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| Volume 52 Number 23, October 8, 2022 | ARCHIVE | HOME | JBCENTRE | SUBSCRIBE |
In the conflict within the echelons of the ruling elites, the contention to capture exclusive hold of the levers of executive power, the police powers concentrated in and wielded by the executive, has escalated into a situation where the executive is at war with itself.
The contention is one between those, represented by the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who stand for schemes which make no bones about the aim of paying the rich and continuing the privatisation of the public sector and social programmes; and those whose manoeuvres were evident in the "U-turn" performed by Truss and Kwarteng in not going ahead with the proposal to scrap the top tax band of 45% on incomes of over £150,000 p.a. It looks like the latter factions are concerned that the open espousing of wrecking the economy under the veneer of "going for growth" will jeopardise their own chances of being at the heart of government.
Reports at the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham show that the Truss-Kwarteng faction were in a minority as the pound plunged in value against other currencies, and the Bank of England intervened to buy government bonds. There were also fears that further interest rate rises would cause "turmoil in the housing market", as reports said. In other words, home owners would find it impossible to afford their mortgage payments. Furthermore, Truss and Kwarteng were putting forward a programme of their own making, creating anger and fear that the Conservatives, having long-since jettisoned the conception of being a "one-nation" party, were in danger of being wiped out in a coming general election.
All this is taking place in the acute cost-of-living crisis for working people. People are being left to fend for themselves, while Truss and Kwarteng talk about "growth". All is economic anarchy and chaos. Suella Braverman, the new Home Secretary, is taking over from Priti Patel the mantle of attacks on and denigration of immigrants and asylum seekers, as well as the racist treatment of national minority communities, as the call is intensified that all should espouse so-called "British values" and adopt that outlook. The Education and Health secretaries further push privatisation and blame teachers and health workers for the collapse of these social programmes.
All of this indicates that the old forms of the political institutions have become dysfunctional, they no longer fulfil the function of a party in power and Her (or His) Majesty's Opposition ready to take over the reins of power. Private interests are at war at the heart of government, and back different sections. The old forms are unable to keep this contention in check and sort out the differences. Neither is social democracy in action to keep the workers in check, though the disinformation pumped out emanating from the powers-that-be who represent the status quo seeks to disorientate the working class and attempt to prevent it from adopting its own vantage point. There is but a flimsy veneer of speaking about the public good, and the old conception of a public authority has collapsed. Meanwhile, all factions take a stand in international terms which is pro-war, which serves also to entrench divisions within the domestic polity. The talk about creating a more "political" or a "slimmed-down" monarchy is one proposal which is being chewed over in an attempt to rescue and safeguard the old constitutional order.
In these circumstances, the working class must envisage and unite to bring into being new political forms, whereby they can freely speak in their own name and together decide on a direction for the economy and society which favours them, which is in the interests of society as a whole.