Britain: Coalition of the Rich, by the Rich and for the Rich – Time to fight back

The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government in Britain is made up of and advised by millionaires and billionaires. And while they live a life that millions would dream of, they spend their time investigating how much they can cut spending on social services, healthcare, education and pensions. The contradiction is clear for all to see.

The Con-Dem coalition is a government of Big Business, nothing more, nothing less. Despite the protests of David Cameron that he is just a regular “middle class” fellow, he is related to Royalty (William IV), went to Eton and Oxford, and is married to an aristocrat. The Cabinet, the Fellowship of Threadneedle Street, is composed of 18 millionaires.

The latest additional “advisers” to this Big Business government are Lord Levene, the veteran City financier and the retail capitalist Sir Philip Green. They have been engaged to find “savings” before the October spending review and both are, as we can see, very well qualified for this onerous task of squeezing the poor.

Lord Levene “advised” John Major on efficiency from 1992 to 1997. His long career includes stints as chairman and chief executive of Canary Wharf and working for Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank.

Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia business includes Bhs, Topshop and Dorothy Perkins (he has also bid three times for Marks and Spencer) and he has lived in Monaco, a tax haven, since 1998. To avoid paying tax, his company paid a small £1.2 billion dividend to his wife, a Monaco resident and ineligible for tax.

Knighted four years ago, this tycoon enjoys a flamboyant lifestyle of yachts and extravagant parties, which makes him a very suitable candidate for the government’s austerity cuts! At the same time, Deputy PM, Nick Clegg, vows to “break Britain’s entrenched class structures.” He presides over a Cabinet of millionaires advised by millionaires on how to slash working class living standards and cut billions from public services… services they will never use themselves.

According to the Financial Times, “Sir Philip, speaking from his yacht in Italy, said he and Ian Grabiner, chief executive of Abcadia, would handle the day-to-day work and would start gathering information today.” (13 August).

Their attacks will hit the most vulnerable in society who rely on these public services: the old, the sick, and the infirm. The Budget cuts are threatening to close Britain’s only mobile TB unit this December. TB has become an important health problem, with London reporting the highest rates of the infection of any city in Western Europe. The disease affects those living in cramped, poorly ventilated and unhygienic conditions, hardly a concern of our government of millionaires.

Chancellor Osborn at the CBI dinner, surrounded by the Chief executive of IBM, the president of CBI and the chief executive of CBI. Photo by the CBI. Waiting lists for social housing are at record levels, with some 4.5 million seeking accommodation. With planned cuts to affordable homes, a further half million will join the waiting list. They will be trapped in bed-sits and campsite accommodation, never being able to find a home.

Next year nearly one million people will see their housing benefit cut by an average of £12 a week. With home building at its lowest level since the 1920s, we will see a return to “Cathy Come Home” conditions for many, 50 years after the film shocked the nation. In addition, Cameron has also suggested removing the right of council house tenants to remain in their homes.

“Some seem to think that austerity is a one-off event – something that has already happened in the Budget”, explained the big business Financial Times recently. However it warns, “The promised cuts in public spending have scarcely begun to bite.” Such retrenchment will bring “real pain.”

The government bailed out the banking system using tax-payers’ money. Now the banks are making billions. Barclays saw its profits jump to almost £4bn, up from £2.75bn last year. HSBC’s profits more than doubled to $11.1bn. The biggest five banks made more than £15bn in pre-tax profits in the first half of the year. Not only that, but the bankers are being asked to join the government as “advisers”. They did such a great job in the slump that Stephen Green, HSBC chairman, is to lead a “taskforce” made up of chief executives of Lloyds Banking Group, Royal Bank of Scotland, Barclays, HSBC, Santander and Standard Chartered to help the banks.

And, of course, the working class is now being presented with the bill for the crisis through cuts in services, wage cuts and mass unemployment. They will make cuts to try and eliminate the £149bn deficit in just five years.

No wonder consumers in Britain are amongst the most pessimistic in the world over their economy, with 34% believing it was in a “very bad” state.

Youth unemployment has rocketed, with 17.5% of the six million 18-24 year olds jobless. When BT recently offered 221 apprenticeships, 24,000 young people applied for the

While bankers’ profits are booming, the crisis is certainly not over for millions of people. They face years, if not decades of austerity.

This failure is a failure of the capitalist system, which produces for profit and not for need. Rather than austerity, there is sufficient productive potential, if used properly, to give everyone a job and dramatically increase living standards. Unfortunately, it is in the hands of the bankers, capitalists and speculators. There is no solution while this remains. All they can offer is counter-reforms and attacks.

The struggle against the cuts must go hand in hand with the struggle to change society. The power of the Labour and trade union movement must be mobilised to get rid of this Big Business government and bring to power a Labour government on real socialist policies. A central part of such a socialist programme must be to take into public ownership the “commanding heights” of the economy, banks and insurance companies under democratic workers’ control and management. A plan of production could be drawn up using the full resources of society for the benefit of the majority and not the profits of a few.

It is the only realistic alternative to the plight of capitalism that threatens to drag us back to the 1930s.

Source: Socialist Appeal (Britain)