Winning and misusing power or aiming to further the public good?

*John Lloyd, a contributing editor to the Financial Times does condescendingly concede, “There is a gap in the public debate for a credible argument on fairness, inequality and public decency” – adding that Mr Corbyn knows what he stands for:

• more social spending,
• more state intervention,
• renationalisation of services such as rail
• much less in­equality.
• and the belief that the US is at the root of evils such as wars, the Ukraine crisis and Middle Eastern turmoil.

Lloyd: “As a candidate for high office, he would be politically and economically eviscerated, both at home and abroad”

How? The usual material which feeds the press is lacking.

Unlike Blair and other MPs from both main parties he has not succumbed to the love of tainted money or fallen into debt.

He is apparently not attracted by extramarital or illegal sexual activities – having far more important and socially beneficial preoccupations.

Lloyd’s advice, pleasing to corporate advertisers and future employers is for opposition to move away from the ‘far left’ with its militant “populist, class-based resentment”

He sets a number of topics that misguided leftists should consider, moving to what he considers a more acceptable form of social democracy – accepting much of the status quo:

”Keep the capitalist show on the road but fight civilised battles for a larger share of its surplus for the lower classes”

One – less than inspiring – example is given: “Last week, campaigners and unions won a pledge from Andrew Cuomo, the Democratic governor of New York state, for a $15-an-hour minimum wage by 2018. The move may not be cost free: it might price some people out of work. But it aims to shift at least some costs from the backs of the poorly paid”.

His conclusion: “Mr Blair was right to say last week that Mr Corbyn would be a disaster.” And Blair was not?

And the Cameron government is not even further depriving the poor and disabled whilst benefitting the rich?

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* Mr Lloyd’s journey (Wiki):

In the 1970s, Lloyd was a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain and later the British and Irish Communist Organisation. He then became a supporter of the Labour Party. Lloyd also supported the Ulster Unionist leader David Trimble, believing Trimble could help bring peace to Northern Ireland. In the 1990s, Lloyd was one of several prominent members of Common Voice, a British group that advocated voting reform. A strong supporter of the Blair government, he supported the 2003 invasion of Iraq, as well as the Cameron ministry’s 2011 military intervention in Libya. In August 2014, he was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to The Guardian opposing Scottish independence in the run-up to September’s referendum on that issue.

Do governments “callously and deliberately neglect” food producers to avoid alienating corporate party funders?

Ms Truss, the Secretary of State for Environment Food and Rural Affairs, says British farming is one of the Government’s key successes – though farmers are taking their own lives at a rate of one a week, according to many sources, though officialdom is reticent about this.

The Times of India reports that Maharashtra’s farmer suicide count in the six-month span from January to June this year stood at 1,300 cases, the state’s revenue department figures show.

Respected analyst Devinder Sharma points out that indebtedness and bankruptcy tops the reasons behind these suicides; followed by family problems and farming related issues. In both countries the authorities try to evade the real issue and blame the availability of shotguns, pesticides and so on.

Snapshots from a presentation to the UN summarises the real reasons:

British and Indian governments daren’t offend the party funding middlemen and corporate end-buyers who – without lifting a finger – profit from the food produced at the expense of the hard-working producers who are often obliged to sell at a loss.

More respect from the new Greek government

At least – the Financial Times points out – in Greece, Syriza is allowing some leeway to those producing the most essential goods. They are refusing to increase the financial burdens on farmers, who at present pay 13% per cent income tax, compared with the general 25% rate, and receive special treatment for fuel and fertiliser expenses.

With 12.4% of the country’s labour force employed in producing food and cotton and a thriving fishing industry, the new Greece government is showing some grasp of essentials and priorities – would that the British and Indian governments showed similar respect for their most important workers.

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‘Corbyn’s key political positions are in actual fact supported by a majority of the British public’

David Edwards of Media Lens responds to a Guardian article by Polly Toynbee in which she suggests that voting for Jeremy Corbyn would amount to a ‘betrayal’ of the electorate by quoting Ian Sinclair’s argument that in fact it is Toynbee, not Corbyn, who is out of touch with public opinion.

Sinclair noted that Corbyn supports a publicly run NHS, a position supported by 84 per cent of the public, according to a November 2013 YouGov poll.  In addition:

• ‘He supports the nationalisation of the railways, a position backed by 66 percent of the public, including a majority of Conservative voters, according to the same poll.

• ‘He supports the nationalisation of the energy companies, a position supported by 68 percent of the public, including a majority of Conservative voters, according to the same poll.

• ‘He believes the Royal Mail should be publicly owned, a position supported by 67 percent of the public, according to the same poll.

• ‘He supports rent controls, a position supported by 60% of the public, including 42% of Conservatives, according to an April 2015 YouGov poll.

• ‘He opposes the retention of Trident nuclear weapons, a position John Curtice, Professor of Politics at Strathclyde University, notes is supported by a “smallish plurality” in “the majority of polls”.

• ‘He strongly opposed the 2003 Iraq War, which was also opposed by the more than one million people who marched through London on 15 February 2003.

• ‘He has long pushed for the withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan, a position favoured by 82 per cent of the public, according to a May 2014 YouGov poll.’

Thus: ‘Corbyn’s key political positions are in actual fact supported by a majority of the British public.’

Edwards ends: “Like Blair and the rest of the establishment, the Guardian and other corporate media claim their motivation is to preserve Labour’s electability, rather than to attack any and all politics that stray off the ‘centrist’, ‘modernising’ path.

“In reality, it could hardly be more obvious that this collection of profit-seeking, corporate enterprises – grandly and laughably proclaiming themselves ‘the free press’ – is opposing a threat to their private and class interests”.

 

Award winning Radio 5 presenter on air today: “Corbyn is a towering figure”

As – following many and varied political scandals affecting both major parties – Lord Sewel resigns and faces police inquiry and public confidence in the political class continues to plummet, Nicky Campbell said that the honest Jeremy Corbyn is a towering figure.

Precisely.

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The young see Corbyn as dignified, principled, unconcerned with personal advancement, and passionate about his politics

Roslyn Cook has tweeted the link to an article reporting that a significant portion of the support Jeremy Corbyn is receiving is coming from newly recruited young Labour members.

At the Islington North meeting the article’s writer attended last week, she saw people of all ages, but notably young people, standing up in support of Corbyn, adding: “And, despite what his opponents might say, it’s clear he has a support base outside of Islington . . . An untapped stream of young people in Britain feel their politics are not being represented. You see them on the austerity marches, on social media, in the words of Charlotte Church and Owen Jones and Mhairi Black”.

As she points out, “the more commentators and politicians highlight his “outdated” socialist values and his supposed unelectability, the more Corbyn steadily gains support. In contrast to the other candidates, who have never taken him seriously and now appear to be panicking, Corbyn comes across as dignified, principled, unconcerned with personal advancement, and passionate about his politics”.

But the surge in support for Corbyn isn’t just about young people re-engaging with left-wing politics, it’s about hope

Many of the Corbyn supporters in their teens and twenties – and far older – feel that the country is potentially at a turning point when it comes to deciding, as a nation and as a society, what our values are, and that only Corbyn offers an optimistic vision for the future.

Some of the people the writer spoke to came from traditionally Labour-supporting households and think Corbyn represents a return to those values. “I think that, being from the North, it’s the IDEA of the Labour Party that I like,” said Alex McBride, 24, from Manchester, “the idea that my grandparents and parents voted for them; for ideas like decency, fairness, representation, respect, unity, hope – ideas that transcend the Watford Gap at least!”

Unelectable? She ends “Better a passionate and interesting opposition that has moral conviction than a bunch of identikit shysters who will jettison their values as soon as electoral victory looks likely”.

–

Read the whole article by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett (above) here.

 

Will brainwashed Britain wake up and choose honesty and humane policies?

Valued by many countrywide and local people who elect him with a resounding 21,000 majority, Jim Pickard, the FT’s chief political correspondent reports that polls now place the MP for Islington North as ‘frontrunner’ to become the next leader of the Labour Party.

Mr Pickard reported that Labour MPs were shocked by the sheer extent of Jeremy Corbyn’s “first round” lead: at 43% of votes — against 26% for Andy Burnham, 20% for Yvette Cooper and 11% for Liz Kendall. The YouGov poll then pointed to a narrower advantage for the Islington North MP at the final round of the contest — at just 53% to 47% for Mr Burnham. He adds that the depth of support for his candidacy, leading to Wednesday’s  YouGov poll showing him to be the likely winner on September 12 has astonished Mr Corbyn.

As Ken Livingstone, former mayor of London and Labour MP put it: “After plugging away in parliament, supporting all the right issues, he suddenly finds himself with a massive wave of support.”

Pickard notes that Mr Corbyn has “often been on the right side of history”:

• supporting the jailed Nelson Mandela,
• defending the Guildford Four and Birmingham Six — groups wrongly convicted of the 1974 pub bombings,
• opposing the Iraq war,
• speaking up for Mordechai Vanunu, imprisoned in Israel for revealing its secret nuclear weapons programme,

and we add:

• speaking to groups reflecting “the full range of political opinion in both Israel and Palestine”
• and keeping dialogue open with Irish republicans: “jaw jaw, instead of war, war”.

Advice from Blair and his minions

Mr Blair said the contest was being presented as a choice between “heart and head”, adding that those who thought their heart was with Mr Corbyn should “get a transplant”.

One of many other anecdotes of the ‘panic-stricken’ concerns John McTernan, an adviser to the former Labour prime minister Tony Blair, who is said to have rounded on the 35 MPs who nominated Mr Corbyn, branding them “morons”.

The appalling prospect of a leader who might not Whip his party into submission

Emily Thornberry, MP for neighbouring Islington South, said she had a lot of respect for Mr Corbyn, who is a “lovely, friendly, relaxed” person: “My concern is whether he has the experience necessary to negotiate common lines for the official opposition . . . Politics is the art of the possible and has to involve compromises, and the next leader can’t let people say whatever they like.”

Party split?

Ken Livingstone’s comment on this suggestion: “Under Blair we had a load of ghastly clones just there to represent corporate interests”. If there are people who joined the party just because they wanted to get rich and get nice corporate jobs after leaving government, perhaps we would be better off without them.”

A level-headed response

Mr Corbyn said his campaign was going well but talk of his victory was premature. As for Mr Blair’s criticism, he said it was “rather silly”, adding: “Surely we should be talking about the situation facing Britain today, the situation facing many of the poorest people in this country today, and maybe think if our policies are relevant.”

My neighbour’s unsolicited verdict today at lunch: “If Corbyn is elected I might rejoin the Labour Party”.

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Yet again the revolving door spins – at European level this time

A reader from Tokyo sends a link to this TTIP news

 

It records the remarkable extent to which the revolving door between the public and private sectors – featured on a number of blogs on this site – is helping to grease the wheels of the TTIP corporate lobby.

Some of the EU’s most senior decision-makers and officials, alongside those from the member state levels, spin through the revolving door into corporate advisor roles; others go in the other direction, from corporate jobs into the public sector.

These revolving door cases cover some of the biggest EU corporate lobby sectors, including telecoms and IT issues; food and agriculture; finance; investor-state dispute settlement; pharmaceuticals; regulatory cooperation; and others. This presents great potential for conflicts of interest.

Read the details of so many civil servants in relevant departments moving to multinationals and lobbying their former colleagues here.

Jeremy Corbyn: ”Cuts are not the way to prosperity . . .invest in the economy”

Yesterday, Labour leadership candidate Jeremy Corbyn MP, outlined his vision for a more productive and fairer economy for all at a policy seminar.

He addressed ‘the Conservative myth’ that wealth creation is solely due to the dynamic risk-taking of private equity funds, entrepreneurs or billionaires bringing their investment to UK shores.

If believed, it is logical to cut taxes for the rich and big business, not to bother to invest in the workforce, and be intensely relaxed about the running down of public services as is happening.

He affirmed: “Where there are tough choices, we will always protect public services and support for the most vulnerable”.

Corbyn’s alternative, laid out in The Economy in 2020 and accessed via the campaign website, is to build a rebalanced, prosperity-focused economy, based on growth and high quality jobs.

His leadership campaign has no big private donors. He wants Labour to become a democratic social movement again, dedicated to real change:

”Cuts are not the way to prosperity; Britain needs a publicly-led expansion and reconstruction of the economy, with a big rise in investment levels. We must ensure that our national housing, transport, digital and energy networks are among the best in the world.

“This requires the establishment of an National Investment Bank to promote infrastructure upgrades and support for innovation. Labour 2020 will make large reductions in the £93 billion of corporate tax relief and subsidies. These funds can be used to establish the National Investment Bank to head a multi-billion pound programme of infrastructure upgrades and support for high-tech and innovative industries”.

On taxation and tax justice, Jeremy argued: “Paying tax is not a burden. It is the subscription we pay to live in a civilised society. A collective payment we all make for the collective goods we all benefit from: schools, hospitals, libraries, street lights, pensions, the list is endless.

“Under these plans outlined today Labour 2020 will make the tax system more progressive, and follow a five-point plan to tackle tax avoidance and evasion:

• Stronger anti-avoidance rules brought into UK tax law.
• The aim of country-by-country reporting for multinational corporations.
• Reform of small business taxation to tackle avoidance and evasion.
• Enforce proper regulation of companies in the UK to ensure that they pay what they owe.
• A reversal of the cuts to staff in HMRC and at Companies House, taking on more staff at both, to   ensure that HMRC can collect the taxes the country so badly needs.

“The UK has shifted from taxing income and wealth to taxing consumption; and from taxing corporations to taxing individuals. We must ensure that those with the most, pay the most, not just in monetary terms but proportionally too.”

“What responsible government committed to closing the deficit would give a tax break to the richest 4% of households?”

–

Corbyn for the 99%: Blair for the rest

With Corbyn as prime minister, Britain could become respected peacebuilder, a force for good, with a contented population engaged in worthwhile work.

He would be an honest and consistent Labour Party leader, uninterested in amassing a private fortune from corporate backers – such a change from shifty, conniving ‘successful’ politicians.

–

Multinational vultures cluster round Greece’s carcase, picking off airports, ports, tourist resorts, energy assets and utilities

The sentence of privatisation, which Britain has found inefficient and expensive in most cases, has been passed on Greece.

On July 12, the summit of eurozone leaders dictated terms to Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who accepted all, including the sale of Greece’s remaining public assets.

Business Insider reports that Eurozone leaders demanded that Greek public assets be transferred to an independent fund renamed the Hellenic Republic Asset Development Fund (HRADF), to help to make the scheduled repayment of the new loan and recapitalization of banks and other assets. The fund was set up in July 2011 after the Greek sovereign debt crisis and opposed by Syriza, which suspended most planned privatisations when it came to power.

Ben Chu (the Independent) reports that Germany originally proposed that HRADF be run from Luxembourg by a German state bank, prompting accusations on social media of a German “coup”.

‘Big-ticket items’ listed on the HRADF’s website for interested buyers

• state lottery,
• horse-betting,
• Olympic venues,
• Athens International Airport,
• 37 regional airports,
• Port of Piraeus and 100% of the shares of 11 other ports,
• many marinas,
• tourist resorts,
• state real estate especially on picture-perfect islands,
• thermal springs on the mainland,
• hotels with high historical and cultural value in privileged locations,
• Greek real estate holdings in New York, Washington and Belgrade
• And the Public Power Corporation S.A., which provides energy to four-fifths of the country’s population.

Other companies which may be sold include a natural gas importer and distributor, three oil refineries, Athens water company, the postal provider, ELTA, more than 400 miles of roads, TRAINOSE (railroad and bus transport) and ROSCO which maintains Greek trains.

Ben Chu adds that the IMF estimates Greece’s saleable state assets were worth around half the sum needed and that the proceeds from future privatisations are likely to be only €500m a year: “At that rate the €50bn would not be reached for 100 years”.

A ‘smoke and mirrors’ measure?

His conclusion: “(T)he fund is more like a face-saving measure by Germany, designed to give the impression to German voters that the Greeks will pay for their own bailout”.

But where will this leave Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, who was elected largely on a promise to stop and reverse high-profile privatization of valuable state-owned assets?

And how do the Greek people regard these measures?