Heroes: ‘Everything is Just Perfect’  

 

‘Sell the kids for food 

Weather changes moods‘ 

‘I awoke from the sickness at the age of 45, calm, sane, and in relatively good health…..’ 

 
 

I decided to start this week with a quote from William S Burroughs book ‘The Naked Lunch’, which begins by describing the authors out-of-body surreal experiences due to his drug addictions. I experienced something similar over breakfast yesterday morning as I listened to our chancellor, Jeremey Hunt, on BBC. 

 
He talked about all the governments achievements building the economy, the initiatives to help those struggling with cost-of-living, for the homeless, how reducing taxes stimulated the economy making us all more prosperous, even how they were conquering illegal immigration. Basically, all my criticisms during the life of this column were incorrect, we are truly living in Nirvana. 

Back in the real world analysis on the rise of ‘bedsit Britain, which forms part of the Guardian’s ‘Living Hell’ series, focusing on the rented private sector, shows that C. 160,000 people are living in hidden, often overcrowded and sometimes dangerous bedsit-style accommodation across England. 
 

‘Basically, all my criticisms during the life of this column were incorrect, we are truly living in Nirvana’

 
Information compiled by councils suggests there are almost 32,000 unlicensed large houses in multiple occupation (HMOs), which are purported to house at least 159,340 tenants, who are often drawn by cheaper rents amid the cost of living crisis. 

Conditions can be dire, with examples of more than 10 people sharing a single bathroom, squalid conditions and little protection in place should a fire break out. 

Landlords have doubled their borrowing to invest in HMOs since 2018. A landlord renting to a single family can expect to generate 5% of the property’s value in annual rent, whereas a licensed HMO typically produces about 7.5%, and in some cases 10%. Profits in unlicensed bedsits are likely to be even higher, as landlords can cram in more tenants and do not have to comply with licensing standards. 

Based on local authority statistics submitted to the government between 2011 and 2022, the estimated number of larger hidden bedsits (those that accommodate more than five unrelated people sharing bathrooms and kitchens) has increased by 46% in the past 10 years in England. 

There is no oversight of occupancy rates, fire safety measures or other living conditions in unlicensed shared properties. 

Nigel Wicks, who carries out investigations and appears at planning hearings for councils across the country, said some developers went ahead without permission and persisted whether or not they got approval. ‘Where rewards are extremely high for minimal investment, developers are ahead of the game and local planning authorities struggle to keep up‘. 

He frequently saw people, including children, living in substandard conditions. ‘Only last week I attended a property, meant to provide a three-bedroom family home, that was divided into nine units, three in the basement, without natural light … At least one unit, measuring less than 30 square metres with a headroom of less than 2 metres, was occupied by a couple with a child‘. 
 

‘At least one unit, measuring less than 30 square metres with a headroom of less than 2 metres, was occupied by a couple with a child‘

 
As shocking as these statistics might be, they symbolise Tory priorities; the rich benefitting at the expense of those less fortunate. 

This, if the leaks are true, will be the tenet of the chancellor’s ‘autumn statement for growth‘. One suggestion is inheritance tax cuts that benefit the rich, whilst the welfare payments which the poor rely on will be reduced, along with the withdrawal of free medical care from ‘coasters’ who want to ‘take taxpayers for a ride’ (1). 

Post-WW2, society defined the five giants of poverty; want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness. These are still prevalent today.  

We hear of babies from poor families dying for want of a cot as the benefit rules don’t provide for safe sleeping provision for the homeless.  

Diseases caused by malnutrition and associated with destitution, such as scurvy and rickets, now appear in doctors’ surgeries.  

With food prices 30% higher than two years ago, the ranks of the hungry are growing.  

The former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown warned only this week that ‘poverty, as distinct from neglect, parental addictions or domestic violence, is now a principal cause of children being forced into care‘. 

Government policy has failed. The supposed ‘high wage, high skill‘ economy has yielded average real wages lower than before the 2008 financial crisis, while 4 million people remain on zero-hours contracts or in insecure work. The UK is one of the most geographically unequal of all major economies, despite claims of levelling up.  
 

‘Diseases caused by malnutrition and associated with destitution, such as scurvy and rickets, now appear in doctors’ surgeries’

 
If we can afford to cut taxes, then there is money available to properly funding welfare, the NHS and social housing. Once again, it’s a question of priorities. 

The right has a problem with poor people, they view poor people, as having made the wrong choices, of having the wrong priorities, and as simply being idle.  

Remember this quote an article in the Washington Post about immigrants from a retired factory worker in Pennsylvania: ‘They’re not paying taxes like Americans are. They’re getting stuff handed to them. ‘Free rent, and they’re driving better vehicles than I’m driving and everything else.’  

We aren’t alone in this, and political parties need to relinquish a failing paradigm. The deepening cracks in the nation’s social structure are a clear sign that voters cannot just be left to face the cold winds of the market on their own. 

Free-market principles, can’t deal with black swan events, E.G., the Covid pandemic in 2020, the state has to step in. 

As research by The Fabians suggests politicians would benefit from understanding how a more unified state response would meet the challenges of an ageing society, growing inequalities and a deepening climate emergency. They also suggest that fairer, more sustainable growth could be better secured through public spending while regulation and price controls are used to keep inflation in check.  

Instead we continue with an economic and social strategy that has delivered nothing but failure. 

Speaking of flogging dead horses, last week the insurgent right-wing party Reform UK rebranded itself as ‘Reform UK: The Brexit party’. 
 

‘we continue with an economic and social strategy that has delivered nothing but failure’

 
This is clearly designed to appeal vote ‘leave’ apologists, and is likely to once again cause real problems for the Tories. 

Among those warning that the Conservatives party could lose votes to Reform is the former business secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg, who spoke out after the sacking of Suella Braverman as home secretary and the appointment of David Cameron as foreign secretary. 

YouGov polling found that voters who supported the Tories in 2019 are more likely to switch to Reform than to Labour, and there have been suggestions that such switchers cost Rishi Sunak’s party the recent byelection. 

In addition, four polls conducted post the PMs reshuffle placed the Tories on 20%, six points lower than a week before, with Conservative supporters shifting to Reform, who’s average score rose from 7% per cent to 10% in a week. 

Obviously, bringing back Cameron, the face of ‘remain’ hasn’t played well for the PM. 

Reform  plans to announce hundreds of candidates as it seeks to build on momentum behind a stated desire to ‘destroy‘ the Conservatives. Reform’s leader, Richard Tice, insists every Tory candidate will face a Reform opponent in the general election, dismissing any rerun of the 2019 deal in which the Brexit party, as Reform was called then, stood aside in more than 300 Tory-held seats after Boris Johnson gave commitments on a hard Brexit. A decision that is likely to split the rights votes. 

As I wrote in ‘A Tale of Two Walls‘ in May 2022, the ‘red wall’ is up for grabs, and it isn’t just labour that direction Sunak is taking them. In addition, the blue wall is under threat as both the LibDems and Labour target Tory moderates disillusioned with hard-right policies.  

Miriam Cates, Conservative MP for Penistone and Stockbridge, regarded as a rising star on the right of the party, told the Guardian that her party should welcome the pressure from Reform UK to make sure that it returns to what she views as the principles behind the Tories’ election-winning 2019 voter coalition. 

Cates said: ‘The polling we have seen very accurately reflects what I and others are seeing on the doorstep, which is that while there is no love for [Labour’s Keir] Starmer, people voted for a Conservative party and want a Conservative government. Of course, every single ‘red wall’ Conservative MP would rather there was not a Reform candidate standing against us.’ 
 

;a return of Farage would likely see Reform attract the backing of some big donors, giving the party the financial means to truly compete;

 
One aspect of the stronger than expected performances by Reform UK in polling and the byelections, for example in Tamworth they won 5.4% of the vote, was that it was achieved largely without Farage. Should he return then the threat offered by Reform would be considerably magnified. 

In addition, a return of Farage would likely see Reform attract the backing of some big donors, giving the party the financial means to truly compete,. 

Despite this there has been a steady trickle of disillusioned Conservative activists defecting to Reform, which says that only about a quarter of its general election candidates will have been Brexit party veterans. 

They include Kabeer Kher, a financial services worker who left a Tory party that he regards as having ‘drifted to the left‘ on issues ranging from taxes and public spending to net zero. Now he is Reform’s spokesperson in Mid-Norfolk, where he says the 22,000-plus majority of the sitting MP, George Freeman, the science minister, is no longer a guarantee of security. 

Kher said: ‘After what I saw in the Mid Bedfordshire byelection, where I did a lot of campaigning with our candidate, there is not a seat where the Conservatives are safe. 

‘Even if we can give them a scare, that will be good for me, but I honestly can’t tell you what the difference is anyway between Sunak or Starmer in Downing Street.’ 

As with many things the impact of Brexit is all over this. 

Brexit was long in the incubator, for some it started the day after we joined Europe. It became prevalent post the GFC, and during the recession that never was. The economic disaster that was Cameron and Osborne inflicted an unnecessary austerity on the country, which exacerbated inequality and a general distrust in the ‘establishment’. 

Farage, ever the hard-right opportunist, drove a cart and horses through the gap this created, identifying a ‘left-behind’ that under-pinned ‘Leave’ and then delivered Johnson’s 2019 majority. 

Brexit, whilst the making of some parts of the Tory party, is now its death knell. They have divided the country and divided themselves. 

The red wall could turn black (Reform), the blue wall could turn red or yellow. Sunak is just the last in a line of jokers trying to keep the party together. 

As I have speculated before, perhaps the moderates, the so-called One Nation Tories join the LibDems? Perhaps the hard-right including the so-called Five Families joins Reform? Or, after the moderates see sense and leave, perhaps Farage becomes Tory leader? 
 
As they say, all to play for! 
 

‘But separate’s always better when there’s feelings involved 

If what they say is 

‘Nothing is forever” 

 
Notes: 

1. Welfare claimants who ‘refuse’ to engage with their jobcentre or take work offered to them 

 

‘The Tories are in civil war.

The leader is desperate. So much so that  he was forced to turn to an ex-PM who left under a cloud, and was subsequently embroiled in a major lobbying scandal. may not be perfect for Rishi Sunak, as he attempts his latest leadership reset.

But something had to be done. The Tories were in a death spiral. “Suella [Braverman] was mad and taking us down,” said one Conservative MP. “This was what Rishi came up with. It may help, it may not.”

This was only the latest in a series of resets, each one more out of sync, in policy terms, with the last one. Nothing more than a series of contradictions.

In September, at the Tory conference in Manchester, Sunak had become the “change” prime minister, differentiating himself from the Conservative PMs who had gone before him, including Cameron, as he dumped the Birmingham to Manchester leg of HS2.

As Starmer would put it at prime minister’s questions, “his [Sunak’s] big idea is to keep turning his government on and off at the wall and hoping that we see signs of life”.

Even the glory of his doubtful claim to have halved inflation was short-lived as the supreme court delivered its unanimous verdict that sunk his plan to stop the boats.

Of course, there is a potential solution; leave the ECHR. But, as Tory friends of the new foreign secretary in the Lords, meanwhile, raised the question of what the newest recruit to their ranks might think: “All I know is I can’t see him wanting to leave the ECHR. If that were to become policy I think we could have a serious problem.”

Going, going…..

Lyrically, we start with “In Bloom” by Nirvana, which is dedicated to Jeremy Hunt. We finish with “Hey Ya” by Outkast, dedicated to all Tories. Enjoy!

 
@coldwarsteve
 

 

 

Philip Gilbert is a city-based corporate financier, and former investment banker.

Philip is a great believer in meritocracy, and in the belief that if you want something enough you can make it happen. These beliefs were formed in his formative years, of the late 1970s and 80s

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