'Were things other than they
are': ought to be the motto of Jeremy Corbyn. To read his proposals
one would think that all the events of the last 40 years had not
occurred and if they are recognised they can be wished away.
Dangerous, naive nonsense!
First
let us dispose of the 'motherhood and apple pie':-“...a
fairer, kinder Britain...”; “...decent jobs...”; “Fair taxes
for all...” etc. etc.. Nobody is against this sort of stuff!
“Growth
not austerity”, Jeremy Corbyn has to show that this proposal will
retain the confidence of the money markets. He has failed to do so.
Markets are less rational than he would believe (strangely common
ground with neo-liberals in believing that they are). Academics can
produce all the statistics they like about rational behaviour in
markets but it is not the whole story. Consider this: a huge house
building programme, nationalisation of transport and energy; not
replacing Trident, lifelong education. Don't get me wrong these are
all proper policies but they are (in our present circumstances)
undeliverable for this UK electorate. Moreover the circumstances are
not going to change substantially. The globalisation train left the
station years ago. World financial markets are very integrated. In
that context then how is Jeremy Corbyn going to finance his projects
– short answer he cannot – its pie in the sky!
But
progress can be made if rolling back neo-liberal excess is what is
required and that certainly is the case. Starting at the right place
is important – let's take energy and transport. These utilities
which are now at best oligopolies require licences to operate, the
government has control over that process. Licence conditions as to
price increases, customer service, Company Accounts transparency and
profit levels are possible as well as extending FOI provisions to
them. That these companies would squeal is to be expected – all I
would say is that in the short
consultation period all
representations would have to be made public at the end of the
consultation period. This is how to tackle the clear abuse of market
position that has occurred with the 'botched' Tory privatisations
which assumed that natural monopolies and/or oligopolies would behave
differently from the more rapacious examples in the private sector.
That sort of naive thinking is of the same ilk as Jeremy Corbyn.
So
apart from the unlikely event of Jeremy Corbyn becoming Prime
Minister just proposing such policies ensures that Labour cannot win
allowing the Conservative Party even more leeway to attack ordinary
people. So I would urge all those who have a vote not to use it for
Jeremy Corbyn. The road to hell and all that – with the addition of
McCluskyite, Moronic, Marxists.
