Tories not interested in a recovery

Despite the [British] economy showing no signs of recovery there shouldn’t be any surprise that the coalition government doesn’t intend rowing back on its austerity commitments to adopt ‘plan B.’

That’s because they have no intention of reversing a worldwide capitalist offensive, begun under the direction of economist Milton Friedman over a quarter of a century ago, against the working class and under which the really rich continue to see their wealth increase exponentially.

For example in the US, the top 1% own nearly 50% of the wealth, up from 28% in 1968. In the UK the richest 10% are now 100 times better off than the poorest with the top 1% possessing total household wealth of £2.6 million or more.

Problem is they can’t hope to spend it, preferring instead to seek out investment opportunities that had the effect of putting billions of $’s/£’s in the hands of bankers. Which they then used to seek out super profits in hedge funds - that multiplied in total from ten to two hundred and fifty billion $’s in six years from 2002 - pushing up food and oil prices and sparking a credit fuelled drive whereby the working class borrowed money it should have had in the form of higher wages in order to pay their mortgage and rising bills.

Of course the solution should be to ensure money goes to those who need it, as after all they would then spend it and thus create demand for businesses products? Yet there has never in history been a ruling class that has acted against its own self-interest - and the Tories are very much the representatives of the ruling class, parts of whom have only just last week began to argue for the top rate of tax to be reduced from the 50% paid on each pound earned over £150,000.

So the plan is to continue down the same road, such that by throwing millions out of work, cutting pensions and reducing public sector unions to what they are in the private sector, it will prove possible to ensure the rich can largely do as they like and continue to increase their power and share of the world’s wealth.

None of which the likes of Ed Miliband, Labour’s leader, clearly intends opposing after his appearance at yesterday’s TUC Conference in which he criticised workers for daring to stand up for themselves by taking strike action.

Miliband, of course, is so terrified of being portrayed in the media as an effective opponent of the ruling class that he even withdrew from speaking at the Durham Miners’ Gala for fear of being too close to RMT leader Bob Crow on the speaker’s platform. He also instructed Labour MP’s to become scabs by crossing public sector picket lines on June 30^th and despite a few attacks on bankers bonuses you’ll find little to indicate he’s too much different from the likes of ex-Labour Prime Ministers Tony Blair or Gordon. Both of who presided over a massive increase in levels of inequality between 1997 and 2010.