Let’s Turn Things Upside Down!

So the new Prime Minister wants to reform capitalism in the wake of the damning report by MPs into the collapse of BHS and Sir Philip Green’s role in plundering the company, leaving its pension fund £571m in the red (from a starting position when he took over of a £43m surplus).  It’s all empty words. She’ll not be wasting her time, let’s not waste ours.

Yeah it doesn’t look good when they get found out but the point of capitalism is the pursuit of profit by any means necessary.  The end product will always be the few getting fabulously rich while the many suffer low pay, then lose their jobs and their pensions.  The Green story is summed up well by Another Angry Voice (again!).  ‘Benefit Cheats’ can expect to have to pay back every penny and face imprisonment.  ‘Tax Evaders’ get to keep their £100m yacht, not pay a penny, never fear incarceration and at worse, risk losing a meaningless gong.  Worth remembering that Green was knighted under New Labour, so it feels a bit rich that Owen Smith is now calling for it to be taken away from him.  There’ll be no end to the greed if he ever gets in power either.

Robert Wyatt doesn’t live all that far from me and years ago he came into the record shop that I was working in at the time.  I should have gone and thanked him for his inspiration but I cowered all awestruck behind the counter, fearful of pestering such a great person.  I was such an idiot.  There will be more words about him but for now enjoy this, a collaboration with the Happy End, a big band collective aimed at “making politics swing”, channelling Brecht, Weill, Chartism and protest songs from around the world.

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