Hitchens Drives Stake Through Thatcher's Rotten Corpse

[brogdale]

It's a failure in the UK & we still have a democratic system.

I fail to see how you can characterise neoliberalism as a failure for the profit dependent classes; their accumulation of capital accelerates unhindered by any state intervention. And I'd think that a good many people would contest that we enjoy anything approaching democracy; the electorate expected to 'choose' between parties competing to steer fiscal consolidation at the behest of the markets.

 

[Duncan2]

Before we all get too excited about Hitchins, let's not forget this nasty little blog post. PETER HITCHENS: One benefit reform that would make us happier... and richer

His views may have changed, but I've seen nothing to that effect in the columns I've read. (My mum and dad take the Mail and I visit them most sundays)

Even Hitchens has to agree with Corbyn that there is something more than a little odd about a situation where four thousand high-quality jobs and the entire future of a large Welsh town are decided by a handful of chaps sitting round a table in Mumbai.

 

[elbows]

Before we all get too excited about Hitchins

Nothing to get excited about anyway - ten years ago he was hoping for the collapse of the Tory party to make room for the sort of conservative party that he could get behind with gusto (hang em and flog em etc).

And he's been moaning about certain forms of privatisation for some years as well. For example, he eventually gets around to moaning about BT & BR privatisation stuff towards the end of this July 2013 piece:

Paradox, Privatisation, Political Delusion and Emigration - Mail Online - Peter Hitchens blog

So its not a new stance, and I presume he simply decided to reiterate it now because it's topical in light of the Steel stuff.

 

[SaskiaJayne]

I fail to see how you can characterise neoliberalism as a failure for the profit dependent classes; their accumulation of capital accelerates unhindered by any state intervention. And I'd think that a good many people would contest that we enjoy anything approaching democracy; the electorate expected to 'choose' between parties competing to steer fiscal consolidation at the behest of the markets.

It depends how you define failure. One can produce all sort of statistics to show Brits are better off now than they were in 1979 but fact is in those days a school leaver at 16 could by their mid 20s be buying a house on a mortgage provided they did not totally piss everything against the wall in their teens. Those now in their mid 20s with no hope of ever buying a house might argue that their peer group were better off in '79. I think people are beginning to understand that the increasing wealth gap between the old & young helps nobody.

Same with democracy. One can present all sorts of arguments about how undemocratic our system actually is but it is what we have in the UK & history proves that if a political party puts a good enough case even if they are lying like the Tories this time they get voted in & all I was suggesting was that within our 'democratic' system in years to come there might be enough voters willing to vote for a party that offer to build council houses at a rate that might also bring down the price of houses significantly. It might not be by next general election but possibly the one after that?

 

[brogdale]

It depends how you define failure. One can produce all sort of statistics to show Brits are better off now than they were in 1979 but fact is in those days a school leaver at 16 could by their mid 20s be buying a house on a mortgage provided they did not totally piss everything against the wall in their teens. Those now in their mid 20s with no hope of ever buying a house might argue that their peer group were better off in '79. I think people are beginning to understand that the increasing wealth gap between the old & young helps nobody.

Same with democracy. One can present all sorts of arguments about how undemocratic our system actually is but it is what we have in the UK & history proves that if a political party puts a good enough case even if they are lying like the Tories this time they get voted in & all I was suggesting was that within our 'democratic' system in years to come there might be enough voters willing to vote for a party that offer to build council houses at a rate that might also bring down the price of houses significantly. It might not be by next general election but possibly the one after that?

So you do agree that neoliberalism is not failing for the interests that promote it?

 

[SaskiaJayne]

So you do agree that neoliberalism is not failing for the interests that promote it?

Well obviously it's not failing for the rich but the widening gap between rich & not so rich means that it is failing for most of us. If the eventual result for a country is that the rich live in luxury ghettos surrounded by walls with armed guards to keep out the ragged masses then certainly it will have failed in that country. I doubt even most rich want the UK to end up like that, hence the divisions in the Tory party with some Tories starting to think(for them)the unthinkable.

 

[maomao]

The collapse in public support for neoliberalism is surely behind the rush to privatise absolutely everything. Soon democracy won't matter anyway and the government will be nothing but impotent PR men for the businesses that actually run the world.