Starting this thread to discuss the political and economic ramifications surrounding the coronavirus, so as to keep the original thread focused on Covid 19 rather than the virus that is Boris’s Cabinet of Curiosities.

‘We’re all in this together yeah?’

Let’s recap

2008 – financial crisis – banks bailed out as too big to fail – new financial regulations / safeguards imposed = ‘we’re all in this together’

2013 – Recovery, wealth of UK returns to 2007 pre crisis levels, only redistributed – rollback of financial regulations – bailed out companies return to old ways, using profits for share buybacks and big dividend pat outs, big companies continue to buy up smaller companies, removing competition, monopolising sectors of the economy and further concentrating wealth amongst the few. Creating more companies that have become ‘too big to fail’ leaving themselves with no financial reserves to weather any storms and thus liable to turn once more to governments for a bail out should anything even slightly unpredictable happen. Turns out we weren’t all in this together after all.

2020 = Coronacrisis.

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Massively profitable and poorly managed football clubs alike turn to the government for a pay out to furlough staff.

No safeguards accompanying bail outs, so companies can return to old ways after 2 years, [share buy backs – dividends – corporate raiding etc] Tonight I saw Peston ask Kier Starmer if he thought it was ok that Tesco and Easy Jet were currently paying out huge dividends. Starmer didn’t answer.

Everyones saying things will be fundamentally different once we’re past coronavirus. They’ll be different alright, just like how they were different once we got over the financial crisis.

I’m looking at you Labour, grow a pair. grow them quickly and rip this shambles of a government to pieces. Don’t get suckered into this “we’re all in this together BS or you’ll just end up looking like one of Boris’s patsies and you’ll let down the whole country.

Else in 5 years time we’ll all be saying – ‘Ever had the felling you’ve been cheated’

Emily maitliss went off on a similar rant 👏 on newsnight earlier,

This is excellent pic.twitter.com/xj8DyTxOov

— Dawn Foster (@DawnHFoster) April 8, 2020

I’m with you OP but too much power is with the press and how they can spin any potential change to suit the rich.

What safe guard are you proposing are put in place?

I agree, there is something fundamentally wrong with businesses (be they banks, airlines or rail companies) paying out billions in dividends over a decade then when a known business risk is realised need baling out, only to start that cycle again.

Privatise the profit, nationalise the risk.

You would need to come up with a fairly spectacular argument that the system we have is so good at creating wealth and prosperity vs the alternatives that this glaring flaw is a price worth paying.

Should Labour engage in some form of government of national unity or go in for the kill?

From the other thread

I only ever voted Labour or SNP, I think once for TUSC as a protest vote.

If Labour try and use this cynically for political gain I’ll likely never vote for them again.

So I guess my vote is national unity

There’s no way that things can go back to ‘business as usual’

I’m hoping that there’s going to be one almighty reckoning coming for the parasites like Branson, Phillip Green and Mike Ashley who are expecting to be bailed out with the taxes they’ve dedicated their business lives to avoiding.

The whole tax system needs reforming. Tax-dodgers like Amazon are doing very nicely out the high street being shut (and in a lot of cases gone forever) they need to now be forced into paying their fair share.

My hope is that there is now the political will to finally say enough is enough for this obscene inequality where companies and rich individuals make billions in profit and contribute next to nothing back in taxes

There is a way and I think you know it

It’s just you don’t want it, neither do I with the issues you raise

The whole tax system needs reforming. Tax-dodgers like Amazon are doing very nicely out the high street being shut (and in a lot of cases gone forever) they need to now be forced into paying their fair share.

It’s difficult though, how do you tax “efficiency”.

How do you define a tax that targets Amazon, but doesn’t penalize small online retailers?

Or Starbucks, but doesn’t penalize small cafe’s. Starbucks offshore their profit by claiming the licence fee for using their logo is paid to a subsidiary elsewhere. But how do you write a rule that stops that without taxing your local cafe when they come to you and your crayons for a new logo?

I know in past years the oil industry had to pay one off windfall taxes in good years, could the same be done for Amazon, Starbucks, Vodaphone etc? Rather than setting out rules that say you must pay 30% tax on this, and them finding ways to eliminate anything in the “this” column of their accounts. Just send them a letter in April saying “we’ve decided you owe us £…million, there is no appeal process”. There could still be a formula based on a percentage of income plus say offsets for paying the living wage, number of staff employed etc, but it would be upto HMRC to determine the numbers not tax accountants.

If Labour try and use this cynically for political gain I’ll likely never vote for them again.

It’s an odd one this.

I remember being sat in the office with my m8 wondering when the government were going to actually start shutting things down as it felt like the calm before the storm moment, this was probably the week before the bath half marathon,which still happened although the London one had been cancelled:-(

Watching Italy unfolding and continuing as normal seemed really weird.

Then finally they did the half arsed suggested stuff and not even shutting the pub down immediately so people could have a jolly.

Mrs DOD even flew in from Spain on the last flight with no temp check and DOD’s unca Cyril got the last flight from Toronto again just rammed on a buss and rushed thru no checks again.

So as I get Labour not using this cynically but in in my heart of hearts I’m not sure attacking the people who gave us Italian numbers instead of German or South Korean numbers is actually cynical.

So as I get Labour not using this cynically but in in my heart of hearts I’m not sure attacking the people who gave us Italian numbers instead of German or South Korean numbers is actually cynical.

I got told to “not be nasty” when I pointed out that perhaps 10 years of austerity might be contributing to why we don’t have the labs to do the testing in and why hospitals were already at capacity even before this.

Sure you don’t plan for every eventuality, but this could have been anything that put a strain on the NHS.

So I guess my vote is national unity

Even with my earlier rant I’m all for this, there is no time for politics.

We need to accept that more tax must be paid to finance national infrastructure.

The NHS needs massive investment and not PFI funded bollocks. We have to accept that it will be expensive and possibly “inefficient”.

We need to look to re-nationalise key areas, transport, power etc.

Five things that opposition parties should be pushing on:

1) a more presidential style of government, as introduced by Johnson & Cummings, leaves the country exposed if the small core team is out of action

2) the deliberate delaying of measures to control this virus was a poor decision, we had seen what had happened elsewhere, we needed action, and the reasons given for not doing so were very questionable at the time, and with hindsight there is no way to deny that

3) the actions of this PM before and after taking his post created a nursing crisis that was already costing lives, and paired with this long predicted pandemic, is the UK’s biggest weak point, nurses really matter

4) we don’t have enough police for this, and it was a political decision to deliberately reduce the number of police by the amount that England has

5) not listening to, and working properly with, our European neighbours, wasn’t a mistake, it was a mindset, a highly damaging one

I’m hoping that there’s going to be one almighty reckoning coming for the parasites like Branson, Phillip Green and Mike Ashley who are expecting to be bailed out with the taxes they’ve dedicated their business lives to avoiding.

Dont hold your breath!

Trump and Boris with their anti foreigner views will come out of all of this empowered. (Presuming Boris survives of course)

No need for a government of national unity. The tories have a good majority. No way labour should support this bunch of incompetent loons.

As for the future the tories will push no deal brexit through and then blame all the economic damage on corona then use it as an excuse for turbo charged austerity.

Remember this what their paymasters want

How do you define a tax that targets Amazon

Tax at location of point of sale, not some bullshine made up office address in the Caymans.

If they want to sell things here, then they pay appropriate tax for here.

The whole tax system needs reforming. Tax-dodgers like Amazon are doing very nicely out the high street being shut (and in a lot of cases gone forever) they need to now be forced into paying their fair share.

I can’t believe you spend so long spewing vitriol against Corbyn on here nearly every day, then you come out and advocate one of his policies! That’s some brass neck.

and +1 for post by @kelvin

I’m all for point 4) being expanded to include NHS, and assorted other essential public services / utilities that simply have not performed under the crappy PFI schemes.

edit: this thread could use a proper (serious?) title BTW

It’s an odd one this.

Fortunately their are alternative parties.

Go for the throat when things are under control certainly. Which I didn’t make clear tbf

Those same argumemts can be applied to Scotland too. Every cut budget was a political decision, we’ve been running the NHS on its arse up here for years whilst people are happy to blame Westminster.

Centralisation is brilliant until something like this rips through a super campus or super hospital, schools are shut but we can’t shut hospitals.

As for the “high street”, Intu were in a £2bn black hole before this began, I’d be delighted if they and the other vapid out of town hell holes went under.

I can’t believe you spend so long spewing vitriol against Corbyn on here nearly every day, then you come out and advocate one of his policies! That’s some brass neck.

i’m not sure Corbyn can claim ownership of the idea of ‘getting people to pay their fare share of tax’.

I can’t believe you spend so long spewing vitriol against Corbyn on here nearly every day, then you come out and advocate one of his policies! That’s some brass neck.

Like a lot of people, I don’t have a problem with much of what Corbyn’s policies represented. But I don’t think the bunch or ex-commies that he surrounded himself with had any business being anywhere remotely near No10.

So I guess my vote is national unity

National unity is a worthwhile objective if it actually delivers a concrete plan to address the crisis.

If national unity just means not criticising the failings in our current “leadership”, it’s not much use. That’s just everyone being polite to each other as the ship goes down.

Those in power currently find national unity useful, so as usual we are all in this together – until we are not.

Expect to hear lot’s of ‘now’s not the time for polictics’, ‘now’s not the time for critiscism, we should all pull together’, until it’s all over when it will be; ‘well, what’s done is done, why don’t you move on, look here’s a shiny bauble or a new bit of drama’.

National Unity would look like ensuring the state was in a position to handle a crisis like this and it was managed effectivley.

If Labour try and use this cynically for political gain I’ll likely never vote for them again.

While I agree with you, I am certain the BoJo and Cummings are already/will cynically use CV19 as a propaganda tool to frame Boris as a safe pair of hands in a crisis (made worse to some extent by their own actions), relying on sympathetic words in the aligned rags and the public’s short memories.

Boris was already looking to Channel Winston as the beleaguered great leader before he ended up in the ICU. The language used in press conferences has been about “winning battles” and “wars” on an unseen “enemy”, as if sheer force of will and conviction will ward off respiratory failure.
The reality is that the most vulnerable people to CV19 in our society also happen to be some of the lowest paid with the least influence.

We’re in this for the long haul with a quick fix & rhetoric merchant at the helm, The UK will, like the rest of the world, take a kicking over the next two years, as things stand it’s the poorest in society most likely to feel the fullest effects of that kicking…

Now Starmer is apparently sitting in on various meetings (and being made a privy councillor?) I would like to see him performing the role a “responsible opposition” leader; supporting and challenging the government where appropriate, but also keeping his notes for the inevitable dissection that follows. He’s already asked for the “Exit Strategy” to be published, one assumes that he is asking for this because he knows there is one and believes publishing it would be in the public interest…

How about we start this great renaissance with all of you lot who voted Tory apologising for putting the NHS in this position?

While I agree with you, I am certain the BoJo and Cummings are already/will cynically use CV19 as a propaganda tool

I don’t doubt that

But I’ll not be voting for them regardless

I’m sorry,but if you think anything will change after this, you’re deluded.
The rich will look after their money, and their share holders profits, and the rest of the world will pay for this for eternity. Our taxes will bale out company after company at our expense, and the people at the top will **** off to somewhere sunny with all the money. again.

We haven’t been all in this together since the 70’s or before. Since the Thatcher governments everyone is in it for themselves with those in power being able to take advantage of that.

People have the choice of a government that would be more about society (dare I say socialist) but they don’t want that – or at least they don’t think they do based on what they have been told over the last 40 years combined with their own greed…

How about we start this great renaissance with all of you lot who voted Tory apologising for putting the NHS in this position?

But, but, but , sputter sputter, that would mean that in a democracy we, the people, would have to take responsibility for the actions of the goverment we elected.

Not an idea with any legs on it in my view. I get the feeling that the UK population generally regards government as something that is done to it rather than being part of the process.

We appear to be in an abusive relationship with the Tory party.

We haven’t been all in this together since the 70’s or before. Since the Thatcher governments

Yep, I think it took about 35-50 years maybe, to dismantle the post-war settlement. The similarities between now and the world of the ’30’s is quite startling. I don’t know if Covid-19 is the spark that will bring some sort of societal re configuring. (I doubt it)

bunch or ex-commies

how quaint

We haven’t been all in this together since the 70’s

Were we all in it together in the 60s and 70s?

I ask, because I wasn’t there, or if I was I was in nappies.

I’m sorry,but if you think anything will change after this, you’re deluded.

This.

After the dust settles, we’ll all go back to the way things used to be.

We might be able to vote in a party that turns on the taps in the direction of the NHS and public services a bit more, and dials back the useless PFI mechanism that allows private companies to trouser large contract payments for very little end product.

But we won’t be overturning the social order.

https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/mps-given-10000-extra-to-help-them-work-from-home-during-coronavirus-outbreak

🐷🐷

Absolutely, all in this together.

https://www.politicshome.com/news/article/mps-given-10000-extra-to-help-them-work-from-home-during-coronavirus-outbreak

I’ll be fine on my fold out table, earning a third of an MPs salary and with zero expenses.

The NHS are doing fine with their cobbled together PPE.

Edit: bugger, while I was ranting about that @bruneep beat me to the posting!

how quaint

If only “ex-commies” wasn’t an accurate term. But it is. “Millionaire ex-commies” in the case of key advisors.

Here we go… an “ex-commie” for you:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Murray_(trade_unionist)