Mittal scandal exposes sleazy Labour
Blair – the Bosses’ Puppet
Tony Blair, bosses’ puppet. Cartoon by Alan Hardman, photo Alan Hardman
NEW LABOUR came to power in 1997 promising to clean up politics. This empty promise was never going to be realised – New Labour had made another, more serious, promise to the City of London and the unelected multinational corporations.
By Hannah Sell
In 1998 Peter Mandelson declared: “We want Britain to be the most business-friendly environment in the world.” New Labour kept this promise – they’ve followed every whim of big business.
Whose interests are served by privatising our public services? Not ours – for us it means the destruction of the NHS, less secure, more expensive housing and unaffordable, unsafe transport.
But for the finance companies New Labour asked to ‘investigate’ the case for privatisation (PriceWaterhouseCooper and Andersen) and who unsurprisingly concluded privatisation was a great idea, it has meant millions of pounds extra profit.
Blair says that he suggested to the Romanian government that they sell their steel industry to steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal because it was good for Britain’s steel industry.
Presumably that’s also why Britain’s representative at the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development was instructed to support Mittal’s application for a £70 million loan to buy the Romanian steelworks!
Never mind that Mittal’s company only employs around 100 workers in Britain, and has heaped cash on US politicians to ‘encourage’ them to support higher tariffs on steel imports to the US – which would further weaken Britain’s enfeebled steel industry.
Never mind either that Mittal pays no income tax or capital gains tax on his worldwide income, using a loophole which Blair said he’d close in 1997!
Mittal became a billionaire by buying up steel plants and sacking thousands of their staff. Blair recommended him to the Romanian government. Mittal is bad for workers in Britain, Romania or any other country.
But New Labour puts the interests of fat cats like Mittal first. The inevitable result is corruption and sleaze. In this society the only kind of political party that can be truly free from sleaze is one that fights, not for the millionaires, but for the millions.
The socialist alternative
The Socialist Party is fighting to build a party made up of, and representing, working class people. Our elected representatives get no privileges – they live on the average wage of a worker.
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