Ill fares the land where plutocracy rules

That’s the 2020s in a nutshell. This is an age in which pursuit of wealth for its own sake has become the be all and end all. Personal worth is judged by what’s in your (preferably offshore) bank account, not what you contribute to society.  

That’s not the worst of it. A moral vacuum surrounds how such wealth is accumulated. I nearly wrote how it is “earned,” but that implies a fair return for work, creativity, innovation, and benefit to society in general. At individual and corporate levels, wealth accumulation has become an ethical and moral-free zone.

For example, the shameless individuals and fly-by-night companies that exploited Covid and the “VIP lane” to rip off taxpayers for over-priced and/or defective PPE. By now, those immoral earnings will be resting in offshore tax havens or have been laundered through property purchase at home and abroad.

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At corporate level, Shell and BP are relaxed about their vastly increased profits. They fail to make the ethical connection between their inflated profits and energy companies violating the homes of the most vulnerable to fit pre-paid meters. It wouldn’t be so bad if the profits were due to innovation or increased efficiency. The obscene inflation is down to Vladimir Putin and consequent rising world prices. The energy fat cats add insult to injury by belly-aching about windfall levies.

It hasn’t always been like this. The quarter century after the Second World War was distinguished by a collective purpose and consensus to create a better, more secure, and, above all, a more equal society. That purpose was given substance by far reaching reforms of housing, health, and education. 

By the 1980s, that sense of collective purpose was under attack. Mrs Thatcher’s assertion in 1987 that “there was no such thing as society” epitomised the materialism and selfish individualism of much of the 80s and 90s. Harry Enfield’s 1988 novelty song Loadsamoney captured the spirit of the time. A fairer and more equal society came a poor second to greed and wealth accumulation.

New Labour’s 1997 landslide did little to reverse the trend. Ill-judged deregulation of the banking sector and lionisation of the “masters of the universe” led directly to the 2008 financial crash. En passant, it’s remarkable how the most vocal supporters of market forces and shrinking the state become devout Keynesians when demanding the taxpayer bail out failed banks and businesses.

The legacy of the 1980s lingers in today’s Conservative Party Growth Group. Its obsession with tax cuts and shrinking the state will inevitably lead to further assaults on the public sector.

Civitas, the right-wing thinktank, together with the tabloid press, stoke false indignation, disingenuously claiming, “over half the households in Britain get more from the State than they pay in tax”.  If you receive a state pension, child benefit or healthcare, they’re talking about you. Civitas also whines that the top 10% of earners account for 53% of income tax collected. Seems about right to me.

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We are on the very slippery slope to plutocracy. The super-rich already use their power and wealth to reinforce privilege and position. The corollary is the rest of us are made to feel less secure, about our jobs, feeding our families and heating our homes.

As a General Election looms, time is running out for Labour to offer a better vision and alternatives. Above all, it mustn’t be cowed by the likes of Civitas and the right-wing press. The prevailing regressive agenda must be challenged. “Trickle down” economic theory is a con trick. The rich will cling limpet-like to what they have. Labour must therefore shift the focus of political debate.

The all-consuming political priority is not to make the rich richer, but to create a better and fairer society, even in these challenging times. Otherwise, ill fares the land.