Sir Keir’s 'monomaniacal growthism' masks the corporate takeover of the UK

Ever wonder why Keir Starmer has that “deer in the headlights look”? It’s because he has no idea what to do in government. The notion of actually governing terrifies him.

The only thing he and Rachel from accounts Reeves have done since coming to power is endlessly repeat the word ‘Growth,’ after a mind-numbingly boring campaign – he doesn’t know how to campaign, either – where he endlessly repeated the word ‘Change.’

https://www.reddit.com/r/ukpolitics/comments/1id35jt/pm_keir_starmer_growth_is_the_defining_mission_of/

Sir Keir couldn’t tell us what he meant by “change” apart from tossing out the Tories, but then we’re saddled with another right-wing neoliberal bunch of hacks indistinguishable from the hated Tories, which is why Sir Keir can’t tell us what he means by growth.

The only things growing are inequality, misery and corporate power and control. Sir Keir’s monomaniacal growthism is another bromide to soothe the masses while the UK is sold off piece by piece.

We’re at the bitter end of forty-five years of neoliberal voodoo economics, the belief that government must get out of the way and let the all knowing and perfect market completely take over so that the private sector can get on with creating wealth which will ‘trickle down’ to the hoi polloi and everything will be just great.

Except it isn’t. Because markets fail and perfect competition doesn’t exist. When government doesn’t regulate, monopolies crush competition and profiteer. Wealth doesn’t trickle down but cascades up. When government doesn’t spend on infrastructure, public services, or education, economic growth stalls.

Yet despite the disaster of neoliberalism, Starmer is doubling down, squeezing the last productive bits from an economy on life support. That’s why he was selected by Morgan McSweeney, Peter Mandelson and English Labour’s corporate donors and why Jeremy Corbyn had to be destroyed.

Previous governments, starting with the sainted Margaret Thatcher, whom Starmer has praised and Reeves admires,

got the neoliberal ball rolling by privatising all the natural monopolies - energy, transport, water (except in Scotland), telecoms, the banks, the Post Office, major industries, even the National Lottery. These, not the City of London, were the UK’s Crown Jewels.

That just leaves the NHS and Wes Streeting with help from Blairite Alan Milburn will soon deal with that.

What’s left of the UK to toss the ravenous corporate beast? We’ve already had the two ‘green’ freeports at Forth and Inverness and Cromarty foisted onto Scotland with encouragement from Kate Freeport Forbes. Now we’re facing 18 Special Economic Zones (SEZs), regulation and tax-free money laundering corporate fiefdoms, that lie outside Holyrood or Westminster jurisdiction and that are turning Scottish workers into serfs. These, too, were nodded through by our ever accommodating colonial administration.

But it can get worse. As European Powell argues, freeports and SEZs are the stepping stones to Charter Cities, where everything - health care, education, the police, local government and the courts - is controlled by a private corporation. In other words, the destruction of the state, from top to bottom, will be complete.

Unless Scots wake up to what’s happening and begin to resist en masse, this will be our future.