Shanker Singham is one of the most dangerously divisive people in Britain: he mobilises the word "freedom" to legitimate a destructive ideology where corporations' & rich individuals' have "freedom" FROM having to care about workers, consumers, or the environment, is grotesque.
Shankar Singham is a key player on behalf of the grotesque libertarian-right elite who want to get rid of ALL worker, consumer & environmental protections, as well as ALL taxes, & just have a situation where the rich thrive, & the poor are disposable.
If you want to better understand the nature & history of the destructive & dystopian ideology now playing out which is destroying the environment & taking 99% of the world's population backwards, while rewarding the 0.1% with unimaginable wealth & power:
More detail on how Shankar Singham is in part behind the deliberate destruction of Britain & the replacement of western democracy with kleptocracy. Putin uses tanks & bombs to wield power - UK & US right-libertarians use media, think-tanks, Govt, & voters. bakerstreetherald.com/2020/09/case-2…
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The Government's proposals to tackle the tidal wave of dirty money flooding Britain, while not completely useless, will have limited impact in practice: it’s clear that the problem in the UK has largely been with enforcement, rather than the law itself.
After years of nonsensical cuts, unless extra resources are channelled into the agencies tasked with pursuing unexplained wealth, it’s unlikely much which change. Otherwise they will keep being outgunned by deep-pocketed kleptocrats capable of funding expensive litigation.
The Economic Crime Act allows the government to convey the impression that it is “doing something” about the proceeds of #kleptocracy being laundered in the UK.
But as a response to corruption, focusing so heavily on unexplained wealth orders may well prove misdirected.
How did Putin & Boris Johnson's political ally & friend Viktor Orbán seize control of the media & build an illiberal state in a decade? With foreign billionaire-funded GB News broadcasting, & Murdoch's talkTV launching soon, is the UK heading the same way? ft.com/content/a6beb5…
In May 2021, Boris Johnson met only the 2nd EU leader since Brexit: grotesque far-right racist authoritarian, Viktor Orbán, who doesn't want "our" colour mixed with others.
The Biden administration describes Hungary as 'a totalitarian regime'.
No 10 calls Orbán 'our friend'.
It seems corrupt far-right anti-democratic authoritarian liars, with strong links to deregulatory free-market think tank networks which use dark money to roll back worker, consumer, democratic & environmental protections, is what unites Britain & Hungary.
The 2008 crash was a big influence on the war in Ukraine: it severely damaged western free-market capitalism, allowing state-led forms of capitalism to flourish in China, Russia & the Gulf states.
Is Ukraine becoming a proxy war for competing ideologies?
The 2008 global financial crisis showed markets did not have the ability to solve problems, & it damaged confidence in the political class & democracy itself.
Banks were bailed out while the people endured austerity, causing many to question deregulatory free-market capitalism.
Until now, each different strand of authoritarian capitalism appeared to be its own island, only occasionally linking with another, but today’s Ukraine war appears to change all that. It is fast turning into a proxy war between autocratic and liberal democracy.
Gosh. I wonder which Eton-educated Bullingdon Club member - who in 2007 promised "we will make British poverty history" - caused the massive increase in food bank use & child hunger from 2010?
Food bank use went up by 2,612% while David Cameron was prime minister.
In 2019 it was reported that since Cameron became PM in 2010, the number of emergency food parcels distributed by Trussell Trust food banks had risen from just over 40,000 to well over one and a half million – an increase of 3,900% in just 9 years.
We also found out from The Sunday Times Rich List that between 2009 & 2019, the collective wealth of Britain's richest 1,000 individuals - many of whom donate to the @Conservatives & supported Brexit - increased by £480BILLION.
Given our antiquated electoral system, imho the most likely route to removing the Tories from power is still to elect a Labour Govt. But I can also see how UKIP pulled the Tories & 'the centre' a long way to the right, so I'm not averse to a left-wing party led by @jeremycorbyn.
Inevitably, this tweet arouses strong feelings from two (broadly speaking) camps in particular:
1 the 'Starmer's @UKLabour are Tory lite'
2 the ONLY way to dislodge the Tories is by supporting Labour.
While sympathetic to both these views, I'm up for a bit more nuance on this..
It wasn't just UKIP who pulled 'the centre' to the Right - Farage & Tice's (no-deal) 'Brexit Party' was formed in November 2018 & (arguably) not only pulled the Tories even further right, but many (mistakenly) believed it would split the Right's vote & help the Left at #GE2019.
In Britain & America, increasingly deregulated free-market capitalism has now had FOUR DECADES to solve the problems of affordable housing, secure work, grotesque inequality of wealth & opportunity, divisive populism, & climate change. The truth is, it's made them all MUCH worse.
There is compelling evidence to show that the global network of right-Libertarian free-traders who gave us Brexit & have taken over our country & Govt, want to remove ALL remaining barriers to profit, such as worker, consumer, & environmental protections.
The incomes of 99% of the world’s population REDUCED from March 2020 to October 2021, while the TEN richest individuals on earth had been collectively growing wealthier by £1BILLION/day, with their collective wealth now being more than £1TRILLION! 🧐