Holding the country to ransom
Back in the 1970s the Trades Unions in Britain were quite a bit more influential than they are today. Thatcher's anti-Union laws hadn't yet been implemented, and unionisation was the norm rather than the exception, even in many private-sector employers.As a result, whenever a Government (of any political hue) tried to implement policies that would affect the standard of living of ordinary people, they knew the Unions would defend their members' interests and cause an awful lot of trouble. So we had the miners' strikes in 1972 and 1974, resulting in the three-day week and eventually bringing down Ted Heath's Conservative Goverment. A few years later Jim Callaghan's Labour Government tried to fix inflation by limiting pay rises, leading to the Winter of Discontent and ultimately the end of that Government.
The establishment and newspapers were (and have remained) absolutely livid about this. Union leaders have been called unelected troublemakers, accused of holding the country to ransom and only interested in lining their own profits.
Now fast-forward to 2010 / 2011.
The banks -- especially the investment banks -- have brought the global economy to the brink of collapse. All round the world sovereign states have had to invest hundreds of billions of pounds to prevent their banks from going bankrupt. In doing so Iceland, Greece and Ireland (so far) have themselves been brought nearly to the point of bankruptcy.
So how do the Governments around the world propose getting back this vast investment and starting to reduce their deficits? Well the obvious solution would be that those who made the mess should pay to clear it up. But as soon as there's any suggestion of putting any kind of extra taxation on the financial sector, we're told that if we do that the bankers will leave the country. And because the UK in particular is so dependent on the financial sector, if the banks just up and leave the country's finances will be in an even worse state than at present.
So ... we again have a situation where a bunch of unelected people, seemingly only interested in their own profits, are able to dictate Government policy. They're ... yes, you guessed it ... holding the country to ransom. So why isn't this on the front pages of the Telegraph and the Mail? Fred Goodwin was briefly public enemy number one, but even he never faced the same level of vitriol and bad press as Arthur Scargill, for example. And what about the others? The CEOs and Boards of Directors of Northern Rock, HBOS, Bradford & Bingley should -- if there's any justice in the world -- be in prison, not retired on million-pound-a-year pensions.
And what's the odds that the Coalition Government will enact a series of anti-banker laws, akin to the anti-Union laws of the 80s/90s/00s? Yeah, that's right, not even the most audacious of stockmarket gamblers would take a punt on that one!
posted by Iain @ 19:27
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