Retired Professor of Political Economy
(Lancaster University, UK - retired 2021)
(also #ProfDJ across the Lune Valley)
Contributor: North West Bylines #NoBridge
If you want to see a duopoly at work, Mastercard & Visa (who control 95% of all debit/credit card payments in the UK), have managed to raise their fees in real terms by over 30% in the last five years with, as the Payment Systems Regulator drily puts it. 'little evidence that the quality of service has improved at the same rate'!
Yup, that would be the sort of greedfaltion that we need to stamp on, not workers trying to regain their living standards (real pay levels).
As Rachel Reeves stresses the link between international relations & economics... for those of us who've been (in my case) or still are International Political Economists, this is all very much what we've been talking about for decades.
So, for those of you wondering how that might work, one great book that brings a lot of the things Reeves is talking about together is:
Labour internal research suggests (rightly, I'd say) that the Tories have successfully seeded the post electoral period with a series of disasters (from water firm & university collapses to prison over-crowding & further NHS crises due to funding constraints).
We've been watching the Tories extend their scorched earth policy (of course, Labour have been watching too)... so the thing to try to keep hold of for Labour's first term as they firefight is:
Here's the ever interesting @davidallengreen arguing (persuasively) that like previous inquiries the infected blood inquiry offers some salutary lessons:
if officials fail to keep ministers in the loop (& positively mislead them) calling for enhanced ministerial accountability may be missing the (political) point;
A strengthened House of Commons could independently scrutinise state activity, so these 'scandals' could have been spotted & halted earlier.
Last summer Suella Braverman changed the definition of “serious disruption” to mean “more than minor” – giving police huge powers to shut down protests.
Liberty said this move was undemocratic, unconstitutional and unacceptable.
The term ‘serious disruption’ comes from another Public Order Act from 1986. The Home Secretary has the power to clarify what is meant by ‘serious’ – not completely change its meaning.
If employers have been unable to prosper due to a skills shortage then that AI may be enhance productivity looks like good news....
But, if employers are unable to find staff because they don't pay enough & offer rubbish working conditions, then a move to AI will confirm capitalists want to replace workers with technology, as they have done before, but now in the service sector(s).
If you're a Keynsian you'll now be wondering about 'effective demand'!
If you think consumer sentiment (confidence) is a good indicator of the general state of the economy, you'll (perhaps) be unsurprised that across the EU and in UK & USA, such sentiment has yet to return to pre-pandemic levels.
Given the continuing cost of living crises, high(er) interest rates & a range of issues from conflicts to climate change, its perhaps more surprising sentiment has not declined more.
But, if capitalism is a system built on confidence about the future....
As Chris Whitty (chief medical officer for England) points out:
'The principal reason for the existence of the sewerage system is to protect public health'!
Therefore, reducing the problem of sewage discharges into water courses must be a 'public health priority'!
The Q. is how do that?
As many of the problems stem from mismanagement & profiteering, its mainly a structural problem regulation alone will not fix (especially given OFWAT's record)... public ownership beckons.
when a Bank of England director tells you its 'possible' interest rates will be reduced over the summer....
Of course its possible they'll be reduced, but my guess is they'll just want to keep them high a little longer... just to make sure those pesky workers & their demands for a return to pst standards of living have been firmly dampened down.
Perhaps, by some strange co-incidence they'll fall the month before an Autumn election?
Lets be absolutely clear - at the centre of the infected blood scandal, as so many other 'scandals' involving institutions riding rough-shod over the interests & well-being of ordinary people (see the posted list & additions in my timeline over the weekend) is one thing:
People in power lying to those whose lives have been ruined.
LYING... not making mistakes, not misunderstanding... LYING.
This is the culture that infects our political & social 'elites'; being (very) comfortable lying to us!
It is unlikely that advancing women's equality can be achieved without major legal reform(s) in many countries... gender equality will not be achieved via organic social measures/trends (although they can be reinforced by legal measures).
If you have the time this week, this report from UN Women offers some compelling evidence why the law needs to reinforce & respond to demands for gender equality.
If the impending drop in energy prices does bring inflation down to near the BoE's target, the continuing rumble from the sado-monetarists that inflation is driven by workers wage demands will be further compromised.
We can expect some tortured arguments about how really energy prices only impact inflation by easing of pressure on workers' demands for higher wages, while (as always) ignoring that workers wages in real terms are still languishing after a decade or more.
What is the point of auditors when, according to the Audit Reform Lab (based at U Sheffield) the Big Four only managed to spot problems prior to one in four major corporate collapses/bankruptcies since 2010.
(If the choice was will/won't collapse random conclusions might indicate a 50% success rate, so 25% in spotting the difference between success or failure really is pretty poor; yes I know I'm simplifying).
The only solace for the Big Four is other auditors were even worse
While we often appreciate the economic forces & structures that cause & reinforce poverty, this report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation focusses on how stigma is keeping the poor, poor.
Among its recommendations is to stop designating the disabled & unpaid carers as 'economically inactive' while also rejecting the characterisation of low-paid work as 'unskilled'.
We should/must reject the narrative of the wealthy about the rest of us!
Now its confirmed that Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has been killed in a Helicopter crash which initial reports indicate was a powered flight into a mountain side in adverse weather conditions.... we can expect a range of coverage & conspiracy theories that will identify one or other state actors as the real agents of the 'accident'.
How this then plays out could become (even more) dangerous for regional security... its unlikely to be left to remain as an 'accident' (even if it was).
Chris Grey, brilliant on why the Tories cannot/will not mention Brexit this year:
The Tory leadership 'can’t claim Brexit to be a success, because those who do not have a foundational belief in its rightness can clearly see it has failed, whilst those for whom its rightness is a foundational belief also believe that it has been betrayed. But it can’t denounce Brexit as a failure or a betrayal, since it is the Brexit the Tory leadership actually delivered'!
Child poverty is not an intractable problem; policy has been key in both its expansion & is how we can tackle it.
Again, the last fifteen years may not have been the only cause of a social problem but have compounded it & in many cases have seen policy choices intended to make things worse for the vulnerable.
After the election we need to see a sea change in socio-political attitudes & actions... whether we will is another issue altogether!
Next year, if you have leave remain in the UK the only way you will be able to prove to anyone that you 'enjoy' that status is by accessing you e-Visa account via your UK Visa & Immigration digital account with the Home Office.
Its a new IT 'solution'
Its the Home Office
Its directly impacting migrants
Of course its going to work seamlessly...
All the elements look in pace for a new set of victims to have their lives ruined
'There's no such thing as a bad job; there are bad managers'!
While I might differ with her on the absolute statement - I think there are plenty of 'bad jobs' - her focus on managers as being the driving force behind workers dissatisfaction with their jobs & the need/desire to quite them, I think is right on the button.
So here's her guide to the reasons that 72% of people quitting leave due to a toxic work environment
Take a few minutes to read the heart-wrenching story of Becky, a 14 year old child chewed up by a social career system that is by turns cruel, ineffective & run for the profit of investors.
The callousness of the state has become ever more obvious recently (although the problem is not new, of course).
How has it come to this?
In a word: austerity.
There are other factors but in the end the corrosion of system has been wrought by Tory defunding!
Culture is a mono-culture of the white middle-class & who can be surprised after the cuts in arts education, the prevalence of early career unpaid internships & the normal operations of day-to-day prejudice of commissioning from people who look like you.
In the 1960s, there was a glorious moment when the culture industries seemed to be opening up to the working class... but over recent decades that door has been forced close by policy wrought by the rich(er)!
I sometimes thought my father thought he could't die while he still had books on his pending pile (a stab at immortality I seem to be replicating)... so, it was strangely touching to see Tom Gauld has had similar thoughts.
