Boris Johnson's Government is (at last) collapsing. After this most final of final straws, the end of what has been a disgraceful and embarrassing premiership is in sight as Tory MPs rally to dethrone the tinpot mop of blonde hair they have almost endlessly defended. Though still desperately clinging onto power for now, we will surely have a new government within a few months right in the middle of an economic crisis. At this all time low, the question remains - where do we go from here?
Amidst the inevitable escalating political mayhem, we have to take this opportunity to think more broadly about our future as a nation. If nothing else, the last few years have surely taught us that the way we do politics in this country is not sustainable. Faith in democracy, the individuals who represent it, and the political system as a whole has crumbled into dust. This is hardly surprising, considering the Government has painfully dragged its heels through the pandemic, pursued a crippling hard Brexit, and now gives out only meagre assistance during the worst cost of living crisis in half a century. Food bank use has inevitably skyrocketed. Some are being forced to choose between starving themselves or not paying their bills. How have they let things get this bad?
The Government and its brigade of orthodox economists at the Bank of England will tell you that it's an international issue - the pandemic and the war in Ukraine mean that all countries are suffering - as well as wages pushing prices up. They say putting interest rates up, holding down wages, and cutting spending is the way out. They said the same in in early 80s, in the early 90s, and most recently in 2008 - the result will always be the same. Steering the economy into yet another recession (as these policies inevitably will - the UK economy 'surprisingly' contracted by 0.3% last quarter) only punishes workers even more, and prolongs the suffering of millions to save themselves and the financial sector which pays them so well. Do not be fooled.
The fact is, our economy is set up to fail. Neoliberal capitalism, the economic doctrine ascribed to by much of the Western world since 1980, is designed to breed rampant inequality and promote those at the top while sacrificing everyone else. Crisis is baked into the equation - it is taken as a given, but this is only true because of how the economy is managed, or mismanaged. There is no "natural economic cycle". The market has no prophesied "invisible hand". 'Busts' are not economic inevitabilities - they are capitalist ones. And you can be sure that while encouraging wage restraint and so-called 'fiscal responsibility', Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey is sitting pretty on his £575,000 annual salary and laughing his arse off. He, and others like him, make a mockery of those they are supposed to serve. They force workers to accept crippling levels of inflation while pinning wages down and enabling the largest corporations to suck money out of the economy and line their own pockets. A recent Unite study found that 58.7% of inflation in the last six months has been caused by company profits - with the largest 350 companies in the UK raking in an extra 73% compared to pre-pandemic levels. We were told the pandemic would cripple business. Instead, the Government shielded them and are now letting workers take the brunt.
And yet they wonder why people are angry. They mock and denigrate the strikers when wages have been stagnant for forty years while the cost of basic necessities like fuel, housing, and food have spiralled uncontrollably. The strikes will continue, and potentially escalate - many are already speaking of a 'Summer of Discontent', with national striking not seen since the 1970s. And rightly so. Workers have been subjected to these damaging policies for decades, alongside massive erosion of employment rights and the general squeezing of working people's ability to live that comes with the economic philosophy they pledge allegiance to.
Boris has come and will soon be gone. Another will replace him, and they are sure to fit the same economic mould as their predecessors, especially with a Conservative Party more hellbent than ever on a low-tax, small government society. The discourse has become so skewed that Labour have once again been inclined to lurch away from their philosophical unionist core to appease right-wing economic sentiment. Keir Starmer, then, is hardly going to change things - he himself doesn't even support the strikes. So what, come election day, whenever we are afforded one, are we meant to do? Many will surely be put off by years of endless Tory sleaze, even if Boris is not at the helm, but the realistic alternatives, to my mind, offer little by way of meaningful change or hope.
This desolate political and economic landscape surely, then, requires a total rethink. Orthodox ways of doing politics and economics have resoundingly failed to provide us with a fair and just society. We need to look outside this and realise that there are other, better ways of organising our country. Our economy does not need to regularly self-destruct at the expense of the majority. People do not have to accept low wages and deteriorating working conditions and rights, held by the threat of unemployment and measly benefits. And most of all, we do not deserve to be governed by people who routinely disgrace the offices they hold and protect their own interests over what is best for the people they are meant to serve. People do not have stand for it, and unless something fundamentally changes, a time will come where they won't.
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