The fat cat culture of the square mile has really gone through the roof under New Labour, unsurprising really from a party that now believes that wealth creation is far more important than wealth redistribution – and accepts Thatcherite individualism as fact.
City bonuses for FTSE CEO’s topped £9bn last year, and the average boss now earns over a 100 times than an average worker.
The UK’s top five banks (HSBC, Royal Banks of Scotland, HBOS, Barclays, Lloyds TSB) posted combined record profits of £38bn last year. A remarkable sum which has quite rightly drawn much criticism from consumer groups about punitive charges and low gains on savings.
I am delighted therefore to see Plaid Cymru proposing a windfall tax on these profits as part of its alternative budget proposals, especially as New Labour refuse to implement such a policy for the banking sector.
In 2000 the Treasury commissioned a report by Don Cruickshank to investigate banking profits. The report concluded that banks at that time were making ‘super normal’ profits to the tune of £3-5bn.
It’s about time those still in the Labour party that harp on about socialism wake up and smell the bacon. Whilst Labour kowtow to big business, at least Plaid is wiling to tackle the greed and excesses of the square mile which is having such a distorting effect on the UK economy as a whole.
Showing posts with label New Labour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label New Labour. Show all posts
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Civil Service Job Cuts
The PCS have issued a damning press notice today of the effect of the Chancellors civil service job cull on Wales. The PCS estimates that a third of all civil service jobs in Wales will be lost by 2011. They calculate that this equates to a combined total of 10,000. In a country with a higher proportion of public sector jobs, the economic effects are going to be devastating. The PCS calculate over £300m per annum to the Welsh economy.
The whole plan was put in place by the Chancellor during the last Comprehensive Spending Review in his continued attempt to out tory the Tories. Political positioning is everything to New Labour, and this reckless policy shows they don’t give a damn about public sector workers, service user or local communities. It’s centralisation and rationalisation at its worse.
What sickens me the most is the sight of hypocritical New Labour AMs and candidates in Wales appearing on picket lines the length and breadth of our country feigning solidarity. New Labour in Wales seem quite happy to talk up their partnership with their London bosses when it suits them, then distance themselves from anything unpopular. Well they can’t have it both ways.
Wales deserves better than politicians from London based parties whose first instinct is to kowtow to their London bosses.
The whole plan was put in place by the Chancellor during the last Comprehensive Spending Review in his continued attempt to out tory the Tories. Political positioning is everything to New Labour, and this reckless policy shows they don’t give a damn about public sector workers, service user or local communities. It’s centralisation and rationalisation at its worse.
What sickens me the most is the sight of hypocritical New Labour AMs and candidates in Wales appearing on picket lines the length and breadth of our country feigning solidarity. New Labour in Wales seem quite happy to talk up their partnership with their London bosses when it suits them, then distance themselves from anything unpopular. Well they can’t have it both ways.
Wales deserves better than politicians from London based parties whose first instinct is to kowtow to their London bosses.
Friday, March 2, 2007
Real Terms Pay Cut for Nurses as City Bonuses hit £9bn
Yet again we witness the priorities of ‘son of Thatcher’ Gordon Brown. Nurses across the UK this year will have a real terms pay cut, as their annual increase of only 2.5% is way below even the government’s doctored measure of inflation.
At a time when real inflation (energy prices, fuel bills, council tax etc) has been going through the roof, the Chancellor’s stooge like behaviour is going to hit our public servants particularly hard.
City bonuses currently stand at around £9bn per annum, and Gordon Brown has repeatedly refused to intervene to curtail the fat cat culture of the square mile.
Just goes to show the sort of skewed priorities of this New Labour Government.
At a time when real inflation (energy prices, fuel bills, council tax etc) has been going through the roof, the Chancellor’s stooge like behaviour is going to hit our public servants particularly hard.
City bonuses currently stand at around £9bn per annum, and Gordon Brown has repeatedly refused to intervene to curtail the fat cat culture of the square mile.
Just goes to show the sort of skewed priorities of this New Labour Government.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
The Battle for Labour's Soul
Newsnight ran an excellent piece last night relating to the growing row over Labour’s asset stripping cash. The debate between Sion Simon and John McDonnell clearly showed that this issue could become a battle for the soul of the Labour party.
What’s most interesting from a Welsh perspective is that of the figures at the heart of the scandal Sir Ronald Cohen is Gordon Brown’s equivalent of Blair’s Lord Levy.
Labour in figures in Wales are huge supporters of a Brown succession. Guilt by association therefore means that they not only favour his right wing policies, but also support his clear backing for these firms which are described as ultra capitalists.
In Wales we have already seen the Trade Unions dishing out letters to their members in support of Labour’s campaign. The irony is plain for all to see.
It’s the incoherence of the whole thing I don’t get. On the one hand you’ve got the Trade Unions throwing their formidable weight behind a Labour party in Wales that openly supports a London regime that is funded by the very sort of people the Trade Unions were set up to fight against.
Instead of peddling spin and smear for the Labour party, the Trade Union leadership in Wales should concentrate on protecting their members. My father was an Union shop steward all his working life and joined Plaid when Kinnock started the New Labour revolution and they turned their backs on working people. It’s about time the Trade Union membership rose in revolt against a docile Union Leadership in Wales whose only loyalty is to a party that has long forgotten the principles which founded it.
I have a lot of time for John McDonnell and other principled Labour MPs. The tragedy of the current make up of the Parliamentary Labour Party is that it is unlikely that John or Michael Meacher will get the necessary support to launch a leadership election against Brown.
Those of us who come from the South Wales valleys, from traditional socialist families, know that we are in our natural home with Plaid.
What’s most interesting from a Welsh perspective is that of the figures at the heart of the scandal Sir Ronald Cohen is Gordon Brown’s equivalent of Blair’s Lord Levy.
Labour in figures in Wales are huge supporters of a Brown succession. Guilt by association therefore means that they not only favour his right wing policies, but also support his clear backing for these firms which are described as ultra capitalists.
In Wales we have already seen the Trade Unions dishing out letters to their members in support of Labour’s campaign. The irony is plain for all to see.
It’s the incoherence of the whole thing I don’t get. On the one hand you’ve got the Trade Unions throwing their formidable weight behind a Labour party in Wales that openly supports a London regime that is funded by the very sort of people the Trade Unions were set up to fight against.
Instead of peddling spin and smear for the Labour party, the Trade Union leadership in Wales should concentrate on protecting their members. My father was an Union shop steward all his working life and joined Plaid when Kinnock started the New Labour revolution and they turned their backs on working people. It’s about time the Trade Union membership rose in revolt against a docile Union Leadership in Wales whose only loyalty is to a party that has long forgotten the principles which founded it.
I have a lot of time for John McDonnell and other principled Labour MPs. The tragedy of the current make up of the Parliamentary Labour Party is that it is unlikely that John or Michael Meacher will get the necessary support to launch a leadership election against Brown.
Those of us who come from the South Wales valleys, from traditional socialist families, know that we are in our natural home with Plaid.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Growing Unrest in the Tory Ranks
There’s a very interesting article in the latest edition of the House Magazine by former Tory Minister Edward Leigh. The article is a critique of the Cameron project. Leigh is concerned that as Cameron adopts Clinton’s triangulation process (subsequently followed by New Labour), voters are left without a real choice.
Leigh is a passionate traditional right of right winger, and clearly is far happier talking about privatisation and lower taxation than the Cameron focus on wellbeing and other what he views as ‘soft’ issues. He is particularly perplexed at why the main opposition in Westminster would want to fight the next General Election on exactly the same policy platform as the Government.
The Cameron strategy is quite simple. He is doing exactly what the New Labour project did to the Tories. He has positioned his party on the exact same ground in the hope that he will achieve power ‘cause people fancy a change in personalities rather than basing a strategy on a significant change of approach. The Cameron strategy is also built with Brown in mind - with no undistinguishable policies the electorate will base their choice on personality. Let’s face it in the charisma stakes Cameron is on a different political planet to poor old Gordon.
Leigh’s article gives an interesting insight to the frustrations of being a Westminster politician with values these days (not that I agree in any shape or form with his views). Since the battle of ideas in Westminster has come to an end – all three London parties now exist solely for the sake of achieving power.
Luckily in Wales we have another option to the failed consensus of the London parties. I am delighted that Plaid for the forthcoming Assembly Election is putting together a policy programme that challenges the current visionless WAG orthodoxy.
Leigh is a passionate traditional right of right winger, and clearly is far happier talking about privatisation and lower taxation than the Cameron focus on wellbeing and other what he views as ‘soft’ issues. He is particularly perplexed at why the main opposition in Westminster would want to fight the next General Election on exactly the same policy platform as the Government.
The Cameron strategy is quite simple. He is doing exactly what the New Labour project did to the Tories. He has positioned his party on the exact same ground in the hope that he will achieve power ‘cause people fancy a change in personalities rather than basing a strategy on a significant change of approach. The Cameron strategy is also built with Brown in mind - with no undistinguishable policies the electorate will base their choice on personality. Let’s face it in the charisma stakes Cameron is on a different political planet to poor old Gordon.
Leigh’s article gives an interesting insight to the frustrations of being a Westminster politician with values these days (not that I agree in any shape or form with his views). Since the battle of ideas in Westminster has come to an end – all three London parties now exist solely for the sake of achieving power.
Luckily in Wales we have another option to the failed consensus of the London parties. I am delighted that Plaid for the forthcoming Assembly Election is putting together a policy programme that challenges the current visionless WAG orthodoxy.
update - Neol Gallagher seems to have the same views as me on the Brown/Blair/Cameron consensus. Watch the newsnight interview.
Monday, February 12, 2007
How to Remove a Million Children from Poverty – The New Labour Way
Since achieving power, New Labour has always trumpeted the fight against child poverty. It symbolised their alleged determination to turn around the ravages of Thatcherism. But as always with New Labour, scratch under the surface of the rhetoric and not all is as it seems.
In 1999 the baseline year for which future targets were to be measured against, child poverty was measured on the basis of both BHC (before housing cost) and AHC (after housing cost).
The following table reproduces data on baseline, target and actual performance.
AHC (millions)
BHC (millions)
1998/99 (baseline)
4.1
3.1
Target 2004/05
3.1
2.3
Actual 2004/05
3.4
2.4
Credit where credit is due, progress has been made on both BHC and AHC measures, although both targets were missed – crucially by 200,000 more on the AHC measure.
In 2003 the Department for Work and Pensions proposed three new measures for calculating child poverty, which would be used for the 2011 target. All three new measures are calculated using a BHC analysis. At a stroke of a pen therefore over a million children have been removed from poverty based on the 2004/05 actual performance.
Child poverty campaigners argue that the BHC measure is far less accurate as it fails to take into account the costs of housing which significantly affects disposable income levels.
As this blog has eluded before, Gordon Brown and New Labour have a habit for changing the goalposts and cooking the books. Just goes to show that you can’t accept any New Labour pledge at face value.
In 1999 the baseline year for which future targets were to be measured against, child poverty was measured on the basis of both BHC (before housing cost) and AHC (after housing cost).
The following table reproduces data on baseline, target and actual performance.
AHC (millions)
BHC (millions)
1998/99 (baseline)
4.1
3.1
Target 2004/05
3.1
2.3
Actual 2004/05
3.4
2.4
Credit where credit is due, progress has been made on both BHC and AHC measures, although both targets were missed – crucially by 200,000 more on the AHC measure.
In 2003 the Department for Work and Pensions proposed three new measures for calculating child poverty, which would be used for the 2011 target. All three new measures are calculated using a BHC analysis. At a stroke of a pen therefore over a million children have been removed from poverty based on the 2004/05 actual performance.
Child poverty campaigners argue that the BHC measure is far less accurate as it fails to take into account the costs of housing which significantly affects disposable income levels.
As this blog has eluded before, Gordon Brown and New Labour have a habit for changing the goalposts and cooking the books. Just goes to show that you can’t accept any New Labour pledge at face value.
Saturday, February 10, 2007
Here We Go Again
The Guardian reports today that plans for a US led military strike on Iran are in an advanced stage. George Bush is said to be weighing up the arguments of Washington doves who are calling for a concerted diplomatic approach and the hawks of the neo cons who are saying that war is the only option.
The main thrust of the neo con argument is that the US must act to stop Iran developing into a regional superpower – a development primarily caused by the botched invasion of Iraq. Nothing like consistency in argument!
History has a habit of repeating itself – the US supported a despotic Saddam regime in Iraq for decades purely as a balance of power against Islamic fundamentalism in Iran. Isn’t it interesting that all the talk is not of securing democracy in Iraq, now it’s about ‘stability’.
My hunch is that the US will be more than happy to prop up another 'strong leader' in Iraq, especially as the latest escalation is doomed to fail. Only the mad men in the Whitehouse and a deluded New Labour could possibly view the deaths of close to a million Iraqis and the current chaos as anything resembling a success.
The main thrust of the neo con argument is that the US must act to stop Iran developing into a regional superpower – a development primarily caused by the botched invasion of Iraq. Nothing like consistency in argument!
History has a habit of repeating itself – the US supported a despotic Saddam regime in Iraq for decades purely as a balance of power against Islamic fundamentalism in Iran. Isn’t it interesting that all the talk is not of securing democracy in Iraq, now it’s about ‘stability’.
My hunch is that the US will be more than happy to prop up another 'strong leader' in Iraq, especially as the latest escalation is doomed to fail. Only the mad men in the Whitehouse and a deluded New Labour could possibly view the deaths of close to a million Iraqis and the current chaos as anything resembling a success.
Pensioner Fuel Poverty
David Lloyd George said on introducing the pension, a society should be judged on how it treats its elderly. Today it is revealed that over half of pensioners in the UK are living in fuel poverty - an astonishing figure after ten years of New Labour Government.
New Labour has always been big on rhetoric. In 2001 they set a target to end fuel poverty by 2010. These figures show clearly that they have made little headway at all and have no chance of reaching their target.
New Labour just don’t get it. Politics needs to be based on sound principles. The only way to address issues such as this is to believe in the fundamental principle of the common good – that each should contribute according to their ability and receive what they need. Labour have long turned their back on such a path, preferring to immerse themselves in the London centre right consensus which adores the primacy of the individual. The much heralded ‘Third Way’ is a sham.
Radio 4s Money Box programme claims that over 2 million pensioners in the UK are having to make the choice every day between heating or eating.
We should not be surprised – under New Labour the rich have got richer than the poor poorer. The sons of Thatcher Blair and Brown have done their mother proud.
What seems increasingly apparent is the need for a return to the battle of ideas, – otherwise politics will become increasingly irrelevant and the most in need in our communities will continue to be failed.
Iinteresting fact – Labour MPs such as Kier Hardie, George Barnes, Fred Jowett, Joseph Clynes and George Lansbury although welcoming the aim of Lloyd George’s pensions legislation argued that pensions should be universal and disliked the means test aspect of the original proposals. Just goes to show how far the Labour party has travelled over the years!
Monday, February 5, 2007
Rising Tide of Bankruptcy
The news that over 100,000 people are likely to be recorded as insolvent during 2006 provides a stark reminder of the core failure and excesses of New Labour. Leaving aside the fact of growing regional and individual wealth inequalities; a growing trade deficit; the loss of over a million manufacturing jobs; and the pensions crisis, Gordon Brown deserves firm criticism for an economic strategy built on sand.
Most economic commentators agree that Gordon Brown has been a lucky Chancellor, he has also been a very calculating one with a talent for cooking the books. We all know about the way in which the goalposts on the Golden rule (the government may only borrow to invest over the course of an economic cycle) has been shifted, but little attention has been given to how Brown has exacerbated borrowing to fuel consumer spending by a cold and calculating move which threatens to de-rail the economy in the long term.
I am referring to Browns decision to change the measure of inflation from a broad based formula to one that only concentrated on consumer prices (the consumer price index was adopted in 2003 by the MPC to calculate inflation). Consumer Prices have remained low due to cheap imports (further eroding our manufacturing base) meaning that the MPC has kept interest rates low at a time when other facets of the economy such as house prices and energy bills have been going through the roof.
As a result of hyperinflation in the housing market fuelled by low interest rates, people have been borrowing far in excess of what they can afford - caused mostly by a false feeling of wealth due to equity in their homes.
Little wonder with unsecured debt in the UK far above the £trillion mark that insolvencies have hit record levels - with the worse to come. The long term outlook isn't very good.
Most economic commentators agree that Gordon Brown has been a lucky Chancellor, he has also been a very calculating one with a talent for cooking the books. We all know about the way in which the goalposts on the Golden rule (the government may only borrow to invest over the course of an economic cycle) has been shifted, but little attention has been given to how Brown has exacerbated borrowing to fuel consumer spending by a cold and calculating move which threatens to de-rail the economy in the long term.
I am referring to Browns decision to change the measure of inflation from a broad based formula to one that only concentrated on consumer prices (the consumer price index was adopted in 2003 by the MPC to calculate inflation). Consumer Prices have remained low due to cheap imports (further eroding our manufacturing base) meaning that the MPC has kept interest rates low at a time when other facets of the economy such as house prices and energy bills have been going through the roof.
As a result of hyperinflation in the housing market fuelled by low interest rates, people have been borrowing far in excess of what they can afford - caused mostly by a false feeling of wealth due to equity in their homes.
Little wonder with unsecured debt in the UK far above the £trillion mark that insolvencies have hit record levels - with the worse to come. The long term outlook isn't very good.
No wonder Gordon is in such a rush to get to Number 10.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Cometh the hour - Cometh the man
Press reports indicates that Lakshmi Mittal, the richest man in Britain has bailed the Labour party out with a £2m gift. Mr Mittal is the steel magnate who in return for his kind donations in the past has received favours from the Prime Minister as exposed by Plaid Cymru star Adam Price. The infamous Mittalgate scandal was the first nail in New Labour’s coffin of sleaze and spin – where Price discovered a letter by the Prime Minister to the Romanian Government aiding his bid to purchase the former nationalised steel company. The deal is understood to have been negotiated by Lord Levy, the PM’s tennis partner who is currently on police bail pending the completion of the Police investigation of the cash for honours scandal also exposed by Plaid and the SNP.
At a time when Corus plants in Wales are under threat from takeover, I’m sure Welsh steel workers will be interested to learn that Labour will be using the donations of a rival company to buy their votes in the Assembly elections.
At a time when Corus plants in Wales are under threat from takeover, I’m sure Welsh steel workers will be interested to learn that Labour will be using the donations of a rival company to buy their votes in the Assembly elections.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
