Who is running the UK?

[NineToTheSky]

I think that the time has come when we seriously have to consider who is running the UK at the moment: the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, or the Leader of the Opposition, David Cameron. Gordon Brown’s lack of action and leadership over Georgia is remarkable, compared to David Cameron’s high profile approach.

Gordon Brown faced accusations of “dithering” after David Cameron flew to Georgia for a meeting with the country’s leaders to show Britain’s solidarity. Labour MPs questioned why the Prime Minister had left it to the Conservative Leader to visit the beleaguered nation and had not sent a government minister or even convened a formal press conference on the issue himself.

President Bush, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel have all had their say. Why is our leader always dancing in the shadows on his own?

[tagos]

@NineToTheSky

I think that the time has come when we seriously have to consider who is running the UK at the moment: the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, or the Leader of the Opposition, David Cameron. Gordon Brown’s lack of action and leadership over Georgia is remarkable, compared to David Cameron’s high profile approach.

President Bush, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and the German Chancellor Angela Merkel have all had their say. Why is our leader always dancing in the shadows on his own?

Because he doesn’t want to engage in pointless grand-standing or show too much solidarity with the ethnic cleansing, city-shelling aggressors who kicked the whole thing off in the first place?

David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, has been taking the lead. As he should. Brown would probably inadvertently start another war if he bungled around over there.

But to answer your question - Murdoch and a herd of rich faceless business men who set the constraints within which politics takes place probably actually run Britain in the meaningful sense.

[NineToTheSky]

@tagos

But to answer your question - Murdoch and a herd of rich faceless business men who set the constraints within which politics takes place probably actually run Britain in the meaningful sense.

Hmm…provocative. Please expand.

[Quartz]

France has the EU Presidency, so Sarkozy speaks for Europe and that includes the U.K… But fundamentally, Brown’s a coward. He bottled challenging Blair all those years ago. He bottled calling an election last year.

On the other side, Cameron has little to lose and much to gain. And the people he visits know he can do little himself directly. Further, Brown is on holiday, so in this instance you should be properly asking the Deputy Prime Minister, who is currently in the hot seat.

[tagos]

@NineToTheSky

Hmm…provocative. Please expand.

Not provacative at all. Murdoch controls the popular newspapers the sun and the Times and sets the context. Blair et al have always got his cock up their ass. Business and the general economy is the context in which politics, ‘being the art of the possible’ takes place.

The veto power capital has over national politics is not that controversial. Capital flight in response to politics money doesn’t like happens all the time in the world. As does moving money to tax havens if you don’t like tax policies - which also constrains the political possible.

It’s just how, for good or ill, the deregulated financial markets work and is how transnational corporations and the rich pay so little tax.

Capital flight

The international financial system facilitates trillions of dollars of capital flight from developing and developed countries to onshore and offshore financial centres, with the active participation of banks and other financial institutions. The consequences are massive tax evasion, a resultant erosion of state budgets, and rising disrespect for the law.

The international financial architecture must be redesigned. The UN general assembly at the 2005 world summit resolved to “support efforts to reduce capital flight and measures to curb the illicit transfer of funds”. The relevant international organisations that, working together, can achieve such a redesign are the IMF, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the UN.
$255 billion in lost tax revenues

Research by the Tax Justice Network has revealed that the amount of funds held by individuals in offshore and onshore tax havens, and undeclared in the country of residence, is about $11.5 trillion1 . This estimates capital flight from all countries, and not only from developing countries. Annual worldwide income on such undeclared assets is estimated to be about $860 billion, and the annual worldwide tax revenue lost is approximately $255 billion. That figure is equal to the annual funds needed to reach the UN’s Millennium Development Goals.

The IMF and Capital Flight

Data in the US and UK show that the vast majority of the largest companies, especially transnational corporations (TNCs) pay little or no tax on profits, and wealthy individuals pay a much lower proportion of their income in tax than do the poor. A radical reform of international tax cooperation is essential to end the abuses of tax havens and offshore finance, and restore tax capacity to national states.

National governments are relatively powerless - as has been shown by the ongoing Credit Crunch - created by capital but whose effects set the boundaries of what is possible.