We need a new economics

After the referendum I am afraid I am returning to the tedious, but necessary task of commenting on the futility of the UK pursuing the Westminster style of political economy. It has failed and will continue to fail and I will continue to provide you with reasons why it is failing. There is simply no hope for ordinary people of any meaningful recovery under our present system, and, if I can interest people in such things then I will be satisfied. If anyone dislikes what I say, I will be grateful for their comments. For example, it is reported in the press this morning that Labour plan to raise the minimum wage to £8 per hour if they win the next election and that they plan a large-scale housing programme which Miliband tells us will be delivered by

A network of "new homes corporations" will be accountable to their communities and will work closely with private sector partners and housing associations to deliver more ambitious home building projects.

This is welcome, but completely misses the point and will not make any fundamental difference to the real and concrete problems we face as a society. Britain's problems are rooted in the economic model that dominates policy-making, and until we begin to transform the economy to embrace a new model and a new economics nothing will make much difference.

You see the way to help the working people of the country is to give them work, but not any work, real work on a full-time permanent contract. If Miliband genuinely wishes to promote a meaningful recovery he will promise to outlaw zero-hours contracts, restore employment rights to combat the bullying of unaccountable managers, and he will direct the public sector to create work and build council housing. As his statement on house building shows, he is still wedded to the private sector. If local authorities are once again tasked with providing essential services they could and would solve the employment and security problems that are an essential factor in the free market determination to maintain a semi-slave labour economy. I know it sounds fanciful and invites accusations of communism, but this country needs to begin redistributing wealth downwards. For example, a simple but effective way of immediately helping the poorest sectors of our society would be a reduction in VAT. There is no economic necessity for VAT to be 20%, just as there is no economic necessity for the levels of income tax, the taxes we pay today are designed to suit a particular economic model and are not fit for purpose when we consider the benefits to the whole society. It is essential that people come to the realisation that British politics and economics are designed to serve only one section of our society. Britain is an exclusive society in that British decision-makers quite deliberately exclude the majority of the society from any real decision-making and prosperity. I understand why people find it hard to believe that their government would do such things but when you cleanse yourself of the poison of patriotism and deference it becomes quite obvious. 

Housing is a very good example of the lie that is the free market. Thatcher forced up council house rents by 400% to make the purchase of private sector housing economic. The great home ownership society she envisaged was built on a lie and a fraud. She then forbade councils to spend any of the receipts they got from selling council houses except for repair and maintenance. In this way she quite deliberately created a housing shortage to satisfy the free market laws of supply and demand and drive up the price of housing. The result is, of course, the crisis in housing we have today and the criminal state of the housing market. The free market is a lie and a fraud and until Labour and everyone else understands that there will be no recovery in a meaningful sense. You have been warned

Your Servant
Doktor Kommirat