In the wake of the Murdoch scandals, Charles Moore, influential right wing journalist, acknowledges that the power of global corporate business has corrupted legitimate authority.
Charles Moore bombshell - "I'm starting to think the left maybe right"
In the wake of the Murdoch news scandal Charles Moore, chairman of the influential right-wing think-tank, Policy Exchange opened his Telegraph, column earlier this year with the by-line “I'm starting to think the left might be right”. It's an extraordinary statement from Moore, a staunch defender of the right for 30 years.
He characterises the left view of
"Democratic politics, which purports to enrich the many, is actually in the pocket of those bankers, media barons and other moguls who run and own everything"
and goes on to acknowledge that the Murdoch scandal has
“revealed how an international company has bullied and bought its way to control of party leaderships, police forces and regulatory processes”.
It's interesting to see just how overt this corruption of democratic politics has become in the USA . "Climate Progress", a leftish leaning but impeccably researched Climate Blog, report that Koch Industries and Exxon simply pay directly to have a seat at the negotiating table when regulations involving their businesses are under discussion. If "what happens in America today happens in Britain tomorrow" still holds true, its not a good omen for the future of British politics.
Moore, at least acknowledging there are weaknesses in right wing orthodoxy, is heartening, but the real story isn't "the left is right" or for that matter "the right is wrong". It's recognising the game has moved on. Globalisation has given the world a new aristocracy with the wealth and power to bedazzle mere presidents and prime ministers. Like the ancient privileged classes of France and Russia, this global elite, haunted by the ghost of Marie Antoinette muttering, "let them eat cake", is utterly isolated from the common herd.
The right and left are still trying to relive a battle that was really over post WW2. It was the one for a reasonable allocation of the nation's wealth spread equably among those who worked to create it and fought to protect it - irrespective of class or status. Moore prays for conservatism will be "saved by the blind stupidity of the left". I would pray that all of us can be saved from ruin by recognising the the harm caused by an ideologically led abandonment of the strategic role of the state .
Soaring energy bills illustrate the problem. It isn't"green taxes" that drive spiralling costs. It's the toxic combination of deliberate blindness to the realities of energy supply and demand and a systematic under investment in capacity and intelligent distribution by a privatised energy industry hell bent on maximising profits. The dynamism and enterprise of the private sector can't respond to long term strategic needs that transcend year on year profits and corporate survival. Rightist ideological cant has diminished the state's ability to act in the long term interests of the nation.
The elephant in the room is "how the hell do we, all of us, left or right, make the transition to a sustainable world"? A false distinction between "right" and "left" is as dangerous as a rich and powerful elite covertly buying legislation to further their own profitability.
Corporate dominance in USA has sent a "Perfect Storm" raging through its political system. The current republican stance on US liquidity is by no means its only excursion into irrationality. On the issue of climate change Republican presidential hopefuls reject overwhelming scientific consensus to a man. Any deviation from a stance of “climate change doesn't exist orthodoxy” guarantees the fury of the oil industry funded "Tea Party", Murdoch's US media stable and certain unelectability. This insane state of affairs is the creation of those "bankers, media barons and other moguls who run and own everything".
The truth is that differences between left and right are no longer relevant in a world where the overwhelming political priority should be de-carbonising our economy in a way that doesn't destroy our quality of life. The global elite's determination to pursue profit at any price is just as bigger threat to a rough handed trade unionist oik as as a fully signed up member of the county set squirearchy.
The left long ago accepted that direct state control of business is counterproductive. If Moore's column is an acknowledgement by the right of the need to resist the blandishments of uncontrolled global corporatism and to let go of an ideological rejection of the need for direct state involvement in the direction and development infrastructure we could all still win.
No comments:
Post a Comment