The corporate greed that has ravaged the US has wrecked Britain too | Letters
Robert Reich’s account of how the holy writ of corporate profit has bought about the near disintegration of US society will be familiar to students of UK political history (Americans are waking up.A grand reckoning awaits us, 29 January).I grew up with the capitalism of Harold Macmillan and Edward Heath, in a society where the NHS worked, our industry and transport remained a vibrant reflection of British pride and ingenuity, the population were housed, and rents and mortgages were within the reach of ordinary wage earners.Reich notes that the rot in the US began with Ronald Reagan, while in our case, Margaret Thatcher’s juggernaut of deregulation, the assault on union membership and the replacement of our industrial base with an economy trumpeting shopping, house prices and the stock market has resulted in a brutally unequal society where food banks, shoddy high streets and zero-hours contracts have become the norm.Reich believes that Trump’s acceleration of the US nightmare is being confronted by protest.
We also need, as a society, to force the pace of change,The odd nudge towards Whitehall will not cut the mustard,Tony RowlandsBristol Robert Reich has been a consistent and brave critic and possibly the most reliable of commentators on how freedoms are being eroded by the Trump government,I read his article without surprise, but I found this paragraph chilling:“But over the last 40 years, starting with Ronald Reagan, the US has gone off the rails: deregulation, privatisation, free trade, wild gambling by Wall Street, union-busting, monopolisation, record levels of inequality, stagnant wages for most, staggering wealth for a few, big money taking over politics,Corporate profits became more important than good jobs and good wages for all; stock buy-backs and the wellbeing of investors more important than the common good.
”If you substitute Margaret Thatcher for Ronald Reagan and the City of London for Wall Street, it summarises precisely what has happened here.Even worse, many of our key services and resources are now owned and managed by overseas organisations that have no interest in UK wellbeing and stability if it gets in the way of profit.The NHS federated data platform, supplied by the US data analytics company Palantir despite doctors’ and MPs’ concerns and public resistance, exemplifies how our current government, far from waking up to the inherent dangers posed by neoliberal economics as Robert Reich advocates, is persisting with them.Kate PurcellCoventry Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
Nigel Farage dismisses racist and antisemitic school bullying claims as ‘made-up fantasies’
Nigel Farage has called allegations of racist and antisemitic bullying during his time at Dulwich college “complete made-up fantasies”, saying his accusers are “people with very obvious political motivation”.More than 30 people have spoken to the Guardian as part of an investigation based on multiple accounts of racism, including Peter Ettedgui, 61, an Emmy- and Bafta-winning director, who recalled Farage growling repeatedly “Hitler was right” or “Gas them” at him when they were at school.Farage has previously denied “directly” targeting anyone with racist or antisemitic abuse or having the “intent” to hurt anyone, and has not publicly recognised the events described. His response to claims of racism, which he was first questioned on in 2013 by the Channel 4 reporter Michael Crick, have shifted over time.In a broadcast interview in November, he said: “I would never, ever do it in a hurtful or insulting way
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Curious. Nigel Farage devoted decades to trying to get elected as an MP. His victory in Clacton in 2024 followed seven unsuccessful attempts in other constituencies. And now he is finally an MP, he seems reluctant to spend any time in the Commons chamber. The one place where we, the public, now pay him to be
Shadow attorney general steps back on Ukraine over Abramovich link
The shadow attorney general, David Wolfson, has recused himself from giving advice to Kemi Badenoch on Ukraine and Russia because he is representing the under-sanctions Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich in a court case, the Conservatives have announced.This would prevent him from offering advice on the possible deployment of UK troops to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire with Russia.Lord Wolfson, who is a senior KC and a Tory peer, is part of the legal team representing Abramovich as he attempts to recover billions in frozen assets he owns in the Channel Islands.Speaking at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, Keir Starmer criticised Wolfson’s role, telling Badenoch: “How can someone sit in her shadow cabinet, advising someone trying to escape sanctions, and pretend that their policy is to support us on sanctions?”Asked about this, Badenoch’s spokesperson said Wolfson did not sit in the shadow cabinet, and that because Jersey was a different legal jurisdiction the case had no bearing on the release of £2.5bn from Abramovich’s sale of Chelsea football club, which the UK government wants to use to help rebuild Ukraine
Labour workers’ rights concessions to cut cost to business by billions, analysis shows
Labour watering down its sweeping overhaul of workers’ rights is expected to slash the cost of the plan for UK businesses by billions of pounds, the government’s own analysis shows.According to an updated Whitehall impact assessment published on Wednesday, concessions by ministers could reduce the cost of the employment rights bill for businesses to about £1bn.An earlier version of the document had suggested the package, which includes day-one employment rights and banning zero-hours contracts, could have cost firms up to £5bn.In its revised analysis, the government said the new lower estimate reflected a decision to phase in the changes over several years, as well as “the fact that policy design and evidence have developed” since its last assessment, in October 2024.Labour’s employment rights bill finally became law last month after a lengthy legislative battle in the House of Lords, amid fierce business lobbying and after the government made a last-minute U-turn on an important element of the plan
‘Bigger than me’: road safety campaigner whose son died in collision welcomes new UK rules
For Meera Naran, the new road safety strategy is a long-awaited milestone after years of campaigning since her eight-year-old son Dev was killed in a motorway collision in 2018.As ministers unveiled plans to cut thousands of deaths by 2035, they paid tribute to campaigners, Naran in particular, whose son is commemorated with a pledge to mandate safety technology in new vehicles as “Dev’s Law”.The 2018 crash piled tragedy on her family. Naran’s father was driving Dev to visit his older brother, Neel, who was being treated in hospital.Returning on the M6, the car halted on what would been a hard shoulder, had it not been converted for use as part of a smart motorway; a lorry ploughed into them, killing Dev
Government lacks emotional link with voters, cabinet ministers warned
The government must find ways to reconnect emotionally with voters, Keir Starmer’s chief of staff, Morgan McSweeney, is said to have warned cabinet ministers, in a meeting where the prime minister said they were in “the fight of our lives”.The prime minister sought to rally his cabinet on Tuesday, telling them to ignore the polls and to prepare to take on Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.But sources said that in a presentation, ministers were told the government needed to gain back voters’ trust with three Es, emotion, empathy and evidence.One source said McSweeney warned that the government had a “deficit in emotion”, though a No 10 source denied he had used that phrase.Cabinet ministers are understood to have raised concerns about the government’s ability to connect with voters
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