Britain’s Rich Heritage Of Inequality

Posted on December 28, 2007
Filed Under Politics |

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber has made a speech which must sound like the rantings of a demented alien to the clones of New Labour, who think that the world is only about making money through exploitation.

This New Year message is taken from the Trades Union Congress (TUC) website:

TUC new year message

In his new year message to trade union members, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

‘2008 may be a rocky year.

‘After a decade of steady economic growth and stability, prospects for the economy are distinctly uncertain. The full effects of the credit crunch triggered by irresponsible lending in the USA sub-prime mortgage market have yet to work their way through the economic system. Northern Rock has already been taken in its wake.

‘But it is important that we do not talk ourselves into thinking the economic situation is worse than it is. The truth is that instability has not come from events in the real economy where people trade goods and services, but from the world of finance. Employment remains at record levels, and businesses say they are optimistic for the year ahead. Lower interest rates can only help. The greatest threat would be to confuse the difficulties now being suffered by banks with the economic fundamentals.

‘But there are lessons to be learnt. For many years we have been told that over-regulation and red tape are the biggest barrier to economic growth. Yet the biggest threat to the world economy has come from a failure to regulate the US mortgage market, and its biggest victim here flows from a regulatory failure in UK banking system oversight. No-one should support outdated or over-bureaucratic regulation, but perhaps it’s time to celebrate the role that appropriate regulation plays every day in maintaining economic stability, protecting consumers, workers and the environment and ensuring that we live in a civilised society with rules. Let’s make 2008 the year we stop having lazy debates about red tape, and start talking about getting the balance right - more regulation where we need it, and less where we don’t.

‘My other big worry for the year ahead is the simmering resentment across the public sector at government pay policy. Public servants have already suffered a cut in their living standards this year. But the Government is planning a further three years of reduced living standards. The arguments for doing this do not stack up, and the risks are big. It does not just threaten the recruitment, retention and morale of public servants but will damage an industrial relations system that has minimised conflict in the public sector. Ministers say that real wage cuts in the public sector are needed to fight inflation, yet all the evidence shows that public sector pay follows inflation not causes it, and that bearing down on public sector pay has had no impact in the private sector. In any case experts agree that pay is not currently driving inflation. It is not too late for ministers to think again.

‘But what about some hopes for the year ahead.

‘If I had one wish it would be that 2008 was a year that we had a proper political debate about making Britain a fairer society. It is a big agenda.

‘It means more help for those at the bottom. We need to see faster progress on the Government’s pledge to end child poverty, and recognise that this carries a price tag. It means making workplaces fairer. This requires proper enforcement of the rights that vulnerable workers are meant to enjoy, but too often do not. It also means closing what is now the biggest source of abuse and exploitation - agency working. There is nothing wrong with supplying people with short-term availability to employers with short-term needs, but almost every media exposure of exploitation at work has featured agency working.

‘At the other end of society it is time for a proper debate about inequality. We now have a growing group of the soar-away super-rich, who live lives cut off from the rest of us. Many take advantage of private equity and non-dom tax loopholes. This is not just bad for social cohesion, but distorts the economy.

‘This is why I hope that in the year ahead we can have a proper debate about tax. We need a campaign for fair tax. If the super-rich and big companies are not paying their fair share it means that the rest of us - including small and medium sized businesses are paying too much, that public services are not getting the growth they need and that we do not have the resources to end child poverty. Simply closing the non-dom loophole would raise enough to halve child poverty. No-one particularly enjoys paying tax but it is the price tag for a civilised society, and it’s about time that we had a proper debate about whether those who can afford it are paying their fair share.’

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