The Times They Are A-Changin’: Working for the Yankee Dollar

 

 

“Saw Vietnam as a partisan and wished I’d never been” ⁽¹⁾

 

This article is dedicated to former PM, Tony Blair, who was “once the answer” and is now Working for the Trump $

 

I write this in response to Blair’s report on how he would improve everything. His low point comes when he said we should have joined-in Trump’s illegal folly in Iran, But then, Tony always liked an illegal war.

Blair is almost a lone voice supporting Trump’s Middle East ventures. Whilst I might appear cynical, his role in Trump’s Gaza property development business, better known as the “Board of Peace” appears to have clouded his judgement.

‘Tony always liked an illegal war’

 

In fairness, he makes some valid points; the current Labour government have made some big and avoidable mistakes, perhaps they did lack a coherent plan for when in government.

He is also correct that we suffer from long-term structural issues, unfortunately long-term issues are rarely fixed overnight.

However, the overriding problem with his paper is self-delusion, based on his golden era that, like Britpop and Cool Brittania, never was.

His enthusiasm for all-thing AI seems rooted in pleasing Trump’s tech bros, and misses the point that for all its positives, AI will do for white collar jobs what 1980s deindustrialisation did for blue collar workers.

The same applies to abandoning Net Zero, which is another rush of Trumpian foolishness. Continuing to tie ourselves to fossil fuels leaves us subject to the vagaries of unpredictable leaders such as Trump and Putin. If anyone doubts global warning then they best step outside.

Overall, the whole piece has a feeling of déjà vu, the world has changed and Blair hasn’t.

 

‘AI will do for white collar jobs what 1980s deindustrialisation did for blue collar workers’

 

He still has a fundamental belief in free-market neoliberalism, seemingly missing the fact that the GFC highlighted its failure. It didn’t generate faster growth, there was no increase in investment and, what wealth it did generate stayed at the top, there was no trickle down.

Returning to deindustrialisation, this not only to led to mass unemployment and ghost towns, there was also Thatcher’s assault on trade unions which gave too much power to employers, leading to zero-hour contracts when a job isn’t a job!

One thing this government can be credited with is making changes to employment rights, shifting the emphasis back towards workers, albeit slowly.

This isn’t, as Blair suggests going back to the 1970s, it is righting the wrongs of Thatcherism that allowed the exploitation of workers and led to lower weaker productivity by encouraging employers to use cheap labour instead of investing in new equipment.

Wes Streeting responded to this point, saying: “The task of progressive politics is not to recreate yesterday, but to ensure ordinary working people have power, protection and opportunity in the world now emerging.”

The base failing in all Blairs words, the one that highlights that New Labour was watered-down Thatcherism, is the total omission of inequality.

Inequality is the crisis; it led to “vote Leave”, it is now driving the success of far-right populism. It is the reason that people in the wealthiest 10% of the UK can expect to live C.20-yrs more than those in the poorest areas.

 

‘the wealthiest 10% of the UK can expect to live C.20-yrs more than those in the poorest areas’

 

As Wes Streeting wrote: “…..The populist right thrives not because people are irrational, but because too many feel abandoned by economic systems that appear to work for everyone except them. The false promise offered is seductive: close the borders, blame outsiders, retreat from change and somehow recover a lost past.”

The end result of all of this is the creation of a “lost generation”.

Today’s report by the former health secretary, Alan Milburn, into why so many young people are economically inactive, said the UK risked opening up a “generational fault line” between young and old without urgent steps to overhaul schools, the health service, the welfare system and the jobs market.

Britain has the third-highest rate of 16 to 24-year-olds who are not earning or learning among rich European countries; 60% of Neet’s (Not in Education, Employment, or Training) have never worked. Twenty years ago the number was 40%.

The report calls for a reset of the system, describing the welfare state as “exacerbating inactivity”, while arguing that new work programmes alone would fail to tackle far deeper-rooted problems.

 

‘The end result of all of this is the creation of a “lost generation”’

 

“This is not a failure of young people. It is a failure of a system stuck in the past. Whether it is education or health or welfare, that system fails to enable their participation in the labour market,” he will say.

“Instead, all too often it ends up putting young people on a path to a life not in jobs but on benefits. This should be the priority for the government. It should be the priority for all of us.”

An example of this failure is highlighted with the report estimating that for every £25 the DWP spends on benefits for young people, it devotes just £1 to helping them back into work.

A constant in the report is the realisation that these issues are structural, caused by inequality in wealth, background, geography or ethnicity.

Milburn cited the north London borough of Barnet (where I live) where 1% of 16- and 17-year-olds are Neet, compared to Dudley, in the West Midlands, where the number is 21.5%. Of the 10 English local authorities with the highest proportion of young people not in work or education, eight are in the north or Midlands.

The areas suffering the most are the ones impacted most by deindustrialisation.

 

‘capitalism today has failed, because it no longer serves the majority’

 

One reaction that intrigues me came from business groups who say Labour policy has fuelled the crisis in youth jobs, with entry-level jobs impacted by the chancellor Reeves, adding £25bn to employers’ NIC, the push to equalise minimum wage rates between young and older workers, and the party’s drive to strengthen employment rights.

Whilst there is some truth in their claims, business has had things their own way for too long, and, being the beneficiaries of inequality has coloured their judgement.

As I written previously, capitalism today has failed, because it no longer serves the majority.

 

 

“When routine bites hard and ambitions are low And resentment rides high, but emotions won’t grow “ ⁽²⁾

 

 

 

Notes:

 

1. “Working for the Yankee Dollar” by Skids

 

 

 

 

2. “Love Will Tear us Apart” by Joy Division

 

 

 

 

Whilst it might appear I have been on a productivity drive this week, it is skewed by me forgetting to send one of last Friday.

A slightly new format with the lyrics and link in the article….hopefully it works!?

This wasn’t the planned piece but Blair’s memoir article was too good to pass-up.

In common with most of us, his remembers himself in the best light. That being said there is some seriously deluded stuff in here.

New Labour was just a continuation of Thatcherism and seemed plagued by people whose overriding ambition was to be rich.

Mandelson aside, few British politicians have pursued this with the vigour of the Blair’s. This ambition is leading him to defend the indefensible, Trump’s America, his wars, and pursuit of self-interest.

The omission of inequality destroys any validity his report might have. It underpins much of what is wrong today and shows signs of abating.

 

@coldwarsteve

 

Philip Gilbert is a city-based corporate financier, and former investment banker.

Philip is a great believer in meritocracy, and in the belief that if you want something enough you can make it happen. These beliefs were formed in his formative years, of the late 1970s and 80s

 

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