.
My concerns are not about that case – about which everything was very odd, indeed.
My concerns have been broader, as they have always been about Julian Assange. Long ago I met him and decided not to take the risk of getting close. He has not deserved what has happened to him. But I can form my own judgements.
As far as I can ascertain, no longer being a member of Labour, there is a reliance on GGTO carrying the day regardless of other issues. The Party expects to lose some seats in multicultural communities (e.g. Bristol, central Lancs, Bradford etc) but calculates there is enough slack in the projected results to carry them home with a majority – one that will contain lots of SpAds, nepobabies and finance industry Young Turks. Once/if that happens, further purges and the total evisceration of branch structure (Evans’ master plan) will follow to finally kill off socialism.
I share none of the optimism over this. Unless Feinstein etc can form a new party or meld with the Greens, in an organisation that is not an ego vehicle, I can’t see any viable obstacle to the continuation of the now normal.
It looks a bit late for any further development of independents – GE on 4 July, anyone?
There is more here Richard
Global’s owners can receive the interest payments tax-free because they have issued the loans as “quoted Eurobonds”. Normally, when a UK company pays interest to a non-UK company, it has to “withhold” 20% of the payments and give it to the UK tax authorities. But if the loans are issued as quoted Eurobonds* on a “recognised” stock exchange, such as the Channel Islands’ or the Cayman Islands’, they benefit from an exemption that means no withholding tax is taken off.
(*A Eurobond is a bond issued outside the jurisdiction of the country in whose currency it is denominated.)
Watch’s criticism. And after heavy lobbying from the finance industry, HMRC decided not to close this loophole. Ten years later, Global had £1.35 billion of tradeable notes bearing interest rates of 12-15%. That’s an awful lot of cash paid and tax avoided.
Global can still reduce tax bills and wage costs by moving money around. But from January 2024, a minimum global corporation tax rate of 15% will apply. Global’s 2023 accounts highlight this as a “factor that may affect future tax charge.”
So the party may soon be over for Global and its tax-avoiding parent. But who owns Global’s parent?
Offshore structures are notoriously opaque, so it’s difficult to identify the ultimate owner. According to Corporate Watch, Global Radio Group Ltd. (Jersey) is 99% owned by a company called Global Radio Worldwide Ltd. (British Virgin Islands), with the other 1% personally owned by Ashley Tabor-King. However, the UK’s Companies House website shows that Michael Tabor is listed as “person with significant influence” over Global Media & Entertainment Ltd.
Finally….
it seems likely that Michael Tabor is the ultimate owner – and as a resident of Monaco, he is not liable for UK tax.
Global’s dominance in the UK’s commercial radio industry gives it considerable control over what the public hears. For example, in 2015, the Swiss subsidiary of the UK bank HSBC admitted it had helped wealthy clients hide assets from tax authorities. Global instructed all its radio stations not to report this news story as it broke. After listeners complained, Ofcom investigated but decided that Global had “good editorial reasons” for delaying reporting for four days. Neither Ofcom nor Global have ever revealed what those reasons were.
Thank you, Pat.
I’m a horse racing enthusiast and often see Michael Tabor at the races. He’s involved with the Coolmore syndicate. The family are zionist, which may explain why Sangita Myska is no longer at LBC.
Interesting to hear on the Radio News that it is being suggested that the Police delay arresting suspects due to Prison overcrowding.
Something I suggest that denies justice to both victim & perpetrator
Perhaps declare a non-custodial amnesty on certain non-violent crimes. I’m sure this would suit everyone, the public, businesses and politicians alike.
Thanks colonel I did not know that but I am not at all surprised
Hi Richard, thank you for this thinking which I wholeheartedly agree with. One thing I would add is social housing to address our epidemic of homelessness. As far as I can see, only Andy Burnham is doing the right thing in terms of balancing council house sales and replacing housing stock. The problem gets worse and worse thanks to the Tories economic crisis and we all know the long term impact on families and education prospects etc etc
Richard your point 13.
“ The failure of the country that requires that the people of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland need to be given the option to leave the Union.”
As an ex- NI Unionist who now supports a UI because of Brexit. I just want to suggest that instead of seceding from the Union if we all got together and kicked England out of the UK. The three remaining members of the Union would all rub along the very best and IRL might even rejoin.
Yes I am joking – I think!
No need to joke as it sounds like a good idea to this Yank.
I was told every day during the Cold War ( I was 9 when it began) that the Soviets were about to invade the West. I was also informed that the Soviets were surging ahead in the arms race . It never happened. Logic dictated it couldn’t . The same experts were telling us the Soviet economy was in a hopeless state. So the Russians didn’t have the financial nor the military resources to mount an invasion. In 1991 when the Soviet Union collapsed teams went into Russia to examine the books so to speak. No plans were found about planning an invasion. The Soviets had only 40 % of the military might we had been warned about. Listening to people such as Jeffrey Sachs it is clear Gorbachev was promised no expansion of NATO. The current genocide in Gaza proves once and for all that the real danger to global peace is the USA. Just examine the record since 1945. They are ultimately responsible for the barbarity against the Palestinians. Democracy is on its last legs in the USA and now ,due to American influence here in the UK. Born in 1940 I have seen the changes that have taken place . Not for the better. I was lucky to receive the benefits of the democratic socialism implemented by the Attlee Labour government. My country was admired for its bravery during WW2. In 1952 I went on holiday to Dinant with my school. When the shopkeepers realised we were British they wouldn’t take any money for sweets, ice cream etc. out of gratitude for what the country had done. The world won’t believe a word Britain says after the support given to the genocide. Our reputation is trashed. We need a totally new ,ethical foreign policy.