I’m So Bored With the USA: Now I Know We Have Been Cheated 

 

 

“I got no emotions for anybody else 

You better understand 

I’m in love with myself, myself 

My beautiful self” 

 

 

This is the follow-up to “Ever Get the Feeling You’ve Been Cheated”

 

The first cheat came with a blue rinse, strangulated vowels, free-market economics and worker repression. The latest cheat does the opposite of what he campaigned for, is immensely boring, and totally overpromoted.   

“Analysis reveals ‘privatisation premium’ of £250 per household per year paid to owners of water, rail, bus, energy and mail services since 2010.” 

Source: https://www.common-wealth.org/interactive/who-owns-britain/home 

The public has paid almost £200bn to the shareholders who own key British industries since they were privatised. This transfer of wealth to shareholders, private equity funds and foreign holding companies comes as families face soaring bills, polluted rivers and seas, and expensive, unreliable public transport. 

A classic example of this malfeasance is the privatised water industry, which has run up long-term debts of £73bn and paid out dividends of £88.4bn in the past 34 years, whilst overseeing record sewage spills. 

Mathew Lawrence, the director of Common Wealth, adding that the privatisation promise of “competition, cheap investment and lower bills” had instead delivered “corporate monopolies, inadequate investment and rising bills”. 

“It was sold as the dream of a shareholder democracy but instead created the nightmare of rip-off Britain: families paying more for essential services, while shareholders pocket hundreds of billions in dividends from what were once publicly owned services,” 

‘families paying more for essential services, while shareholders pocket hundreds of billions in dividends from what were once publicly owned services’

 

There is a consensus  that some form of common ownership or nationalisation is required in key industries to allow the level of medium and long term planning required to meet climate targets and to create systems resilient enough to withstand climate shocks. 

Ewan McGaughey, a professor of law at King’s College London, said: “Virtually all wealthier democracies have mail, transport, energy and water in public ownership. We still do not. We can keep paying billions to foreign banks and shareholders that control our privatised services, or we can have faster mail and transport, clean energy and water, for lower cost. But we cannot do both.” 

When campaigning to be Labour leader, PM Starmer vowed to support “common ownership of rail, mail, energy and water”. This is another example of promising one thing and doing the opposite, as he now rules out nationalisation of the big six energy companies, water or mail. 

This stance shows just how out-of-step the PM is with the electorate; a YouGov survey last year, found that most Britons support utilities and public transport being run in the public sector.  

The PM’s likely rival, Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, seems more in-tune, working to produce a fully integrated transport system, and has taken the buses in Manchester back into public control. 

Clearly, there isn’t a direct correlation between squandering £250 of every households income every year and poverty. But privatisation that have served to make the rich richer and the expense of the masses don’t help matters. 

Children are suffering disproportionately.  The children’s commissioner for England, Dame Rachel de Souza, said that children are living in “almost Dickensian levels of poverty”. 

Foodbanks, the bank of choice for many families, are now being supported by Multibanks UK, offering clothing, bedding, hygiene goods and baby goods, as the crisis worsens.  

With food prices rise far faster than wages and child benefits, we are seeing what former-PM Gordon Brown calls “austerity’s children”; the child victims of neoliberalism deindustrialisation, born into poverty in the Tory years. “Living in homes without heating, bedrooms without beds, kitchens without kitchen utensils, floors without coverings and even toilets without toilet rolls.” 

There is also instability created by families having to continually moving home. One 10-yrs old girl said “I’ve moved houses seven times.” 

There are C.170,000 homeless children in England, others are crowded into cramped temporary accommodation.  Many live in families whose income is less than 50% of the median, the government’s own baseline for absolute poverty. 

There is no easy way to change this overnight, but scrapping the two-child benefit cap would be a very good start. Research shows that a family with three or more children is twice as likely to use food banks. According to the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, one million children are destitute or near-destitute, usually going without three or more essentials – food, clothes, toiletries and a roof above their heads. 

‘one million children are destitute or near-destitute, usually going without three or more essentials – food, clothes, toiletries and a roof above their heads’

 

I struggle to understand how any Labour government can allow this to continue. The Tories, and probably Reform wont do anything because they are too imbued with the “people are poor because they chose to be” school of viscous stupidity. 

It isn’t that “we can’t afford it”, it is that we can’t afford not to.   

If people want to march and protest, then this is something worth protesting for. Sending a few hundred thousand so-called “illegal” immigrants won’t deal with this problem.  

There were some interesting observations over the recent far-right immigration marches that serve to highlight the real issue: 

“No doubt this weekend’s march was, to some extent, an expression of discontent by people who feel ignored. The deindustrialisation of so many parts of Britain has had ramifications that politicians are failing to address, or even understand. But unless we want to see ever-larger racist marches in London, we need to take the argument to [Tommy]Robinson and the forces he represents. We need to say clearly and explicitly that his argument is not accepted, not least by this Labour government.” 

Unfortunately the argument is being accepted by this faux-Labour government. 

There is far more required to defeat Reform and populism than aping their policies. 

Whilst this might be lost on the PM, Andy Haldane, the former Bank of England chief economist, understands the government’s need to radically overhaul its “arid” approach to raising living standards in left-behind communities. Labour’s current growth plans continually fail to support the deindustrialised regions where voters feel neglected and disenfranchised. 

Haldane said the “single most important thing” Keir Starmer’s government could do was to rethink its economic approach before the autumn budget. 

“We need a story of growth that isn’t aridly told from 30,000 feet, but speaks to the lived experience and to the prospects and opportunities of workers in the everyday economy. 

“A sense of people progressing in their lives, of being invested in, is the absolute foundation stone of curbing disaffection with the incumbent parties – and therefore doing something to turn the tide of populism.” 

 

‘This country is becoming a joke’

 

Haldane, recommended that the government devolve more power to regional mayors and prioritise investment in skills, training, transport and affordable housing. 

Claire Ward, Labour’s directly elected mayor of the East Midlands, echoed Haldane’s call to delegate more power to the region to boost the local economy. Speaking of the weekends demonstrations, she said it showed that people “are fed up with not seeing delivery on the ground, of not having opportunity to access skills, good jobs, and the public services they want to see. And I understand that. It is the reason why government and ourselves in the region have to go and make sure we are delivering as quickly as possible. 

“We have an opportunity to do that at local level in the region and I expect government to lean into it and give us the support to do so. And that will help people.” 

Haldane, who had prepared the report for  Ward, put forward 10 recommendations for Derby, Nottingham and the surrounding area. Their research found that closing the investment gap between the East Midlands and the rest of the UK could unlock £200bn in economic benefits by 2035.  

All very laudable and from credible sources. Unfortunately were have an uncredible government led by an equally uncredible PM, one who clings onto power rather than devolve it. Add to this the former-Tory, neoliberal advisers I wrote about in “Ever Get the Feeling You’ve Been Cheated”, and you can see this will fall on deaf ears. 

The Treasury is part of that neoliberal coterie,  wedded to market fundamentalism and austerity. Their staff appear incapable of understanding that government debt will only fall when investment and economic activity recover from recent crises. Both China and Singapore have a clearly defined national economic and environmental strategy. A more progressive chancellor might embrace a body that does similar, promoting  initiatives such as the green infrastructure investment needed to revive private investment in a weakened, risk-averse economy. 

 

‘High interest rates during a cost-of-living crisis favour only the wealthy who can afford to save, and increase the cost of private and public borrowing whilst failing to cure inflation’

 

The Bank, also isn’t helping, reversing QE and implementing quantitative tightening, at precisely the wrong time, undermining the government’s fiscal policy. High interest rates during a cost-of-living crisis favour only the wealthy who can afford to save, and increase the cost of private and public borrowing whilst failing to cure inflation. 

Despite all the economic mismanagement over the last 45-yrs, from privatisations to austerity, the majority are being given a scapegoat by hard-right politicians with their own agenda 

As the march clearly showed, no one is blaming years of Tory austerity, or a capitalist system rigged against those without, it is “illegal immigrants” who are to blame. 

Hapless Starmer has made himself an easy target, one marcher from Norfolk, said: “Look what he’s done to the farmers, inheritance tax, you know, the NHS is down on its knees. We have potholes in the roads, we can’t get GP appointments, people are actually left in the hallways of some of the NHS hospitals and are not seen to for hours and they’re in critical condition. This country is becoming a joke.” 

He continued complaining about losing his teeth and being diabetic. His perception being that “They don’t help people like me. But they would help someone that steps foot on our land from a dinghy and gets everything.” 

Interestingly, many marchers claimed not to have a problem with legal immigrants, such as those who have come with visas, to study or work. Rather than blaming the millions of legals, people are being told to blame the illegals who arrive on small boats are to blame for the pressure on services. What they aren’t told is that illegal immigration accounted for only 4% of arrivals in 2024. 

As is typical of populists everywhere there is no need to let the facts get in the way of bigotry. 

 

‘As is typical of populists everywhere there is no need to let the facts get in the way of bigotry’

 

Another example, of this was highlighted by Nick Lowles of Hope Not Hate. Their research found that, of the top 50 areas in the UK most opposed to Muslims, 27 are in the district of Tendring, in Farage’s constituency of Clacton. Yet, less than 200, 0.4% of Tendring’s population is Muslim. 

None of the marchers seemed in the least bit concerned about the extreme views of the speakers, as that was fast becoming accepted as the norm. Robinson, like Farage understands this, and said as much: “They tried to silence us for 20 years with labels,” he said. “‘Racist’, ‘Islamophobe’, ‘far right’. They don’t work anymore!” 

There was no shame, only a brazen indifference to the malicious extremism, showing how easily these views can become accepted as the norm. 

As I have written so many times, when mainstream politicians begin adopting hitherto extreme policies they legitimise them. Starmer simply doesn’t understand. He won’t out Reform Farage. Voters feel alienated, unheard, frustrated and angry. Until the government wises up and fixes the foundations, the NHS, schools, potholes, the cost-of-living this movement will continue to thrive and so will Reform. 

 

‘when mainstream politicians begin adopting hitherto extreme policies they legitimise them’

 

Starmer should be telling everyone how much of the UK would simply fall apart without migrants and their children – from your local hospital to the school to the care home. How universities are facing collapse without foreign students and their bumper fees. He could go even further, telling people that migrants are human too, with their own lives and dreams for themselves and their families.  

Instead, we lavishly entertain a fascist who is rapidly turning America into and authoritarian regime, prostituting ourselves to their datacentres, offering subsidies to their businesses, and altering our tax code to benefit their investors.  

Whilst the majority continue to struggle to provide everyday necessities, the government seem interested only in placating the markets and their own self-imposed fiscal rules. 

 

I will leave the last words to US economist, Paul Krugman:

 

“I hope to be proved wrong. But right now it looks as though the shadow of austerity policies adopted in error 14 years ago will continue to darken Britain’s prospects for many years to come.” 

 

 

“If Adolf Hitler flew in today 

They’d send a limousine anyway” 

 

 

‘As the shameful saga of Trump’s visit ends, he serves as a stark warning of what our country might become.

The marchers of last weekend were able to do so untroubled by the police unless they committed an actual offence. They were able to sing “Kier Starmer is a Wanker” without fear of arrest or sanction.

Over in Trump’s bastion of free speech, things are somewhat different.

One of the major broadcasters, ABC, “indefinitely” suspended Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night show, after the US government put pressure on them to crack down on the comedian, who had accused Donald Trump’s political movement of exploiting the killing of Charlie Kirk.

On his absurdly inaccurately named Truth Social website, Trump wrote: “Great News for America. Congratulations to ABC for finally having the courage to do what had to be done.”

The removal of one of the US’s most influential late-night TV talk shows has been criticised as part of a sweeping government attack on the free speech of critical voices in media, academia and business.

This has gathered pace in recent days after the Trump administration and its supporters launched a campaign to target anyone deemed not to have properly mourned Kirk, a prominent conservative commentator.

Trump also wants late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon and Seth Meyers, who work for competitor NBC, to be removed from their positions.

The US-based free speech advocate group the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression said the suspension was an example of another media outlet that had “withered under government pressure, ensuring that the administration will continue to extort and exact retribution on broadcasters and publishers who criticize it.

 

“We cannot be a country where late night talk show hosts serve at the pleasure of the president. But until institutions grow a backbone and learn to resist government pressure, that is the country we are.”

To all of those who marched and follow Farage, I say this: “Be careful what you wish for..”

Lyrically, as a tribute to all those who marched at the weekend we open with “No Feelings” by the Sex Pistols, clearly they don’t have any! To end, and in tribute to our limp PM acquiescing so pathetically to Trump’s dollars we have The Clash and “(White man in the) Hammersmith Palais”.

And to all the marchers, enjoy while you can, because it won’t make you any better off!   

Philip.

 

 @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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