Social and Economic Policy

Back in 2012, the Daily Telegraph, a Tory paper, reported research which had found that two-thirds of the then Tory/Lib-Dem Cabinet were millionaires. It reckoned the total wealth of 29 Cabinet members at £70 million, and David Cameron’s at £3.8 million. Since the Panama Papers scandal broke, Cameron has been been trying to present himself as no more than a moderately well-off middle-class person. His father’s Blairmore firm was established in Panama. It made a show of being controlled by puppet directors based there, though the actual bosses were in London, so it would pay no tax. Oh, say...

Earlier debate on this issue here. The universal basic income (UBI) is the proposal that every adult should receive an unconditional cash benefit. The benefit is given even when the individual is working; it is given if they are looking after children, studying or spending their time on anything else they chose. UBI could, to a degree, replace some state benefits. The idea is that it is not means tested, but it could be counted as taxable income and clawed back from higher earners. The idea of UBI is distinct from a means-tested guaranteed minimum income from benefits as it is a payment to all...

Each week the capitalist economic system pumps new wealth, created by the labour of workers across the whole economy, into the pockets of owners and shareholders and their associates, advisers, bankers, lawyers, and so on. No-one denies that. Those who defend capitalism as the best system available reply only that it is a manageable problem. The greed for riches (so they say) motivates the capitalist class to innovate and improve efficiency. And the rich pay taxes. And they put their wealth into new investments which create new jobs. The Panama Papers show that in fact the rich hide their...

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell’s speech about “fiscal responsibility” on 11 March was probably intended to buy him space to attack Osborne’s 16 March Budget cuts. However, all the anxious promises that a future Labour government will balance current spending with current revenues — although Osborne still doesn’t do that after six years as chancellor — only feed the superstition that the economic problems since 2008 are due to the Blair and Brown Labour governments “overspending”. They aren’t. The reason for the crash and the slump was the giddy profiteering and speculating by the banks, not...

The EU is bureaucratic, capitalist, mean-spirited towards refugees, a mess. Surely Brexit would be better? As if Britain is less capitalist! In any case, none of the Brexiters - not Ukip, not even the fantasists talking about a "left exit" - really believes in a Britain cut off from the naughty world by high barriers and doing its own idyllic thing on its own as if the world ended at Dover. Oh? So what do they want? In practice, they want a Britain tied into the capitalist world by a equally bureaucratic, equally capitalist, but messier set of treaties and agreements, and with a even more mean...

A long article in the Socialist Economic Bulletin (15 February) and on the Labour Left website Left Futures argues that the “centrepiece” of Labour Party economic policy should be a national investment bank. This would be a publicly-owned bank, able to borrow more cheaply than commercial banks because of its government backing, and lending for infrastructure and industrial projects. The model is the KfW, the German state’s federal investment bank, set up under the Marshall Plan in the 1940s and still going strong. A safe, conservative model, maybe a useful capitalist technique, but in no way...

Banks should be public utilities, or at least so closely regulated that they must behave like public utilities. They shouldn’t be free to do whatever brings most profit to their bosses and shareholders. If you’re a regular reader, you will know that’s Solidarity ’s view. You may not be surprised to hear that in 2012 the TUC voted for public ownership and democratic control of the banks. You may be disappointed that the new Labour Party leadership of Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell has not yet taken that TUC demand into their economic policy, or that Bernie Sanders in the USA calls only for...

Law professor Sol Picciotto has proposed a new approach to stop tax avoidance by transnational corporations. He spoke to Ed Maltby from Solidarity. Taxing transnational corporations already involves international agreement, based on tax treaties. The issue is, what kind of agreement? Until now, there has only been loose coordination. That's because governments like to hang onto what they call "sovereignty". This means that TNCs can play off one government against another. Current agreements mean governments compete to offer tax breaks to MNCs. Governments need stronger co-operation, but so far...

Chancellor George Osborne claims the UK’s £130 million tax deal with Google “is a major success [for UK] tax policy.” Google agreed to pay £117 million for ten years’ worth of non-payment of taxes, plus £13 million in interest. But Google’s sales figures for 2015 alone were an £4.6 billion! Google's effective tax rate is just 3%! UK corporation tax is currently 20% (already reduced from 28% by the Tories in 2010), the lowest in the group of G8 countries. That Italy is pursuing Google for €227 million in back taxes from Google makes the UK deal even more risible. In case you were thinking the...

Capitalism has created life-enhancing possibilities. It has even realised some of them. My older daughter has epilepsy. In pre-capitalist times, if she’d had medication at all, it would have had no, or harmful, effects, and the seizures would probably have become more severe until they disabled and killed her. Today, she has been able to end the seizures with just a few pills, without side-effects. Not only in Britain, but in many poorer countries too, almost everyone learns to read and write, almost everyone has easy access to music and visual arts, a sizeable proportion can study at...