I am looking at the current state of the UK Government and in 50 years of active political engagement first with the old Liberal Party, then the coalesced Liberal Democrats and, since my return to Scotland, the SNP I have never seen such levels of corruption in a UK Government than are extant now.
The economic theorists call it "Disaster Capitalism" where previous publicly owned assets and services are sold off at bargain basement prices with the "little lie" that this is the only way to protect the service or the public can buy shares in the newly privatised company at special rates, scam. Those who purchased British Gas shares have seen their value collapse as a succession of take overs and buy outs diluted their original holdings of "non voting" shares.
The reality and aim of "Disaster Capitalism" is to focus wealth and power in an ever smaller group of people, to deliberately grow the divide between the super rich and the rest of society. It is an economic theory of division, break up of cultural and societal norms, hatred and violence. One manifestation of "Disaster Capitalism" was the Trump supporters attempts to suborn Congress by "taking it over" because the guy who had made them all worse off, given even greater tax breaks to his rich pals at their expense had been democratically beaten in the presidential "race". It was a classic case of the Scottish football supporters oft heard cry of "we wis robbed" taken to the extreme because they did not like the "refs" decision, there had been no electoral scam. Their man lost fair and square and by quite a margin.
This is what the disaster capitalism being pursued by the likes of Rees-Mogg and his hedge fund pals does, the drip, drip, drip of corrosive little lies in the media to shift what should be a governmental responsibility to being some one else's fault until the great unwashed lose their orientation and start self justifying why it is right the NHS should be run by the more "effective" private sector up to the point they next want to use the NHS and, in England, can wait up to six weeks for a NHS GP appointment in many health trust areas. Of course the lack of appointments is not the government's fault it is the "lazy" GPs fault and has nothing to do with the UK Government ignoring all the warnings of the collapse of GP services across the UK as the last of the "baby boom" generations retire. The BMA GP committees best attempts at ensuring few would want to be GPs with their constant cries of being overworked and GP services near the point of collapse; not a good recruiting image to enthuse any young Doctor to take on GP training. Now throw in Brexit and the movement of EU doctors and nurses back to their own countries and you have a disaster on your hands, a disaster the private health and insurance sector are rubbing their hands in glee over.
The latest (English) Government GP contract in England has a number of penalty clauses which will make it even harder to provide traditional GP services. GPs in England are now heading down the same death by medical corporations tunnel which NHS dentistry in England was driven down in the 1990's, it is already happening with GP contracts being handed out to the likes of Virgin Healthcare to provide services because there are no GPs who want to take on the job. The big US health Insurance Corporations are already sticking their fingers into this pie via a number of UK health shell companies who have a surprising number of both Labour and Tory MPs on their boards or acting as "advisers".
There is evidence that corporate run GP services are deliberately delaying NHS appointments but are offering next day appointments for £50 a time with their "private GP services" which turn out to be the doctor you would see in six weeks on the NHS. Of course any prescription from the private GP appointment would be a private prescription; "That'll be another £25 per item, I thank you." and the returns from disaster capitalism grow ever greater with top and bottom slicing going on.
We are not talking about entrepreneurs or free marketeers for whom the shrinking market caused by Disaster Capitalism is an anathema, as are the hard borders to trade and movement of employees this extreme form imposes as part of its process of greater control by fewer people. Brexit was "done" because the current cabal at the centre of the Tory Government are pursuing disaster capitalism to enrich themselves and their close friends at the expense of the UK State and its taxpayers and for no other reason.
The lie they sold to get Brexit done only really appealed to those who believe the old adage "an Englishman's home is his castle" and the ethnic view that "All foreigners are bad for the country and a threat to us English" except that is not actually what the current Tory Government believes as an Englishman's home is actually an acrue-able asset in their eyes to make them richer or foreclose on their mortgage when they lose their job or stagflation eats up the margin between home and homelessness. The Tory Government believe homelessness is the fault of the homeless so there will be no tears at Tory HQ or in Westminster as you lose your home.
Unfortunately, like the Trump supporters belief in the second coming of their man to be made President instead of Bidden, a large enough volume of English voters bought the narrow, ethnic, English nationalistic pish spouted by the likes of Farage and still can not face up to their failure. In the meantime the UK standard of living plummets as stagflation takes its toll on wages and living costs. Previously solid SME's go to the wall and the energy "free market" falls to bits around us as all the smaller supplier fry are destroyed.
None of this is any worry to the Tory disaster capitalists as the companies they invest in hoover up ever greater proportions of the UK energy market for themselves while the collapsed SME's are not worth the trouble. Anyway; who needs to make anything in the UK when you can get it from SE Asia cheaper.
The Cambo Oil and Gas Field will go ahead, as climate change is just another thread to disaster capitalism's potential income stream and the shareholder value of hard assets like oil and gas will remain at a premium. No matter what was decided at COP26 in Glasgow, shareholder value and return rules for the disaster capitalist. Next move will be for the big corporations to buy up fresh water licenses and turn that into a shareholder asset, as water shortages increasingly stalk the world as part and parcel of climate change. Nestle are just one big corporation who are looking into the feasibility of turning fresh water into an asset and the potential returns doing so will bring.
Bungling Boris is just the useful fool the disaster capitalist thinkers in the Tories, Rees-Mogg, Gove et al needed to hide behind to get the real job, wrecking the UK economy, done while lining their own pockets, those of their backers and Tory Grandees.
This is the UK economic cycle Scotland is currently bound in, it is not one I wish to be part of and whether Scotland can weather the economic storm being generated by Tory disaster capitalism, in the UK, until 2023 is a serious concern of mine.
