The detachment of the political class in Britain

The political class our current crop of politicians who are a professional class in their own right now you’d say now have been slowly and slowly detaching themselves from society and understanding social process’s. In this day and age of political think tanks and political advisors is directly linked to the way the political parties have lost their supporter s base the 3 major political parties currently do not have much more than a quarter of a million members and not even a million between them . This in my view has lead to a bigger disconnect with understanding the moves and changes in society. In the past the political class could command a fair bit of respect and in a strange way they still do but now a days after the Mp expenses crisis and then the phone hacking where politicians has lead to a breaking down of trust and confidence in our so called politicians. Of course the move of the political class further and further to the right has played its part where now the so called centre ground is now further to the right than we have ever seen. The political class used to be drawn from small business owners and landlords but now much of our MP’s are former lawyers, solicitors bankers even who have a disconnect clearly with everyday life. This may seem an obvious point but it’s important to understand when we are looking for political representation. We still have a vote and a big emphasis is placed on it when elections come around in the UK. Oh you must use your vote you don’t know how lucky you are kind of thing yet all we are voting for more often than not is who will be our government who screw us over next. Is this much of a choice? Of course not so wherever we can it is important for Marxists to stand in bourgeois elections to provide an alternative and to at least try and reach people who have been taken in by the political class who see them still as our masters. People are becoming more and more disgusted with politicians in the pub every weekend I’m told how much our MP’s are thief’s corrupt and in it just for themselves and in many ways they are. But no politician today goes out their way to confront this image they have themselves created. They almost seem to revel in this thought and image and play off the fact they re dis trusted and have become further detached from the person on the street. The fact that MP’s are so distrusted now is an interesting situation when people have little faith in the establishment as they do right now with low levels of confidence in our police and media establishments too this can be fertile ground for new movements and new thinking. As we have seen the springing up of occupy and the tents movement in a so called new form of democracy where something new and different was tried was a direct out pouring of dis trust of politicians to deal with the crisis we find ourselves in today that’s capitalism in decay as a economic system that can benefit the many. Occupy wanted little if anything to do with politicians and tried to be far more democratic focusing on the banks and the financial institutions in London and around the globe if we’re honest to focus their anger. This was a marked change as many times down the years when there is anger or a protest movement it normally involves lobbying or protesting against the government of the day. The fact that people went and set up camps and tent villages outside major financial districts showed for me a marked change in people’s consciousness and ability to identify where this crisis has come from and where we must focus our energy in highlighting. The recent growth of UKIP is a interesting development again too as they try to pose themselves as anti establishment and down with the common man on the street clearly a image they are going with for now to court a popularize right wing vote fairly successfully taking 25% of a popular vote n the recent county council elections clearly shows they are having a impact and a big one at that. Not wishing to over play the UKIP threat at this stage as there are still opportunities for the left to get its act together it is something we should keep in mind too. But lastly a political class with seemingly no direction or any real ideological base any longer is not only a danger to us but to its own existence I think with no clear out and out leader of a political class the idea of a technocratic government a so called national government used in the past during crisis’s cannot be ruled out either to stabilise the ruling class during times of social unrest.

Budget 2013 more austerity to come fightback needed!

As George Osborne got up today in the commons and declared Britain is open for business few believed him Tories cheered as well they might the rich is doing well in this crisis. As for everyone else it’s more austerity for us and it will go on longer than planned too. With no end of cuts and misery in sight the budget this year had very little for working people to get excited about. A cancelling of a fuel duty escalation and a cut of 1p off beer will do little to raise spirits in Britain today. The squeeze on living standards is set to continue into the next parliament whoever is in power be that Tories or labour with a lib dem mob by their side or not. The BBC reports that most government departments will face a cut of 2% of their spending over the next two years, amounting to about £2.5 billion. These cuts follow spending reductions of 3% for the next two years announced in last December's Autumn Statement. Even by Osborne's own standards the cuts aren't working. Deficit reduction has been a key aim but borrowing is expected to go up this year. 56 months after the start of the first recession in 2008, the UK economy is now more than 3% smaller. Grim outlook Roger Bootle, head of research body Capital Economics, said: "In my 30-odd years of analysing budgets, I have never known a situation as grim as this." But it's not just grim in terms of economic outlook - the outlook for people's living standards is appalling and getting worse. While hundreds of bankers are piling up million-pound bonuses new figures suggest the average worker will lose around £6,000 by 2014 as a result of wages failing to keep pace with rising prices. The Lib Dems have argued that they are softening the blows by campaigning for rises in the personal tax allowance, while supporting austerity in the main. TUC research shows that by 2015 low-paid workers will be losing up to four times more a year from the government's 2010 increase in VAT than they will gain from the raising of the personal tax allowance to £10,000. At the same time a further cut to corporation tax is predicted. This would follow a previous cut worth £3 billion a year by 2014. No wonder 'them and us' rage is boiling as low-paid and unemployed workers face the bedroom tax, council tax hikes, pay freezes and a host of other methods of immiseration. There have been attempts to sugar the pill, bringing the cap on social care costs down and introducing them earlier. But this is a pittance compared to what is being taken from us. Childcare vouchers worth up to £1,200 sound tempting but only families where no parent earns less than £10,000 will be eligible for the new cash. So this represents a further blow to the low-paid and those who are unable to find work or full-time work. Wednesday's jobs figures are predicted to show a slight improvement in the unemployment figures but this will not represent the end of the crisis of joblessness. A number of Labour and other pro-big business economic commentators have called for 'measures for growth' but none call for an end to cuts. But there is an alternative The news of the Cyprus savings theft brought shock and horror to workers across Europe. Here was a government planning to blatantly dip into workers' savings to bail out the banking system brought low by massive greed and profiteering. Instead, the owners of the financial institutions and big business should pay for the crisis that is of their own making. A socialist government could, for example, reverse the decades of corporation tax cuts and impose a 50% tax levy on big business's hoarded billions. The banking system should be nationalised under democratic popular control. Only on this basis would it be possible to get rid of the spivs and speculators, lined up behind the Chancellor, who are holding working class people to ransom. A genuinely nationalised banking sector would be run for the benefit of the majority, rather than for the super-rich. Those struggling to pay their mortgage could have it converted to an affordable rent; small businesses could get cheap loans, and public works such as a massive house-building programme could be cheaply financed. The need to build a mass party of working people which stands for this demand as part of a broader socialist programme has never been clearer. Socialist Party news and analysis Axe the bedroom With extracts taken from http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/757/16364/20-03-2013/another-dooh-nibor-budget-stealing-from-the-poor-to-give-to-the-rich