It went neoliberal under Reagan and Thatcher. Blair simply followed an already established course. I could go on, but suffice to say, he was an admirer of Thatcher, sigh. Britain has been a one party state for 45 years.
Neoliberalism began infesting the British economy and the rest of Europe in the 80s under Thatcher and Reagan. Blair just doubled down and was able to do under the cover of being a so-called socialist government. We all fell for it!!
@johnwright9372 thatcher wasn't so much ideologically neoliberal, she was rather deeply deferential to America. Thatcher financialised our economy for American private equity. Blair did the same. His deference to America was how neoliberalism took over us.
Before the 2017 GE, when Corbyn came within a whisker of forming a government, I saw a snippet of a Gordon Brown interview where he explicitly said Corbyn represented a break from neoliberalism, which was incredibly refreshing for someone like him. Of course, this is a huge reason why Corbyn was demonised like he was.... he would've shown the neoliberals for what they were, and they'd have looked fools.
They shouldn't be calling themselves Labour. They work for their donors interests now. They should be calling themselves the Business Party. They should be sued for misrepresentation
Corbyn was so popular people voted for him even in seats where Labour stood no chance of winning. Which is why vote share was higher than seat share. In this year's election people were voting against the Conservatives unless they were pro Conservative. So they voted for the party that stood a chance of winning where they live other than the Conservatives. Reform voters are the least intelligent and didnt realise by voting Reform they were voting for more of the same.
@jgreen9361 SNP and Green Party. My country's voting system let's me do that. I definitely want a left leaning culture, which my country has. We last voted for a right wing government 68 years ago. We haven't become more left wing. However, England has become increasingly right wing, much more fascistic. Their current Labour would be unrecognisable to the founders of a Party for the people, by the people. (Apologies to America).
@markhutton6055 Labour is definitely not far left. It is, in fact, far to the right of its original remit. The Tories have been flirting with outright Fascism. As evidence I suggest you look to the draconian laws they passed during their last term in office. Those are their deeds, and they are irrefutable.
Private 'Health' (sic) corporations perhaps among the most worrying, at least in terms of the lot of people in the UK. A very, very grim state of affairs!
I used to be a Labour voter but since the second Blair election as a believer in socialism I could not vote for them until Corbyn became the leader. But since Blair's stooge Starmer became leader I have no political home. Being a socialist in the present Labour Party is an endangered species.
Yes, but ( western) Marxism or pre-Thatcher „EngSoc“ (sorry) is not the solution. As a matter of fact, the western „elites“ have completely (!) destroyed economic socialism of any form and swapped it for these sexual, gender and racial doctrines. That was very, very smart. They very well understand the psychology of the „eternal left“. Give them something to criticise the society they live in, lets „make society better“, yesterday the „labouring poor“ in Britain, in France, in … were exploited, but nowadays literally all humankind is oppressed by a tiny (in global perspective) white, male, straight and relatively successful (middle class) minority. Wait a second, so I am the oppressor? Haha. Yes, you are. The Trotskyite strand of the „revolution“, i. e. the US NeoCons. Does this make any sense at all? Yes it does, but it will hurt.
I'm sorry to hear that you feel you have no political Home. You should sit back and watch what this 'NEW' Government does over the next 2 - 3 years and then reassess that statement. There is no appetite for pure Socialism in the UK right now. So Labour has to be pragmatic, whenever they get their hands on Power. Which indeed frustrates Socialist leaning people like yourself and me. That's why the Tories have been able to win consecutive General Elections consistently. The Country needs Labour, Labour needs Socialists like yourself to remind them why they exist to do right by the workers, but this can only be done pragmatically because we can't afford another Tory Government in 5 years' time. Strange this country seems to love voting against its own interests (Brexit) and wonders why it harms itself so much. The rest of the world looks at what we do in this country from afar and shakes their heads in consternation seeing us as basket cases.
Like most Scots I lean to the left. I had always voted Labour until Blair and his pal, the Republican, George W decided to declare a second war on Iraq. I then switched to the more leftist SNP as no more that a protest vote. However, since then, I have seen no reason to switch back. There is no longer a Labour Party.
Maybe, the SNP could become a national party of the left as opposed to a nationalist party.? My serious worry is the level of dissatisfaction at the next GE will be such that the far right parties will get more votes and even make the country even worse. How can we organise against this crowd of capital lovin - capital funded parties?
The SNP is exactly the same as Labour. Woke, anti-white working class, pro-mass immigration to drive up rent prices for boomer home owners and driving down wages. The idea that the SNP is more leftist than Labour or Plaid Cymru or the Lib Dems or the Greens or the New Tories is laughable. They're all equally leftist.
People need to be aware that Tory, Labour and Lib Dems in Scotland hold hands together against the SNP. Their fear of independence is that strong. Why they fear it is beyond me.
It’s a case of meet the new boss, just like the old boss! Labour has been failing the working class since 1997 and has now completely forgotten it’s roots 😢
Well said. Neoliberalism with its greed has so damaged this country and society. I care for everyone... not myself. I'm a natural born caring and socialist. Under Neoliberalism 90+are forgot about. So sad really. My mum had 6 of us. She is a natural socialist. She treats us all the same. We have been brainwashed. Bring back caring and state ownership
Spot on, Richard. Thank you. I believe Labour's support for Sunak's freeports and SEZs is a reflection of what you have so eloquently described. The neoliberal ideology is a cancer at the heart of our politics, and it is only likely to get worse (and very much to the detriment of ordinary people in this country) as private donors, foreign donors and corporates continue to funnel money into politicians at the centre of policy and decision-making in Westminster in the expectation of profit from govt contracts.
Bernie Sanders says since Reagan the share of the wealth generated has gone from the super wealthy taking 10% to them now taking 90% of the wealth. That leaves 99% of the population sharing just 10% of the wealth. It’s no wonder that people can’t afford to raise families and this is why they need immigration to compensate for the low birth rates. The super wealthy don’t need to take 90% of the wealth But the people do need to be able to not only survive but to be able to raise the next generation. Or Britain or at least British people will no longer exist if they cannot afford to raise their own children. Do the neoliberals care if the British people die out ? I don’t think they care just as long as they can make a profit tbh.
Clear, concise and delivered in such a way that we can all understand. You are getting better and better at this Richard. I just wish you were more widely known and listened to
We have a duopoly the same as in America and anyone who challanges it will face the same barrage of onsluaght as the anti-austerity MP did in 2017 and 2019.
Yep. We really need a snappy term for "regulated but uncaptured markets", ie the sort of market they want us to think free market means, rather than the one they deliver
But virtually no one argues for totally free markets. Its presented as the only alternative to socialism by the left, when that just isn't the case. A more market orientated, less taxed, less regulated economy doesn't mean a free for all. The do the same with the NHS, pretending that the only alternative is the American system, when in fact there are many alternatives to a State owned, centrally controlled, almost entirely tax funded, free at the point of use healthcare system.
The original meaning of Free Market was free from privilege. Which I agree we don't have, regulation is more often than not to the benefit of large multinational corporations, as complexity mean small companies cannot compete. There is revolving door between private and public corporations or government. We need to keep all corporation be they private or public as small and local as possible, to stop concentrations of political and economic power. EU is not free trade, it has significant trade barriers to anyone outside it.
@@williamdavison5641 Given that it costs c.$1 billion to bring a new drug to market, around the same for a new airliner and the fastest microprocessors can only be produced by a very small number of large companies, how do you envisage small companies providing these items?
The contradiction is that capitalism is not even itself. Especially free market fundamentalists, they are the most ardent anti-capitalists, destroying choice, property, competition and agency with each of their policies, the things a market is constructed of. They even assert that competitors competing in a market place are unneeded because magic pixie dust will topple monopolies. It’s psychotic thinking.
@@timothyrussell4445Agree..but, that said, I also think Galloway and Farage are cheeks of the same toxic political backside .both neo-fascist (one right-wing populist , the other one pretending to be left-wing but really just an opportunist Islamic vote chaser)
Brilliant Richard and the reason why I've been following you and your website with your weekly bulletin or quite a time now and always found your economic analysis very topical and cutting fundamental education which is difficult to find anywhere esle - a bit like Keval Bharadia's' Revolutionary Reparations' Tobin Tax renaissance campaign to hit capitalist neoliberalism at its core and Gary Economics which shows how anyone can beat the neoliberist financial markets and make yourself a multi-millionaire.
All true. See George Monbiot’s new book “The Invisible Doctrine.” Politics void of ideology simply isn’t politics. Neoliberalism is a pre cursor to fascism, which Mussolini defined as corporatism. It certainly isn’t democracy it’s managed democracy.
“The Labour Party is a moral crusade… …or it is nothing.” - Harold Wilson Great video Richard! When the markets for years have been relied on wholeheartedly by our politicians to bring about success, prosperity and growth, and failed to do so, people need to learn that the state can and does have the tools and resources at its disposal to improve people’s lives where the markets have failed. Markets fail to deliver affordable housing? The state does capital investment from borrowing to front a major house building program and have these houses be owned by the council, not landlords, and generate revenue for their coffers. Market failed to improve water quality? Nationalise the natural monopoly of the water companies so that money generated for the state goes into consistently maintaining and improving the systems “fixing the roof while the sun is shining” if you will. Markets failing to build and invest in public transport? Have the state do capital investment projects with borrowing to build better cycling infrastructure to tackle car dependency in urban areas, invest in good buses brought back into public ownership, same for trains.
Harold Wilson. The Oxford educated career politician who filled his government with the same type of people, for example his Chancellor was an Oxford educated anti communist who worked in the intelligence services. They're all the same type of people as are there today. Rodney could stand up today, trot out the same line and in 50 years time people would talk about him in the same way
@@JSmith19858 Wilson was miles better than Starmer is. Starmer is fundamentally a neoliberal who’s happy to give Ukraine as much money as possible to fight their war but refuses to axe the two child benefit cap, is a serial liar who’s lied to his membership on promises he made to be elected leader, he stands for absolutely nothing. At the very least in his first period as PM in the 60s Wilson refused to send troops to Vietnam, oversaw a period of low unemployment and economic prosperity, abolished capital punishment, partly decriminalised homosexuality, relaxed divorce laws and liberalised birth control and abortion law, did a decent job of maintaining the post war consensus after the Tories in the 50s started to chip away at it economically and whilst I’m not a monarchist, he was the only PM who the late Queen considered an actual friend. Yes he studied PPE at Oxford, and yes his second term oversaw a period of rising unemployment, devaluing of the pound among other things, but compared to many of the PMs we’ve had since (Callaghan, Thatcher, Major, Blair, Brown, Cameron, May, Johnson, Truss, Sunak and now Starmer) I do have more respect for him than many of those. Could you at least acknowledge that that quote is fundamentally true, that the Labour Party SHOULD BE a moral crusade, or it is nothing? That Wilson plainly acknowledged that puts him pretty ahead of Starmer for me.
@@JackMellor498 RU-vid must have deleted your other comment. It's the establishment, anti communist would be anti trade union as they're the only thing that has ever brought change for working people
A lifelong Labour voter and member, I tore up my membership card after Starmer reneged on all his pledges and expelled Corbyn😢 btw George Monbiot has written an excellent intro to Neoliberalism.."The Invisible Doctrine"
Agreed and yet the public, time after time, continue to vote this stuff in. They know what is happening with the health service, they have seen it with dentistry and yet they vote for more and more of it. They have been told that the NHS is being incrementally privatised and the signs are clearly there. They have seen it. Price will eventually become the filter within the NHS to determine who gets treated effectively. Many will eventually fall the wrong side of this barrier but will they then wake up? I somehow doubt it.
They do that thinking Labour is the alternative, then once in power they show they are not. Then the public get fed up with them and vote tory who say they will look after the ordinary folk. They use tax as weapon, and public spending. Also they use the power of the unions to prove that labour is not to be trusted, while the tories are in hock with mega corps. Both parties are two cheeks of the same back side. The end result is a one party state and fascism that rises to get rid of it, but implements a one party state.
Don't vote Labour-In-Name-Only (LINO) or Tory. We need to build a new party of the vast majority, just like our ancestors did a hundred or so years ago.
Very well said. Sadly, this once mocked ideology was and still is promoted by Corporations and the wealthy as it works well for them. And it has spread like a cancer to Canada, the US, Australia, and New Zealand with detrimental consequences. But how do you rid yourself of this abhorrent disease and experiment we have had to endure for almost 50 years? What will it take to consign it to the dustbin of history and poor choices/results for humanity?
It won't happen until it is forced to happen either by design or (more likely in my opinion) by circumstances. There are too many vested interests at stake and politicians are among that group.
In short: Margaret Thatcher, who first brought the iniquitous neo-liberal philosophy to Britain, if she was still alive would look at Starmer and say, "This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased." Just like she did with Tony Blair when she was alive.
British manufacturing is still suffering from the affects of thatcher the milk snatcher and her over eagerness to empty her bowels on the working-class. so called iron lady is dead turning to rust.
So many people have heard of Operation Overlord, Operation Barbarossa, Operation Market Garden, and all the rest of them... But so few have heard of Operation Corporate! How perverse! The Argentine Gov of the day wanted war - as a means of distracting its population from the ravages of Chicago School economic policy - whilst Thatcher and co. wanted the same distraction - to get the same economic policies in 'by the back door', whilst the plebs waved their flags! Then as now, butchery and death matters not a jot to such repugnant personalities, if it serves a function. What stark illustration this is, in the moral worth of personalities in London, in Washington DC. Paris, Berlin no better. What great service corporate Media provides!
Well I am young enough to only be able to remember living under neo-liberalism. I am convinced that the country loves neo-liberalism and votes for the party that gives them this. If I were to ask many people of Richard's generation I would expect them to bemoan the last proper labour Government. I remain hopeful that my children will experience a truly Socialist government.
Thank you so much for putting so succinctly everything that's happened in the past 25 years of British politics. It explains brexit and the movement of the Overton window to the right and privatisation and austerity all in one go. As you say it still leaves the question "how do we get out of this?"
Let's see what the autumn budget holds and the outcome of the railway, water and nhs reforms are before lumping the current administration in with the last shower, shall we. Notice the distinct lack of coherent alternative strategies from our Richard..we pull a the threads too hard and the institutions will push back. Softly Softly me thinks.
You are absolutely bang on mate. I hoped with all my heart that when in the Starmer led party would be more like the old party...I find it very difficult to face up to the fact that regulating cowboy companies - energy, water, broadband - is a thing of the past. Looking after each other - a thing of the past. Everything that the working man has now we have had to fight for tooth and nail...and that's why we created the Labour party. I find it hard to accept that we have been utterly duped, but duped we have been been. It's a hard reality to accept but accept it we must and, yes, the fight will and must continue. Thanks again Richard.
Labour has been neo-liberal since Tony Blair was the leader. Possibly under Kinnock as well. Corbyn took the LP away from neo-liberalism for a while but that was an anomaly.
If only we had a political party that you and fellow thinking people with knowledge and a real left thinking involved - it would give us left thinking folk a real party that represents our beliefs and place to hang our hat and vote accordingly. I feel politically lost!!
Try reading the Green manifesto. The planet friendly stuff is important, but we are all pragmatic socialists in our beliefs and actions. Pretty much all of the old labour principles are there with a sensible environmental filter. It’s why I left labour and went green. My old labour mates are starting to do the same. Strangely, a guy I was at school named Simon Fletcher, who you sometimes see being interviewed during elections, was a Tory. He became a labour member at university and is now a front line advisor. Originally, I foolishly thought that he’d found socialism. How wrong I was. He really found his place under the Blair party. Before she died, Margaret Thatcher said that Blair’s ‘New Labour’ was one of her greatest achievements.
Look at how the SNP have been providing for the elderly and young, making things better in Scotland.. That is why the SNP has been under attack from the English Government, MI5, and Police in the last few years.. Roll on Scottish Independence..
These days my Sundays start with Mr Murphy's early morning video. I look forward to seeing them but I also look forward to the day when he can tell us that something positive has happened. Sadly that is not going to be today but I feel confident that it is coming somewhere down the line.
One angle I'd really like some additional analysis on is the inflationary consequences. You're right, public services are buggered and they need fixing, but we're barely out of an inflationary episode this country has not seen since at least 1990 and now that it looks like rates might be coming back down, it would be ideal not to destabilise this. How much of a fiscal expansion is needed to get us back to a trajectory of functioning public services and what might happen to rates with this cash injection?
The stick in the muds would say how they remember waiting weeks for a telephone in the Post Office days - and of course there's the famous gas cooker sketch from Monty Python, highlighting the bureaucracy that sometimes prevailed, but I remember having our fuse box upgraded for a safer system, for free, under the Electricity Board and let's not get started on the price of a rail ticket! But there you go.
Well although I broadly agree with this assessment, an elephant in the room is being missed. Before we discuss Left or Right, Labour or Tory, State control or Neoliberalism or anything else that pertains to opinions on politics or economics, we should recognise that as a priority we first of all need a degree of competence and honesty in our government institutions and corporations, both of which are clearly lacking. We have got into the habit of not only accepting poor performance, but actively promoting and rewarding it. This applies not only to the state but to the private sector too, but one of the reasons that the idea of neoliberalism appeals is because in the UK, the national and local governments have been so poor at what they are supposed to do.
Yes I agree, a certain level of competence should be needed for anyone in a position of power no matter the level. I think to a certain extent the Civil Service and local government officers did provide a buffer from absolute stupidity but this it seems like much else has been eroded over the years. I see zero positive future for the normal working person in the UK at least until things make a dramatic change, which will be never.
"we first of all need a degree of competence and honesty in our government institutions and corporations" This argument is being used to justify Starmer and his tory policies: the problem is "competence" or "honesty" not the policies. The argument is that you should vote for Starmer like good children because he is competent and honest. He clearly isn't but it was a relatively effective argument that offered a plausible reason to vote Labour. The problem is that Britain declined not because of incompetence and dishonesty of the Tories: that was incidental-it collapsed because the polices were wrong.
The UK has had poor management in most of industry & companies since WW2. With the contract (£232 million) going to KPMG to train Civil Servants et al when they themselves have been fined for outrageous behaviour is risible. The likes of Serco, Sedexo, Capita, G4S, Balfour Beaty get reward for failure time an again because government has destroyed the ability for dept. & councils to run services.
"How do we get rid of the single party that we effectively have?" - many Europeans feel the same; hence the swing to the right in this years elections - something Tony Benn anticipated due to the neoliberal trajectory of the European Union.
As I've said before - the answer to "What can we do about this?" is that we need to educate the masses so that they will vote for a government that isn't economically ignorant. How do we do this? First, we need to educate the people who deliver economic news to the country - who have generally also gone along the Neoliberal economic education channels. We need to pressure economic journalists to seriously look at more progressive economic theories. We need to get them to add progressive economic theory to their news reports - only then will the average person start paying attention to the idea that there is another way of doing economics AND government.
@@PhilDocking I agree but for that you require the establishment the government to invest in the education which would educate our politically ignorant electorate to a level where that our government is completely incompetent. I would love this to happen but I doubt they will invest in it.
@@cdansmith9753 This is why we need to target an education campaign towards the economic journalists, not educate at school/university level - that would have to come later. If people such as @RichardJMurphy, Danny Blanchflower, (plus other influential progressive economists) put together "press packs" for economic journalists, and target specific journalists, they might just take some notice.
@@PhilDocking Spot on it is the Media that drive how people think. An example of this is easy even in our recent past. In 2010 the number of people with issues with the EU under 10% but by 2016 it was 33% and all driven by the Media spreading outright lies and inuendo, even the BBC was so ignorant in the way it covered the subject it fuelled the BS.
Thank you, Richard, for explaining the situation where another government prioritizes helping Ukraine and Israel over the people of Britain and Palestine.
While Corbyn never really broke the neoliberal stranglehold on Labour her came close and winning either GE would have given us a very different government. It's worth acknowledging that and also that Corbyn was the last chance for Labour being good.
There were some who believed in outsourcing but I also saw another possible driver was they did not want to be critised and have deal with the fall out when a public service made a mistake that affected those voters. E.G. a district system failed because of cutting back on maintenance . It was winter no heating long wait for a repair so a lot of constant complaints, but when outsourced it was possible to agree with the complaints and point finger at the outsourced company
Also as a riff on Arthur C Clark, “any sufficiently large corporation or concentration of wealth is indistinguishable from totalitarian rule by wealth”.
Scholz said ''elections cannot be allowed to change Economic policy'. This sentiment might not have been expressed to blatantly in London, but it could scarcely be more clear - we are not being offered any choice!
At (hopefully!) peak Neo-liberalism it is very hard to find any sector which is fit for purpose; and of course, the Public has been re-jigged to provide profit of the Service Sector - at grotesque cost to public good
Good morning Richard, Coffee and education a perfect Sunday morning, as a life long labour supporter this 74 yr old is beginning to labour are the less (just) of 2 evils.
76 year old here. The Labour-In-Name-Only (LINO) party is now, as Richard so ably says, a fully paid up neoliberal party - no more or less than the Tories. They are as evil as the Tories, and take their orders from Davos, not to mention Tel Aviv, not the people who elected them. We need a new political party to represent the vast majority in Britain today.
Месяц назад
I left the UK to work in Europe and sold my home. I made a terrible mistake because it was 1997 and within two years house prices rocketed sky high due to Tony Blair. As someone back then said to me proudly, as he had gained enormously under New Labour ( he was Conservative voter ) that I couldn't afford a broom cupboard to buy. The place; Brighton.
In his book: No Mistakes This Time, Will Hutton charts the political history of laissez fare economics and makes the point that Labour never had a different coherent approach to running the economy. It sought to mitigate the negative effects of capitalism but was never serious about clause 4 and had no alternative model. Despite the demonisation of radical Labour by the press, it has always been a practical day to day party. There are baby steps in the current programme to doing things differently. But the real issue is how any single government is to deal with the continuing neo-liberal consensus in the capital markets which imposes a heavy constraint.