THE LEFT STIRS

A wave of Disillusion is sweeping the Western world with many electors turning their backs on conventional ideas and traditional shibboleths. Some of this insurrectionary sentiment will no doubt be a 9-day wonder and old battle-lines will reappear. But there are several issues which gnaw at the consciences of a wide public and the political class has been notably slow or ineffective in addressing them.

The tipping point for disillusion was the Financial Crisis which first struck in 2007 and became a global nightmare in 2008. All confidence in the integrity and competence of leading bankers, insurers, mortgage providers, central bankers and politicians evaporated in a matter of months. New faces have been substituted but the guilty from the past have not been punished: their conduct was not judged criminal though their recklessness and greed affected every household in the West. As the past is raked up, people react with disgust at the behaviour of those in Wall Street, the City and in Frankfurt whom they once esteemed. Nor has this conduct much improved as a spate of hefty fines for misrepresentation, rate-rigging and misconduct continues to flow. The public are still regarded by the financiers as sheep to be sheared.

In the US, many financial institutions failed or had to be rescued. Vast amounts of taxpayers’ money were mobilised in this stabilising effort but in essence the old elite was protected. Obscene remuneration packages are still prevalent.

Hank Paulson, Ben Bernanke and Tim Geithner, saviours/stooges of the old order

The gap between the super-rich (“the billionaires”) and the middle class is quickly widening. It is not to indulge in the politics of envy to question how tolerable this phenomenon may be. I watched Bernie Sanders the self-proclaimed “Socialist Democrat” debating on TV with Hillary Clinton, and his admittedly un-costed programme of re-imposing Glass-Stiegel, introducing comprehensive welfare, abolishing student loans and staying out of Middle East entanglements seemed sensible enough to me and struck a chord with the enthusiastic audience. Hillary will easily win the Democratic nomination, but Bernie pulls her leftwards – God save us from a dumbo Donald Trump presidency!

In Britain we talk of the “loony Left” with much justification and I have no feel as to how long Jeremy Corbyn will remain Labour leader. But he is the real thing ideologically and that thrills his supporters. The electoral pendulum will swing Left in due course. Tory reduction in tax credits for the poor is a risky strategy, easily depicted as uncaring and selfish, while deficit reduction is necessary but politically unsexy. The new Living Wage is a good counterweight but employers hate it. The Tories are probably safe enough until 2020 but their majority is thin and their backbenchers notoriously undisciplined. Disagreements over Europe may yet split the party – Brexit seems an imperative to me - and open the door to the renascent Left under Corbyn and his coterie. Corbyn too crusades against social inequality and unaffordable housing, serious issues requiring urgent solutions.

The UK's putative masters - John McDonnell, Jeremy Corbyn and Tom Watson

Europe is in an appalling mess. It has all the hallmarks of a 1960s model car which has failed to adapt to the 2015 world. Protectionist and statist, Europe is falling behind her competitors: France, nominally socialist, is a busted flush struggling to keep up economically. Once mighty Germany is sullied by corruption abroad and corporate cheating at home. Her leadership is absurdly overrated as U-turn succeeds somersault over Ukraine, energy policy and mass immigration. Angela Merkel, like infinitely superior Margaret Thatcher, will be succeeded by some dim John Major figure but one day the Left will rule with unknowable but perilous consequences on the Rhine. Mediterranean Europe seethes under economically illiterate policies imposed by remote Brussels panjandrums like Schaeuble, Dijsselbloem and Juncker.

Dijsselbloem, Juncker and Schaeuble, Europe's grim triad

Years of blatant corruption from the conservative and socialist parties in Greece have made then unelectable, allowing radical leftist SYRIZA under Alexis Tsipras to fill the vacuum. The EU hate and fear this government and thought they had crushed it for ever when Tsipras was forced to knuckle under to the austerity diktats of the EuroGroup. However Tsipras strolled to a comfortable victory in the 20 September election, managed to dump his more extreme supporters and will be in charge for at least 4 more years. He faces a massive task to reform and clean up Greece. Tsipras remains a man of the Left and SYRIZA has the capacity to embarrass Europe on issues as diverse as mass Muslim immigration, debt forgiveness and the pursuit of tax evaders, bribe-givers and politicians on the take throughout Europe.

The Left nudges us all in some positive directions. I do not see Reds under the Bed or Barbarians at the Gate. The West simply needs to bring fresh thinking to perennial problems, to listen to the people and respect their sovereignty.

SMD

17.10.15

Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2015