Social and Economic Policy

Children's rights, crime & justice, immigration & asylum, pensions, poverty, youth, ...

The left should not "Trumpify" itself!

On 23 January 2015, several days after being named as the Finance Minister of the new Greek government, Yanis Varoufakis answered questions from Channel Four. His first objective, he explained, was to take emergency steps to reduce the social effects of the crisis, and the third was to re-negotiate the debt. Between these two, and before even getting to the question of the debt, Varoufakis named as his target the system of oligarchy: “We are going to destroy the Greek oligarchy system”. These intentions were not followed through with, but Varoufakis clearly understood that a double rupture was...

Residents plan Heathrow campaign

Four Tory Councils are set to take legal action against the expansion of Heathrow Airport. Hillingdon, Richmond, Wandsworth and Windsor and Maidenhead will be joined by Greenpeace in seeking a judicial review of the decision to go ahead with a third runway. Court action is likely to delay any final decision actually being implemented. For the residents of the area and those who will be most directly affected the words of David Cameron, “No ifs, No buts. No third runway” now ring very hollow. The anger felt by local people as Heathrow Ltd throw their weight around has not dimmed in the years of...

Is socialism against human nature?

Our recently published book Can Socialism Make Sense? takes on the arguments against socialism. In this abridged excerpt a critic of socialism (B) is answered by a socialist (A) on the question of human nature. B: You can’t change human nature. Humanity remains an animal. Human nature — competition, individualism, selfishness, predatoriness — produces, protects, and preserves capitalism. A. If that were true, then why did we not have capitalism all back through history? We have had slave societies, feudal societies, “oriental-despotic” societies (ancient India and China, Inca Peru). The idea...

Bankers’ greed brings us down

“For questions about the survival of big European banks to be swirling almost ten years after the financial crisis started is utterly damning”, writes the big business magazine The Economist. Questions are indeed swirling. On 26 October, the Bank of England asked British banks to say how much they are owed by Germany’s huge Deutsche Bank and Italy’s oldest bank, MPS, in case those banks prove unable to pay. Deutsche Bank’s share price has fallen by over 50% this year. The stock markets value this giant of international banking at less than Snapchat, a social-media business with a few hundred...

Heathrow: oppose third runway

On 25 October, the Tory government announced that it would back the building of a third runway at Heathrow. Tory MP Zac Goldsmith signalled that he would resign and fight a by-election as an independent candidate, and other Tories objected. In a bid to reduce the disruption in the Tory party, prime minister Theresa May has said that the decisive parliamentary vote will not be taken until the winter of 2017-8. Construction is due to start in 2020 or 2021. The CBI and the TUC backed the Heathrow expansion plan. The Lib-Dems and the Greens opposed it. Labour approved Heathrow expansion while in...

The true face of capitalism

Philip Green is the multibillionaire chairman of the fashion retail Arcadia Group, owner of chains such as Topshop, Burton and Dorothy Perkins. With his wife Cristina he has a fortune of £4.3 billion. He has attracted hostile press before and now he is being reviled as the unacceptable face of capitalism for his part in the downfall of British Home Stores (BHS). On 20 October, MPs supported a motion recommending Green be stripped of the knighthood he was awarded in 2006 for “services to the retail industry”. Green bought BHS for £200 million in 2000 and sold it recently for £1. Now it has gone...

Corbyn’s environment policy: radical and visionary

Jeremy Corbyn’s Environment and Energy policy is a fleshed out version of the policy he announced last year. It shows Corbyn at his most radical and visionary. Anyone who cares about the future of human civilisation should read it and rally to the Labour Party to make it a reality. Corbyn’s broad vision is to solve the climate crisis whilst maintaining 21st century level of material wealth and abundance. His proposed National Investment bank will provide £500 billion of investment, creating 300,000 green jobs that will “accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy”. The plans are...

Tax the billionaires!

The EU, after a long investigation, found on 30 August that Apple has evaded $13 billion (£10 billion) in taxes. That’s just Apple. The EU has also ordered Starbucks to pay €30 million to the Netherlands, and is likely to order Amazon to pay €400 million to Luxemburg. And then there’s Google. And all the other tax-dodging billionaire corporations and their tax-dodging billionaire owners. The worst-off households pay a bigger percentage of income in tax (including VAT and such) than the best-off. In 2011-2, the worst-off 20% were paying 36.6% in tax, the best-of 20% were paying 35.5%, and the...

Don’t let the Tories make us pay!

In the post-Brexit crisis the Tories will use any opportunity to make workers pay and prove that Britain PLC is a ″good place for business″. Signs are, despite Theresa May′s rhetoric of a ″government not just for the privileged few″, they are looking at a whole raft of anti-worker measures. The new head of Theresa May′s policy board is George Freeman MP, known for saying that people working in new companies should have no employment rights — including maternity pay, paid leave, and the minimum wage. He has also previously suggested that the biggest companies should pay just 10% corporation tax...

Don’t let the Tories make us pay!

In the post-Brexit crisis the Tories will use any opportunity to make workers pay and prove that Britain PLC is a ″good place for business″. Signs are, despite Theresa May′s rhetoric of a ″government not just for the privileged few″, they are looking at a whole raft of anti-worker measures. The new head of Theresa May′s policy board is George Freeman MP, known for saying that people working in new companies should have no employment rights — including maternity pay, paid leave, and the minimum wage. He has also previously suggested that the biggest companies should pay just 10% corporation tax...

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