Author: R J Adams

The U.K. Tories annual conference this week heard Theresa May emphasise her government’s determination to ‘bring Britain together’, and be a government that recognises the problems of its people and works towards solving them.

Just one day following the conclusion of the Tory conference there’s an announcement from the government she heads stating fracking has been approved in the U.K., in particular a part of Lancashire where the local authority and the residents have already thrown out an application by the company involved:

Environmentalists and local campaign groups reacted angrily, saying it was a denial of local democracy.
It means, for the first time, UK shale rock will be fracked horizontally, which is expected to yield more gas.
A second site, Roseacre Wood, has not yet been given the green light amid concerns over the impact on the area.
Lancashire County Council (LCC) refused permission to extract shale gas at both sites last year on the grounds of noise and traffic impact, but Cuadrilla appealed.
In response to the decision, LCC has called on the government to do more to address people’s concerns about fracking.
“It is clear the government supports the development of a shale gas industry, but I would ask them to do more to address the concerns of local communities and the councillors who represent them by supporting the best environmental controls,” it said.
Responding to the ruling Councillor Judith Blake, from the Local Government Association, said: “It should be up to local communities to decide, through their locally democratic planning systems, whether or not to host fracking operations in their areas.”
She said residents’ safety concerns should be “adequately addressed”.
“People living near fracking sites – who are most affected by them – have a right to be heard,” said Councillor Blake.^[1]

Cuadrilla, the company concerned, is a subsidiary of L1 Energy. Its Executive Chairman is Edmund John Philip Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley. Okay, it’s a mouthful and you’ve probably never heard of him, but he was Group Chief Executive of BP from 1995 to 2007, and, according to investigative journalist, Tom Bower:

[Browne] was responsible for a “ruthless” programme of cost-cutting at BP that compromised safety, and thus the man most responsible for a string of major accidents including the Texas City Refinery explosion (2005) and the Deepwater Horizon explosion (2010). Bower also accuses Browne of tolerating only “sycophants” in his “corporate court”, said to include Tony Hayward who succeeded him as BP Chief Executive…^[2]

All of which leaves one feeling concerned for the welfare of the good people of Lancashire.

It’s always worth seeking a government link to companies, or their executives, when such approvals are forthcoming, and sure enough:

Lord Browne was the UK Government Lead Non-Executive Director until January 2015. His remit was to work with Secretaries of State to appoint non-executives to the board of each government department…^[2]

Did wads of money change hands, or was it just a cosy chat over brandies with some government minister who, perhaps, owed Browne a favour? We’ll probably never know for sure.

So much for Theresa May’s caring about people’s problems. It’s obviously ‘government as usual’ under her leadership.

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) is displaying its true colours in Brussels, where a fight broke out between UKIP Members of the European Parliament (MEP) that put their would-be new leader in hospital with a suspected fractured skull:

UKIP leadership hopeful Steven Woolfe says he is recovering in hospital after a reported fight at a meeting of the party’s MEPs.
The party released a statement from Mr Woolfe from his Strasbourg hospital bed saying he was sitting up having undergone a precautionary brain scan.
UKIP sources said “punches were exchanged” during the row at a party meeting and Mr Woolfe banged his head.
He was taken to hospital two hours later after collapsing, sources said.
UKIP sources said “a rumbustious argument” had taken place at the MEPs’ meeting at the European Parliament over whether Mr Woolfe had been talking to the Conservative Party.
Even the possibility of him talking to the Conservatives had been seen by some as a betrayal and some MEPs were very angry, the sources said.
The BBC was told Mr Woolfe went outside with another MEP where “punches were exchanged” and it is believed that Mr Woolfe banged his head against a window or a wall but then got up.^[3]

To add insult to injury, Diane James the new leader of UKIP resigned after only three weeks on the job, citing a lack of colleague support:

Ms James took over UKIP at a time when it was beset by rifts and infighting.
There were different factions within the party that were struggling to come together and agree on its future direction…She wanted to make some changes about the way the party was governed, how its ruling body, the national executive committee, ran things.
Reading between the lines of her statement, it seems she does not feel she can continue do that…She was the clear frontrunner and yet has decided she cannot continue so this now will throw UKIP back into a state of turmoil and division.^[4]

Turmoil and division within UKIP! Fist-fighting in the Brussels Parliament building!

^{Won by a knock-out! Woolfe on the floor of the E.U. Parliament building.}

One can only wonder how they’d behave if they’d lost the E.U. referendum.

There were many who prophesied turmoil and division within the country following such a close decision. It seems they were right. Theresa May announced her intention to bring Britain together. As 90% of the country is totally opposed to fracking, bowing the knee to the fossil-fuel industry doesn’t indicate she’s off to a very good start.

It would seem U.K. politics is following the lead of its American counterparts and descending into chaos.

^{[1] “Fracking in Lancashire given go-ahead by government” BBC, October 6th 2016}

^{[2] “John Browne, Baron Browne of Madingley” Wikipedia}

^{[3] “UKIP’s Steven Woolfe says he’s ‘fine’ after altercation” BBC, October 6th 2016}

^{[4] “UKIP turmoil returns after Diane James resignation” BBC, October 5th 2016}

There are at least three people in the news this week we shouldn’t waste too much sympathy on. The first of them is Kim Kardashian. The robbers, who forced their way into the $16,000 a night Paris apartment she was occupying, are reported to have made off with $10 million in jewels, including a diamond ring worth $4 million.^[1]

Frankly, it’s almost an obscenity to own that much in jewelry. To spend $4 million on one diamond ring is disgraceful, as is the $53 million she apparently ‘acquired’ (to suggest ‘earned’ seems inappropriate) last year as the highest paid “celebrity” reality television “personality”.

Is it not time to realise that reality TV was invented as a way of producing cheap programming: more profit for the media companies and inferior entertainment for the masses? It was never intended to pay contestants huge sums. But then, no-one really expected such low-end television would be so popular. The obsession with so-called ‘celebrities’ is a strange quirk of the human race.

No doubt the jewels were well insured.

Wells Fargo Chief Executive, John Stumpf, was obviously stumpfified this week as he now has to relinquish $41 million in bonuses after his bank defrauded customers by opening two million non-existent accounts in their names and charging them for it. That’s such a shame for Mister Stumpf as his salary is a mere $19.3 million. How will he survive?

According to California’s treasurer John Chiang:

“Wells Fargo’s fleecing of its customers by opening fraudulent accounts for the purpose of extracting millions in illegal fees demonstrates, at best, a reckless lack of institutional control and, at worst, a culture which actively promotes wanton greed.”^[2]

Wrong, Mister Chiang, at best it’s a whole cartload of criminal offences for which Mister Stumpf, and others associated with the racket, should go to jail for a very long time. But, of course, they won’t because the very rich only do jail time if they rob other very rich people – as per Bernie Madoff. Robbing the less-well-off is only deserving of a slap on the wrist for getting caught.

We should definitely not feel sorry for Mister John Stumpf.

Finally, let’s purge any positive feelings we may hold for the latest reincarnation of Margaret Thatcher (or, could it be Mother Theresa?) British Prime Minister, Theresa May, who this week struggles to persuade the British people that all will be well now that she’s named the date of the divorce from Europe. Sadly, that statement’s caused the pound to sink to its lowest for thirty years, though not everyone’s complaining:

Big companies like BP, GSK, Rio Tinto et al make most of their money in dollars but report their profits in pounds. As the pound falls to its lowest level against the dollar for 31 years, those dollar profits are worth more in pound terms. A goldilocks scenario for big multinationals headquartered and listed in the UK…”^[3]

Yet again the corporates make it big. We can, however, feel much sympathy for the millions of U.K. pensioners living abroad whose fixed income pensions have been shrinking drastically following the Brexit result, and the consequent actions of the British government.

It’s just one more case of the rich getting richer and….well, you know the rest.

Theresa May was supposedly a supporter of the U.K. remaining in the E.U., but recent revelations show that was not necessarily the case:

Former PM David Cameron felt “badly let down” by Theresa May during the EU referendum campaign, his former director of communications has said…in a book – ‘Unleashing Demons: The Inside Story Of Brexit’.

Sir Craig Oliver said the then home secretary failed to back the Remain campaign 13 times and was regarded by some as “an enemy agent”…

Sir Craig says Mrs May only came “off the fence” in favour of Remain after Mr Cameron became “visibly wound up” and gave her a dressing down over the telephone.

“Amid the murder and betrayal of the campaign, one figure stayed very still at the centre of it all – Theresa May. Now she is the last one standing,” wrote Sir Craig, who was Mr Cameron’s director of communications for five years.

Sir Craig’s book suggests Mr Cameron was left uncertain over whether Mrs May favoured staying in the European Union. He said Mrs May was referred to dismissively by aides as “submarine May” during the campaign.^[4]

It turns out that ‘submarine May’ misled the British people into believing she was part of the ‘Remain’ group, when in truth she was in favour of Brexit. It explains why those Brexit politicians hopeful of grabbing the top job were so happy to step aside and let May walk into number ten Downing Street unopposed. And, why her cabinet is now almost totally composed of ‘Brexiteers’.

We should not waste sympathy on deceitful Theresa May, or John Stumpf, or Kim Kardashian. Each has gained wealth and power at the expense of ordinary folk. They don’t need our sympathy and neither would they bother to ask it from those they consider of a much lower order than themselves.

Perhaps she should instead consider why we, as human beings, have a need to raise such individuals to a status they don’t deserve; why we allow their domination of news headlines and media attention. It might just teach us something about ourselves.

^{[1] “Kim Kardashian West robbed of millions by Paris gunmen” BBC, October 3rd 2016}

^{[2] “Wells Fargo chief forfeits $41m amid corruption probe” BBC, September 28th 2016}

^{[3] “Why rising shares aren’t a sign of joy” BBC, October 4th 2016}

^{[4] “David Cameron ‘let down’ by Theresa May, says former PM aide” BBC, September 25th 2016}

They all thought he was a goner, those arrogant, middle-class, Labour MPs who worship the ghost of Tony Blair, supported the Iraq War, and sold their souls to corporate, neoliberal, idealism. Angela Eagle was the first to challenge him, but she was forced aside in favour of Owen Smith because he was ‘more electable’, or so thought the snob-nosed parliamentarians who still dare to call themselves members of the British Labour Party.

They were wrong. Despite all their efforts to oust him, Jeremy Corbyn was re-elected as leader of the Labour Party by a massive 61.8% of the rank-and-file members. The snob-noses were so sure they could oust him. Now they’ve retired to lick their pride and plan their next moves.

If there’s one glaringly obvious fact to be gleaned from this leadership election it’s how far politicians have removed themselves from the public they’re supposed to serve. It was the public who re-elected Corbyn, not some committee of parliamentarians over Armagnac brandies in the plush leather of the Commons Bar. Few so-called Labour MPs back Corbyn’s leadership, and the vast majority wanted him ditched with all possible speed.

It begs the question: why?

The Labour Party began life as exactly that – the party of those who laboured for a living, as opposed to those who by inheritance were ‘landed gentry’, or well-heeled business types. The Tory, or Conservative Party, would look after their interests. As Wikipedia rightly informs, after a landslide victory over the Tory Churchill government in 1945, the Labour Party under Prime Minister Clement Atlee introduced massive reforms:

The Bank of England was nationalised along with railroads (see Transport Act 1947), coal mining, public utilities and heavy industry. During this time British Railways was created. A comprehensive welfare state was created with the creation of a National Health Service, entitling all British citizens to healthcare, which, funded by taxation, was free at the point of delivery. Among the most important pieces of legislation was the National Insurance Act 1946, in which people in work paid a flat rate of national insurance. In return, they (and the wives of male contributors) were eligible for flat-rate pensions, sickness benefit, unemployment benefit, and funeral benefit. Various other pieces of legislation provided for child benefit and support for people with no other source of income. Legislation was also passed to provide free education at all levels.

Jeremy Corbyn still believes in these basic rights. His ‘New Labour’ critics, and the Conservative Party, are hellbent on demolishing what’s left of them and turning them over to corporate control. Tory and ‘New Labour’ governments have sold off the railways and all the utility companies. Coal-mining is virtually non-existent thanks to Thatcher, most heavy industry has been sold off to ‘private enterprise’ and moved abroad, unemployment and other benefits are continually eroded, and the National Health Service is under dire threat of privatization if the present Tory government eventually gets its way.

The snob-noses bemoan Labour’s lack of electability with Jeremy Corbyn as the leader. They may have a point, but it’s not Corbyn’s fault. The problem lies with those members of the British electorate who have quite good standards of living, a well-paid job, nice car, 50-inch TV – you know the sort of thing – there are a lot like that in Britain today. Sadly, there’s also a few million with next to nothing. Through no fault of their own they’re caught up in the poverty-trap of high-price rental housing, minimum wage jobs (if at all), heavy tax burdens, and credit sharks that raise their cost of living with grotesquely high interest rates, virtually unregulated by a succession of Conservative governments.

It’s the former quite-well-to-do lot that are the problem. Yes, they’d probably vote Labour in a general election if another suave, Cheshire-cat grinning, Tony Blair-type rose to prominence again. But it would only be as a change from the Tories for a while, because the policies of Blair’s “New Labour” were almost identical with the Tories: in a nutshell – neoliberalism.^[1]

One very sad fact is that those who are doing quite nicely in Britain today have totally forgotten the reason why. If it hadn’t been for the Labour Party they’d still be toiling for tuppence an hour, working eighteen hours a day, dying by the age of thirty, and spending any spare time they have scrabbling through the waste bins of the wealthy searching for a morsel of stale bread to stave off starvation.

The other very sad fact is that if the Tories, or the ‘New Labour’ parliamentarians, have their way the ‘doing-quite-nicely’ brigade will eventually find themselves not doing quite so well because the politicians they voted into power believe in the neoliberal ideal of ‘trickle-down’ economics, and a ‘trickle’, by definition, means a ‘ very small flow’, a ‘dribble’, or a ‘drip’.

Anyone wishing to view the effects of ‘trickle-down economics’ has only to visit a city like Detroit in Michigan, U.S.A., to see the boarded up properties, derelict factories that once produced automobiles by the thousand, the violence that moves in when prosperity goes out the window. No free health service here, and precious little in the way of welfare. But the wealthy of Detroit are doing very nicely, thank you. Of course, they don’t actually live in Detroit anymore.

Already, with the threat of ‘Brexit’ on the horizon, there’s political chatter in the U.K. parliament of possible ‘welfare benefit cuts’, re-financing (read: cutting back) of the few remaining ‘government services’ (a somewhat inaccurate phrase given that they’re funded by taxation), a possible slowdown of the economy (who’s next for the dole-queue?)…etc..

Probably the only person in Britain today who could send the neoliberals packing is Jeremy Corbyn. He believes in ‘Old Labour’, government that serves the people rather than big business, and a fair deal for all. He’s a Socialist, and proud of it.

Unfortunately, the snob-noses are probably right: he’ll never be elected Prime Minister. The British suffer from serious memory loss. Despite TV dramas like Poldark, or Garrow’s Law, they’ve forgotten what life was like before the Labour Party.

The real Labour Party, that is – not the fake one created by the snob-noses of Parliament over their Armagnac brandies in the Commons Bar.

^{[1] “Neoliberalism – A Definition In Under 2,000 Words” Sparrow Chat, July 19th 2016}