Nothing to see here! [bar the slow creep of totalitarianism]

Cummings at it again! This time dishing out public money in exchange for political favours. In this case, requiring recipients to publicly fawn over the party, to bend the knee. Must have gotten this one out of the North Korean playbook.

Daisy Jackson, ‘Theatres were instructed to ‘publicly thank’ the Government for lifeline grants’, Manchester Evening News

Rigged and Rotten

A short run through some of the painfully obvious ways in which Disaster Capitalism – operating through US-idolising, Social Darwinist meritocrats – stretched out its slimy tentacles from No.10 Downing Street and fucked the shit out of the country. Happy Birthday NHS… Enjoy..

‘The Pro-Privatization Shock Therapy of the UK’s Covid Response’, Rachel Shabi

The Crucifix

 

Several months ago, Adam Tooze warned that ‘the huge public debt commitments that are being made now will, no doubt, serve fiscal conservatives as a cross on which to nail progressive politics from here until kingdom come’.

 

This certainly seems to have begun. Despite promises by the central government to do ‘whatever necessary’ to support local authorities, in the last week, as councils have raised the alarm of impending bankruptcies and inadequate support, Robert Jenrick, Sec of Housing, Communities and Local Government, has chosen to blame their investment decisions – as if there are any investment portfolios performing well in the current environment.

 

“There are some councils that have very significant exposure to commercial investments,” Jenrick told the committee. “Some that are perfectly understandable and some that were perhaps unwise investments to have made in the first place. I have long argued against councils establishing very large commercial portfolios, for example.”

 

The tragic irony is that many local authorities resorted balancing the books with ever greater reliance on commercial investment in response to budget cuts under austerity (cutting an average of about 2/3 off council’s government grants). Now that those investments are reflecting the current economic shut down and short term injections are needed, no doubt the Conservatives will push for what they have been pursuing for the past decade: selling off public assets, no matter how profitable and especially on the cheap.

 

‘Mayors warn of looming council bankruptcies’, Jonny Ball

 

‘ “Whatever it takes”: Has the government broken its promises to local councils?’, Jonny Ball