I was delighted to see an article in a recent (27 January) issue if The Independent newspaper with a similar title to this and setting out a programme that is closely similar to the one that I’ve been advocating for some time on this blog. The article was by Owen Jones and I’m just picking out the policy points here, most of which I’m sure readers will recognise and support. Here they are:
Introduce a statutory living wage with immediate effect.
Resolve the housing crisis by regulating private rents and stop preventing councils from building thousands of homes.
Introduce a 50% tax on all earnings over £100,000. Use the proceeds to drive home insulation, creating jobs for unemployed youngsters and reducing fuel bills.
Cut out tax avoidance by the super rich (estimated at over £20bn every year) by introducing a General Anti-Tax Avoidance Bill. Kick out the accountancy firms who have ‘advised’ on drawing up tax laws and then tell their clients how to dodge them.
Establish publicly run local banks.
Have an Industrial Strategy focused on regions worst affected by de-industrialisation, creating secure, skilled and dignified jobs especially in the field of green energy.
Move towards publicly owned rail and energy. In the case of rail, as each franchise expires bring them back into the public sector.
Create a new charter of workers’ rights including an end to zero hours contracts.
Establish a universal childcare system that would pay for itself as parents currently unable to work are able to take up jobs.
In my own pieces I’ve said little about housing and childcare so I was glad to see these policies suggested. I’ve said quite a bit about taxation and would add the idea of flat rate National Insurance with no upper limit beyond which payments are not made. The rate would work out at around 7% so that there would be a useful redistributive effect and a reduction in the costs to employers for taking on workers at ordinary levels of pay.
So this is the way to go. It ‘only’ remains for a trustworthy political party to take these on board and if none such exists, perhaps wise and energetic younger people such as Owen Jones can take these essential ideas forward by creating a new party or by other means that attract and involve the many people who will support such a programme.
Wednesday 29 January 2014
Saturday 25 January 2014
The Value of Experience
“If only more of them had experience of the real world.” So commented one of the participants at a recent discussion at which I was present. The person concerned was talking about Members of Parliament. He went on to say what it was that he had in mind in terms of ‘real world experience’. Lo and behold it was business experience rather than the present situation, as he saw it, of MPs being ‘full time politicians’.
I have heard this attitude put forward so many times from similar types of individual. It has almost become a cliché but there would be no harm in our elected representatives having such a background, in my view, provided that the experience took the form of running their own business, putting their own money behind it and creating rather than exporting jobs.
Most importantly, the experience should definitely not be as an executive of a large corporation on bloated pay and pension packages, taking little by way of personal risk, being frequently responsible for offshoring jobs, receiving huge bonuses and equally huge payoffs when they have to be got rid of. These characters have far too much influence already.
People making such ‘business experience’ comments seem to think that elected representatives spend all their time politicking, whereas the day job consists mostly of resolving thousands of problems for their constituents every year, many of them complex and heart rending. It would be valuable experience for business people to try this kind of work themselves for a couple of years – they might learn a bit more about the world that their workers, customers and job applicants inhabit and the communities of which they themselves should be a part.
But as far as Members of Parliament are concerned, it has to be admitted that there is indeed a deficit of experience. What is lacking is the experience of living – say for just a year – on the national minimum wage, experiencing the pressurising that frequently goes with such jobs, the often anti-social hours, the threat of having their job exported and the joys of zero hours contracts that those with ‘business experience’ seem increasingly to introduce. The MPs should then live, say for six months or so - including winter – on the benefits slashed by the same government that cut taxes for the benefit of their rich friends and financial supporters. If there really is a ‘benefits scandal’, this is surely it.
Are there many Members of either chamber who have such invaluable real world experience? Precious few I suspect, especially in the parties of government. But this does not stop these London besotted legislators passing austerity measures without any first hand experience of what the effects of their decisions would be like for those affected.
And let’s have much more first hand experience too of what it’s like working at a modest level in an invaluable part of the public sector such as the National Health Service. Also beneficial would be active service as a squadie in the Army, a tough job in manufacturing industry (preferably on the shop floor) and taking frequent night shifts in call or distribution centres. And while we’re at it, let’s have much less experience of the legal profession and, can I bring myself to use the word again, banking.
Are we likely to see these sorts of truly valuable real world experiences gained to any significant extent? Your guess is probably the same as mine. But perhaps until such a distant time those people making the tired ‘real world’ comment about business experience alone will try to gain a broader and more realistic perspective and quieten down a bit. But I for one won’t be holding my breath!
I have heard this attitude put forward so many times from similar types of individual. It has almost become a cliché but there would be no harm in our elected representatives having such a background, in my view, provided that the experience took the form of running their own business, putting their own money behind it and creating rather than exporting jobs.
Most importantly, the experience should definitely not be as an executive of a large corporation on bloated pay and pension packages, taking little by way of personal risk, being frequently responsible for offshoring jobs, receiving huge bonuses and equally huge payoffs when they have to be got rid of. These characters have far too much influence already.
People making such ‘business experience’ comments seem to think that elected representatives spend all their time politicking, whereas the day job consists mostly of resolving thousands of problems for their constituents every year, many of them complex and heart rending. It would be valuable experience for business people to try this kind of work themselves for a couple of years – they might learn a bit more about the world that their workers, customers and job applicants inhabit and the communities of which they themselves should be a part.
But as far as Members of Parliament are concerned, it has to be admitted that there is indeed a deficit of experience. What is lacking is the experience of living – say for just a year – on the national minimum wage, experiencing the pressurising that frequently goes with such jobs, the often anti-social hours, the threat of having their job exported and the joys of zero hours contracts that those with ‘business experience’ seem increasingly to introduce. The MPs should then live, say for six months or so - including winter – on the benefits slashed by the same government that cut taxes for the benefit of their rich friends and financial supporters. If there really is a ‘benefits scandal’, this is surely it.
Are there many Members of either chamber who have such invaluable real world experience? Precious few I suspect, especially in the parties of government. But this does not stop these London besotted legislators passing austerity measures without any first hand experience of what the effects of their decisions would be like for those affected.
And let’s have much more first hand experience too of what it’s like working at a modest level in an invaluable part of the public sector such as the National Health Service. Also beneficial would be active service as a squadie in the Army, a tough job in manufacturing industry (preferably on the shop floor) and taking frequent night shifts in call or distribution centres. And while we’re at it, let’s have much less experience of the legal profession and, can I bring myself to use the word again, banking.
Are we likely to see these sorts of truly valuable real world experiences gained to any significant extent? Your guess is probably the same as mine. But perhaps until such a distant time those people making the tired ‘real world’ comment about business experience alone will try to gain a broader and more realistic perspective and quieten down a bit. But I for one won’t be holding my breath!
Wednesday 22 January 2014
Socionomics
Along with many other people I’ve thought for a long time that a more benign form of economic organisation is needed. This should be one without acute moral wrongs such as greed at its heart, one that is interwoven with the kind of society in which we wish to live, in other words one which furthers the common good. This, rather than the one that we are told we must put up with because there is no alternative. In other words I believe that we need socionomics rather than just economics.
It is claimed that there are some things about economics that you cannot change any more than you can change arithmetic simply because you happen to dislike it. One example often put forward in defence of this position is that unregulated prices must rise when supply goes down and/or demand goes up. But even this is not necessarily so. It overlooks the fact that it is people who set prices and not markets.
It was famously once said that there was no such thing as society. Quite the contrary is true, as we all confirm when we interact with other people every day. In fact there is no such thing as ‘the market’. Even in an ideal form the market is just a more or less useful concept for aggregating individual behaviours, and those behaviours are based on the values of the individual participants and of the society that nurtured them. Then there are the all-too-familiar ‘imperfect’ forms of market instanced by informal cartels as in energy supply and finance. And of course there are the totally sham markets such as that in which executive pay is supposed to be determined.
But I hear the protest that ‘you can’t change human nature’. Oh yes you can. Greed, for example, is a cultural and moral aberration and there is relatively little that is hard wired in our conduct towards each other as the enormous variety of individuals, peoples and societies confirms. Economies as well as societies are what we make them and attempts to duck out of this responsibility by appealing to ‘hidden hands’ and ‘markets’ are merely self-serving verbal devices.
There is a great deal that could be changed from the system that we have today if the will was there. Most importantly there is no reason why there should not be a ‘virtuous economy’ serving not just the top few percent but the well-being of all citizens. This, rather than the desiccated, manipulated, disloyal, extractive and highly unequal one that has been allowed, and by some administrations encouraged, to develop in much of the Western world for many years, as if it was the only game in town. It certainly is not, though it is deeply embedded and considerable time and patience will be needed to change it. To this end, a full description of my views on a virtuous economy, the common good and how these desirables may be brought about is given in postings on this blog for September 2011 and subsequent months.
The original name for economics was political economy and my, how we have seen partisan governments produce policies that favour wealthy organisations and individuals who in return favour the governing politicians. This sort of conspiratorial behaviour continues to debase and diminish democracy in our country. The nation’s polity is in just as much need of reform as is our economy and it is deeply linked to it.
I won’t go into the electoral system that defrauds and insults people and allows them to be manipulated (“Don’t vote for what you believe in, vote for us or you’ll let the other lot in.”) or the underhand policy peddling through which parties get their money. But consider the spinning of falsehoods – aided, abetted and often initiated by the ‘free press’. Free that is from scruple but not of course from money, bias and partisan influence. Take just one example: the role of the State (and the state, by the way, is ourselves in legislative and executive modes) and the view that this should be shrunk.
Governments are often portrayed as lumbering, bureaucratic and risk-averse. This opinion is used to support reducing the role of the state and making the private sector even larger to the enormous profit of its owners, domestic or foreign. Again the opposite is true. States can set long term visionary objectives and create an environment for innovation to achieve them. And we know full well that the private sector can come bowler hat in hand to the state when they make another fine mess.
The confident and pro-active state can boldly invest in risky and uncertain areas where private capital often fears to tread. It has been known for many years that private ‘venture’ capital is much less risk-taking than is generally supposed – with a tendency to invest at high rates of return in comfortable areas. In modern times the private sector rarely produces revolutionaries and the state, far from being in the way, may lead it and participate to help make radical innovation happen.
Some elements of a virtuous economy - such as restoring equitable and redistributive taxation, introducing living wages, plugging the many loopholes for tax avoidance, undertaking thorough corporate reform and recreating an active, interventionist and self confident public sector - could be introduced relatively quickly. Other important elements, such as the social and moral education needed to produce a citizenry of good intent that will make the socioeconomic system work properly and sustain it for future generations, and winding back globalisation will take longer and will involve more people and organisations and other countries.
These measures would represent leadership in its finest form. This, and the promotion of the concept of stewardship in place of the present self serving forms of ‘leadership’, would move the country towards a greatly improved quality of life for the majority of citizens and a well rounded prosperity that would be something to be proud of and an example to the world. Such would be the gifts of socionomics.
It is claimed that there are some things about economics that you cannot change any more than you can change arithmetic simply because you happen to dislike it. One example often put forward in defence of this position is that unregulated prices must rise when supply goes down and/or demand goes up. But even this is not necessarily so. It overlooks the fact that it is people who set prices and not markets.
It was famously once said that there was no such thing as society. Quite the contrary is true, as we all confirm when we interact with other people every day. In fact there is no such thing as ‘the market’. Even in an ideal form the market is just a more or less useful concept for aggregating individual behaviours, and those behaviours are based on the values of the individual participants and of the society that nurtured them. Then there are the all-too-familiar ‘imperfect’ forms of market instanced by informal cartels as in energy supply and finance. And of course there are the totally sham markets such as that in which executive pay is supposed to be determined.
But I hear the protest that ‘you can’t change human nature’. Oh yes you can. Greed, for example, is a cultural and moral aberration and there is relatively little that is hard wired in our conduct towards each other as the enormous variety of individuals, peoples and societies confirms. Economies as well as societies are what we make them and attempts to duck out of this responsibility by appealing to ‘hidden hands’ and ‘markets’ are merely self-serving verbal devices.
There is a great deal that could be changed from the system that we have today if the will was there. Most importantly there is no reason why there should not be a ‘virtuous economy’ serving not just the top few percent but the well-being of all citizens. This, rather than the desiccated, manipulated, disloyal, extractive and highly unequal one that has been allowed, and by some administrations encouraged, to develop in much of the Western world for many years, as if it was the only game in town. It certainly is not, though it is deeply embedded and considerable time and patience will be needed to change it. To this end, a full description of my views on a virtuous economy, the common good and how these desirables may be brought about is given in postings on this blog for September 2011 and subsequent months.
The original name for economics was political economy and my, how we have seen partisan governments produce policies that favour wealthy organisations and individuals who in return favour the governing politicians. This sort of conspiratorial behaviour continues to debase and diminish democracy in our country. The nation’s polity is in just as much need of reform as is our economy and it is deeply linked to it.
I won’t go into the electoral system that defrauds and insults people and allows them to be manipulated (“Don’t vote for what you believe in, vote for us or you’ll let the other lot in.”) or the underhand policy peddling through which parties get their money. But consider the spinning of falsehoods – aided, abetted and often initiated by the ‘free press’. Free that is from scruple but not of course from money, bias and partisan influence. Take just one example: the role of the State (and the state, by the way, is ourselves in legislative and executive modes) and the view that this should be shrunk.
Governments are often portrayed as lumbering, bureaucratic and risk-averse. This opinion is used to support reducing the role of the state and making the private sector even larger to the enormous profit of its owners, domestic or foreign. Again the opposite is true. States can set long term visionary objectives and create an environment for innovation to achieve them. And we know full well that the private sector can come bowler hat in hand to the state when they make another fine mess.
The confident and pro-active state can boldly invest in risky and uncertain areas where private capital often fears to tread. It has been known for many years that private ‘venture’ capital is much less risk-taking than is generally supposed – with a tendency to invest at high rates of return in comfortable areas. In modern times the private sector rarely produces revolutionaries and the state, far from being in the way, may lead it and participate to help make radical innovation happen.
Some elements of a virtuous economy - such as restoring equitable and redistributive taxation, introducing living wages, plugging the many loopholes for tax avoidance, undertaking thorough corporate reform and recreating an active, interventionist and self confident public sector - could be introduced relatively quickly. Other important elements, such as the social and moral education needed to produce a citizenry of good intent that will make the socioeconomic system work properly and sustain it for future generations, and winding back globalisation will take longer and will involve more people and organisations and other countries.
These measures would represent leadership in its finest form. This, and the promotion of the concept of stewardship in place of the present self serving forms of ‘leadership’, would move the country towards a greatly improved quality of life for the majority of citizens and a well rounded prosperity that would be something to be proud of and an example to the world. Such would be the gifts of socionomics.
Saturday 11 January 2014
We’re all in it together!
Not, I hasten to say, in the sense of everyone being equally impacted by austerity as falsely claimed by the government. Rather, I refer to all the age groups being important and integral parts of our social structure building it in the first place and contributing to sustaining it now and in the future.
I think this needs to be said because there has recently been another round of tabloid sniping at the policy of protecting the value of the state pension that has been promised by politicians in what threatens to be a very long and divisive run up to the next general election. One salient fact however is frequently overlooked: while pensioners are nearly all voters, few are single-issue voters. It is demeaning to suggest that they are.
Following the last general election, painful experiences of what politicians’ promises are really worth have been impressed on people’s memory and will not be forgotten. But there have nonetheless been disparaging comments about the older generation being an increasing burden on other generations and a drag on society as a whole.
The snipers peddle the false argument that older people are somehow exempt from the austerity-protracted recession with the economy, unlike some other countries with more sensible policies, still being 2% below the level of GDP before the banking crash (and manufacturing being 9% below its 2008 level). The truth is otherwise.
Our state pension levels are quite low relative to a number of western countries and the government has already sought ways to keep pension increases down. Witness the move to the slower rising CPI rather than the more realistic RPI not to mention the fact that the effective rate of inflation for pensioners is well above these average figures due to a higher proportion of income being spent on basics such as fuel and food.
And of course pensions are not a free benefit but have been paid for by a lifetime of National Insurance contributions. True, the older generation requires more health care but this also provides employment and the tax revenues on the incomes from those who work in the NHS.
There is possible further clawback in the pipeline (with the government having already trimmed winter fuel payments by 20%) and it is being equivocal about their future. Free travel passes and TV licenses (for the very elderly) are also under scrutiny.
All this as if current and soon-to-be pensioners were not substantially impacted by austere government policy already. All pensioners with savings – so most of this thrifty generation - have been severely hit by the artificially kept-down interest rates losing hundreds or thousands of pounds in precious interest income every year. And annuity values for those coming up for retirement have also tanked as another consequence of the nailing down of interest rates and the dubious policy of ‘quantitative easing’.
There is also the practice of the financial cartel (that I regret to say now also includes many building societies as well as the banks) of slicing away even further at interest rates on ISAs so that there’s now hardly any benefit from the tax-free nature of these investments. This along with the sneaky tactic of applying miserly rates when bonds mature. This is yet another example of the punishment of loyalty by our wonderful financial services ‘industry’ that this government is at such pains to protect.
All of this represents a massive transfer from the older generation to those much younger people (and many not so young) who have mortgages and to those who have run up debts just to survive (both these cases understandable) but also because of the ‘must have now’ profligacy promoted by commercial advertisers and on which the overdue, mildly encouraging but unbalanced economic recovery seems to depend.
But no doubt the pensioner generation who raised families and did things by the book will soldier on, carrying on putting into society through voluntary activities and reflecting on all that was built up by them – the National Health Service, the education system, the BBC and its widely respected World Service, the utilities and productive industry. All this of course prior to the modern curses of globalisation, privatisation, corporate greed, tax dodging, exploitative pricing and the discredited economics of austerity.
This is not to say that nothing can ever be changed. For example I for one would support the idea of winter fuel payments being taxable so that those eking out small pensions would continue to get the full amount but the better off amongst us would return something in tax. Similarly, bus passes and television licenses for the very elderly could remain free for those on low incomes and be counted as income in kind and incur a tax liability at graduated rates for those who have been able better to provided for themselves.
These possible cutbacks would be more palatable if the feral rich were made to pay their fair share of society-supporting taxes in ways that I have indicated in earlier postings. Then the money so generated should be invested in public works rather than tax cuts to provide jobs and training for young people – so much better than financial devices that get siphoned off by the banks.
Leaving aside this government's favouritism towards the outrageously wealthy, big business and those that fund their politics, there is still a sense in which most of us are in this together right across the generations. We have, over the years, built up a mutually supportive society, much of which still remains intact. This is something that’s going to be needed if the age of austerity is dragged on by the misconceived policies of this wretched government. We must resist being divided into ‘us’ and ‘them’ and maintain our strong social values and a society that is ‘connected’ across all age groups.
These are some of the reasons why I think that each generation should see itself not as an island but as part of the main and we should understand that in this sense we really are all in it together.
I think this needs to be said because there has recently been another round of tabloid sniping at the policy of protecting the value of the state pension that has been promised by politicians in what threatens to be a very long and divisive run up to the next general election. One salient fact however is frequently overlooked: while pensioners are nearly all voters, few are single-issue voters. It is demeaning to suggest that they are.
Following the last general election, painful experiences of what politicians’ promises are really worth have been impressed on people’s memory and will not be forgotten. But there have nonetheless been disparaging comments about the older generation being an increasing burden on other generations and a drag on society as a whole.
The snipers peddle the false argument that older people are somehow exempt from the austerity-protracted recession with the economy, unlike some other countries with more sensible policies, still being 2% below the level of GDP before the banking crash (and manufacturing being 9% below its 2008 level). The truth is otherwise.
Our state pension levels are quite low relative to a number of western countries and the government has already sought ways to keep pension increases down. Witness the move to the slower rising CPI rather than the more realistic RPI not to mention the fact that the effective rate of inflation for pensioners is well above these average figures due to a higher proportion of income being spent on basics such as fuel and food.
And of course pensions are not a free benefit but have been paid for by a lifetime of National Insurance contributions. True, the older generation requires more health care but this also provides employment and the tax revenues on the incomes from those who work in the NHS.
There is possible further clawback in the pipeline (with the government having already trimmed winter fuel payments by 20%) and it is being equivocal about their future. Free travel passes and TV licenses (for the very elderly) are also under scrutiny.
All this as if current and soon-to-be pensioners were not substantially impacted by austere government policy already. All pensioners with savings – so most of this thrifty generation - have been severely hit by the artificially kept-down interest rates losing hundreds or thousands of pounds in precious interest income every year. And annuity values for those coming up for retirement have also tanked as another consequence of the nailing down of interest rates and the dubious policy of ‘quantitative easing’.
There is also the practice of the financial cartel (that I regret to say now also includes many building societies as well as the banks) of slicing away even further at interest rates on ISAs so that there’s now hardly any benefit from the tax-free nature of these investments. This along with the sneaky tactic of applying miserly rates when bonds mature. This is yet another example of the punishment of loyalty by our wonderful financial services ‘industry’ that this government is at such pains to protect.
All of this represents a massive transfer from the older generation to those much younger people (and many not so young) who have mortgages and to those who have run up debts just to survive (both these cases understandable) but also because of the ‘must have now’ profligacy promoted by commercial advertisers and on which the overdue, mildly encouraging but unbalanced economic recovery seems to depend.
But no doubt the pensioner generation who raised families and did things by the book will soldier on, carrying on putting into society through voluntary activities and reflecting on all that was built up by them – the National Health Service, the education system, the BBC and its widely respected World Service, the utilities and productive industry. All this of course prior to the modern curses of globalisation, privatisation, corporate greed, tax dodging, exploitative pricing and the discredited economics of austerity.
This is not to say that nothing can ever be changed. For example I for one would support the idea of winter fuel payments being taxable so that those eking out small pensions would continue to get the full amount but the better off amongst us would return something in tax. Similarly, bus passes and television licenses for the very elderly could remain free for those on low incomes and be counted as income in kind and incur a tax liability at graduated rates for those who have been able better to provided for themselves.
These possible cutbacks would be more palatable if the feral rich were made to pay their fair share of society-supporting taxes in ways that I have indicated in earlier postings. Then the money so generated should be invested in public works rather than tax cuts to provide jobs and training for young people – so much better than financial devices that get siphoned off by the banks.
Leaving aside this government's favouritism towards the outrageously wealthy, big business and those that fund their politics, there is still a sense in which most of us are in this together right across the generations. We have, over the years, built up a mutually supportive society, much of which still remains intact. This is something that’s going to be needed if the age of austerity is dragged on by the misconceived policies of this wretched government. We must resist being divided into ‘us’ and ‘them’ and maintain our strong social values and a society that is ‘connected’ across all age groups.
These are some of the reasons why I think that each generation should see itself not as an island but as part of the main and we should understand that in this sense we really are all in it together.
Monday 6 January 2014
New Year Resolutions
A few days late, but here are some policy ideas that I hope might be picked up by the opposition:
Make payment of the living wage mandatory, outlaw zero-hours contracts and exploitation through unpaid work. This will help people on dismally low pay and will also stimulate the economy.
Renationalise the railways and electricity and gas supply. Reverse some other privatisations, jettison PFI and put an end to existing contracts wherever possible.
Prioritise manufacturing and ensure government purchases of British rather than foreign produced goods.
Phase in a reversal of the benefit cuts.
Stop the government’s disguised health service cuts and offer clear support for the NHS.
Undertake a big drive on insulation and get to grips with fuel poverty.
Facilitate local authorities in re-establishing municipal banks.
Introduce a scheme to pay decent interest on the first £10k of savings. Stop forcing government backed savings and investment schemes to parrot the private sector.
Crack down effectively on payday lenders and drive these and other usurers out of business.
Roll back increases in tuition fees.
Invest in a consistent and effective low carbon energy strategy including a tidal barrage.
Encourage domestic agriculture and the local sourcing of foods.
Support fair trade and gather support to roll back globalisation.
Recognise that some ‘markets’ are little better than rackets.
Stop ruining Local Government, devolve something other than cuts and costs and help them with the unfunded equal pay legislation.
Increase the public funding of political parties to remove malign influence, policy bias and other favouritism associated with big financial donors.
Outlaw political lobbying by commercial interests. Distinguish this from legitimate campaigning.
As well as the increased tax revenue from the higher level of economic activity that would result from implementation of these proposals, further revenue to support these policies and reduction of costs could be gained from:
An international financial transactions tax favoured by Europe and opposed by the present government.
Ensuring that rich individuals and companies actually pay taxes. This will in part require international collaboration on the abolition of tax havens and the introduction of a globalised tax regime.
Make National Insurance contributions flat rate. Approximately 7% on incomes without upper limit would bring in as much as the present system that favours the rich. A higher rate of NI contributions would bring in considerably more.
Restore the 50% top rate of income tax.
Make more frequent use of windfall taxes on excessive profits.
Allow local authorities to introduce two extra bands of council tax.
Axe the use of private sector consultants by national government.
Well, it’s a new year and one may as well begin optimistically!
Make payment of the living wage mandatory, outlaw zero-hours contracts and exploitation through unpaid work. This will help people on dismally low pay and will also stimulate the economy.
Renationalise the railways and electricity and gas supply. Reverse some other privatisations, jettison PFI and put an end to existing contracts wherever possible.
Prioritise manufacturing and ensure government purchases of British rather than foreign produced goods.
Phase in a reversal of the benefit cuts.
Stop the government’s disguised health service cuts and offer clear support for the NHS.
Undertake a big drive on insulation and get to grips with fuel poverty.
Facilitate local authorities in re-establishing municipal banks.
Introduce a scheme to pay decent interest on the first £10k of savings. Stop forcing government backed savings and investment schemes to parrot the private sector.
Crack down effectively on payday lenders and drive these and other usurers out of business.
Roll back increases in tuition fees.
Invest in a consistent and effective low carbon energy strategy including a tidal barrage.
Encourage domestic agriculture and the local sourcing of foods.
Support fair trade and gather support to roll back globalisation.
Recognise that some ‘markets’ are little better than rackets.
Stop ruining Local Government, devolve something other than cuts and costs and help them with the unfunded equal pay legislation.
Increase the public funding of political parties to remove malign influence, policy bias and other favouritism associated with big financial donors.
Outlaw political lobbying by commercial interests. Distinguish this from legitimate campaigning.
As well as the increased tax revenue from the higher level of economic activity that would result from implementation of these proposals, further revenue to support these policies and reduction of costs could be gained from:
An international financial transactions tax favoured by Europe and opposed by the present government.
Ensuring that rich individuals and companies actually pay taxes. This will in part require international collaboration on the abolition of tax havens and the introduction of a globalised tax regime.
Make National Insurance contributions flat rate. Approximately 7% on incomes without upper limit would bring in as much as the present system that favours the rich. A higher rate of NI contributions would bring in considerably more.
Restore the 50% top rate of income tax.
Make more frequent use of windfall taxes on excessive profits.
Allow local authorities to introduce two extra bands of council tax.
Axe the use of private sector consultants by national government.
Well, it’s a new year and one may as well begin optimistically!
Wednesday 1 January 2014
An Icelandic Saga
We recently returned from a most unusual Christmas, my first one away from a family environment in exactly half a century – a timescale that certainly dates you! Fifty years ago I was living in Chicago and had my Christmas dinner with truck drivers in one of their cafes. Great company and a full plate with all the trimmings for exactly $1.
This year Vivienne and I decided to be a bit adventurous and spent Christmas in one of our favourite countries – Iceland. Before giving you the interesting part, let’s get one thing out of the way – bankers. We’ve all got them, more’s the pity, and their unprincipled greed and profligacy do not represent the Icelandic people any more than they do ordinary people over here.
Iceland is a unique environment and its landscapes and spectacular natural phenomena are unlike anywhere else on Earth. It is surely the most volcanic land this side of Jupiter’s moon Io! You’ll probably remember the Heimaey eruption in the Westman Islands and the new island of Surtsey that appeared. There have been famous recent eruptions and the Hekla, Katla and other volcanoes are ‘due’ within the next few years.
We were based in Reykjavik which now seems a bit less of a frontier town than it was when we first visited Iceland twenty years ago. There’s plenty to see and do in town including the beautiful Hallgrimskirkja, a concrete church (not the cathedral it appears to be) which is a prominent landmark. We stayed just round the corner from there. Outside the church is a noble statue commemorating the discoverer of America – Leif Eriksson. On a clear day you can see across the wide bay, Faxafloi, to the magnificent perfect cone of Snaefells (the starting point for the adventurers in Jules Verne’s ‘Journey to the Centre of the Earth’).
If you do go to Iceland then be sure to take your swimming gear – you’ll want to be doing a lot of it. You’ve probably seen pictures of the ‘Blue Lagoon’ set amid a lava field near Keflavik which is nice but the place we prefer is the main swimming baths in Reykjavik, Laugardaslaug. OK, so Icelandic spelling is a bit tricky and the language (Old Norse essentially) is pretty impenetrable but this is no issue at all as English is so widely spoken and to a very high standard.
Pools, both natural and artificial, are often outdoors, as at Laugardaslaug, and they are very warm since there’s so much cheap and clean geothermal power – you get used to the odd whiff of sulphur now and again! There we were, swimming comfortably in an air temperature of –5 Celsius and it was snowing! This is surely one of the more novel experiences you can have. Around the main swimming pool as well as a steam room there are set, again in the open, deep and large circular immersion hot pots at varying temperatures from very warm to very hot and where you can sit and chat with the locals. One person had just come back from Spain (poor weather and an unheated house) and was glad to be back in Iceland and getting warm again!
We were never once cold – just dress appropriately for outdoor activities - and all houses, hotels and cafes in Iceland are very warm and bright. Temperatures are not all that low but there’s often a big wind chill factor out of town. The Reykjavik Christmas lights were tasteful and attractive and it’s not dark for as long as you might think. They set their clocks well forward (GMT all year round so there’s no jet lag either) and the first hints of light come just after 10 in the morning in midwinter and twilight lasts till around 4 in the evening, so its quite similar to England at the end of the day.
Christmas Eve is the Icelanders’ big day and we enjoyed a traditional Icelandic Xmas dinner (basically glazed ham and potatoes in a sweet white sauce) before the proprietor closed up to enjoy his own meal. On other days we enjoyed great lamb stew at the Volcano House Café and also at The Pearl, a jewel of a modern building from which to view the city. One exhibit at the Volcano House were examples of ‘ash’ from various eruptions – all different. Although some was just engine clogging dust, the ash from Eyjafjallajokul (the one that erupted in 2010) was hard, sharp grit and would certainly have destroyed aircraft engines.
We didn’t stay for the New Year celebrations but many people do go to Iceland for this occasion. It’s a bit like our bonfire night with many people having bonfires and firework parties for their families and friends and there’s an official blaze and display outside Hallgrimskirkja.
There is a wide variety of tours available right throughout the year and many of them are available on December 25th which was when Viv and I were most adventurous. The prime tour from Reykjavik is the classic ‘Golden Circle’ which includes Geysir with its most regular geyser going off every eight minutes or so and the magnificent and atmospheric Gullfoss waterfall.
Gullfoss is a thundering torrent in summer but this was the first time we’d seen it in winter, half frozen with the most exquisite shades of lime green infused with powdered grey. If you’ve seen the film ‘Prometheus’ much of this was filmed in Iceland and the opening scene with the alien at the waterfall was shot at Gullfoss. Much of the film ‘Oblivion’ was also filmed in the mountainous area visible from Gullfoss - you'd recognise the landscape if you visit. It was from this point that we took our most adventurous step.
Leaving Gullfoss with a party of seven and two guides in a ‘super-jeep’ as part of a convoy all equipped with huge special tyres, we started out on a track up to the Langjokull glacier. It was a difficult ascent with our vehicle eventually getting stuck in a snowdrift and we were rescued by another vehicle already at the base camp just on the glacier. Incidentally, two Land Rovers also came down and got through the drift very well – so we were very proud of a local product! So eventually arriving in the hut at the top, we put on even more protective gear (one piece thermal overall, helmet and gloves) and after brief instruction and feeling a bit like Shackleton we set out across the glacier in a snowmobile convoy!
To say the least this was pretty hairy with the failing light, a fierce crosswind and totally horizontal snow. You just had to hang in there and follow the light in front – when you could see it! We were relieved when we picked out the hut through the gathering gloom on the return journey. The Icelanders are pretty gung ho about this sort of thing – there’s no way a 72 year old and a 68 year old would have been allowed to do this (if we could find a glacier!) here at home with the discouraging official ‘health and safety’ obsession. It was an intriguing descent and return journey too with the driver at times using a satnav app to keep us on the road during near whiteout horizontal snow showers! By the time we got back to our hotel (the friendly Odinsve) we’d been out for 11 ½ hours!
We also went on an evening northern lights tour. At Reykjavik’s latitude you have to be pretty fortunate to see the lights but it was a great evening nonetheless. There was a crystal clear beautiful star studded sky with shooting stars and it was the first time I’ve seen the Milky Way for ten years and been aware of our place in the suburbs of our vast home galaxy. In the assembled throng there was something of a good-natured ‘cargo cult’ atmosphere as people waited for the lights to show up. And talking of unlikely entities we were told a chilling ghost story by the guide on the way home in the coach as we passed graveyards with the memorials dressed with lights in an Icelandic tradition that still clings on.
So there you have the flavour of it, for us a truly memorable modern midwinter saga. Now to make a start on the vast volume of the original Icelandic Sagas I was rash enough to bring back with me!
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