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item0079A 1090, 1091 1090 16 May 2005
Capitalism The maverick features of "capitalism" were on show again this week, for all to see. For it simply means "plutocracy" - that is, "dominance by rich men..."
Malcolm Glazer, in taking over Manchester United, was content to treat this great members' club as a mere item of private property, an organisation which had put itself into play in the capitalist game, by floating on the Stock Exchange. That single move made it the target of every merchant venturer, maverick, marauder. Glazer has played his capitalist cards right, by placating other capitalists - and ensuring that those employed by, and those those supporting, the Club counted for nothing. That's capitalism, Folks. Money talks. Private property rights talk. And while I reject many of the anti-capitalist proposals of the Old TU Left, my heart is with them - I share many of their value judgments about this seedy dominance by private property. But it is so powerful that it will require consummate political skills for its defeat...
Lord Clive Hollick was the other marauder, condemned this week by 76% of his shareholders for having milked his own company United Business Media of £250,000 as a personal " golden goodbye" bonus. But the vote of the shareholders will count for nothing, because the artificial person (i.e. the abdroid, the "company") of which he was Chief Executive and Managing Director had already done "its" deal with him.
Bollocks, Clive. Deserve it? As the Financial Times said last week, you were only doing your job, for which you were already paid many hundreds of £'000 a year. It's sheer, unmitigated, greed, Clive, and you know it...
1091 16 May 2005
Public Primacy
The fine-tuning of the sectors, and their constitutional inter-relationship, is a proper subject for socialist inquiry and debate, both nationally and internationally.
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Clive Hollick is a nice guy, and a Labour
peer: I've met him several times, through the Labour Party and the Labour
Finance & Industry Group. But on this occasion, as a senior manager
exploiting the corporate system, he has simply lost his way, his sense of
principle. He says he will take the money - "I would not
have accepted the bonus if I thought I did not deserve it." 
This is to put down a marker with you, for
future debate, for there is no time today.
I acknowledge that the new Labour Government will continue to
explore the provision of public services "by contract", both with private
companies and charities. Indeed, I applaud that, for socialists
have no interest in engaging State administration in sectors where it is
unnecessary - I am with Tony Blair, on that point. I dissociate
myself from the blanket rejection of PFI which occasionally surfaces, on
the old Left.
But where is
the "right line" to be drawn?
That is the question, and it is an important one. It may be a matter of sector (for
instance, I consider the out-sourcing of prison construction and
management to the private sector is wrong, and should be reversed).
On the other hand, I am perfectly content with the outsourcing of leisure
centres, and some NHS specialist treatment centres, given appropriate
contract terms (and I recognise, as a lawyer, that those contracts are
not easy to draft...). And it may be a matter of method: I do not approve of 100% bus-service
deregulation, but I do approve
of "London regulation", where key control powers are retained by the
State, yet the buses are privately owned and operated.