UK Elections: Business as Usual Triumphs
by Stephen Lendman
May 7 general elections approach. Britain is like America. It's all over before polls open. Monied interests win every time.
Ordinary people lose out more than ever in modern memory. It shows in opinion polls.
Only 16% of voters trust politicians. Why anyone besides well-off Brits do they'll have to explain.
It doesn't matter who wins on Thursday. Torries and New Labour are even in polls. They're like Republicans and Democrats in America - two sides of the same coin, not a dime's worth of difference between them.
Neither major party is expected to win a majority. Expect coalition government with smaller parties to follow. They largely support the same regressive policies.
All politicians lie. Nothing they say can be believed. New Labour leader Ed Miliband maintained the standard saying Britain's "clear choice on Thursday (is) between a Labour government that will put working people first or a Tory government that will only ever work for the privileged few."
Britain's "clear choice" is none at all. Monied interests run things. Bankers top the pecking order.
Politicians come and go. One major party or the other wins. Things stay the same.
Neoliberal harshness, financialization, weak unions, offshoring manufacturing, privatizing state enterprises, deregulation, and disappearing social justice characterize Britain's economy.
London's Guardian warned of a "hit list of (more) welfare cuts" coming.
Voltaire once explained British society saying its people "are like their own beer; froth on top, dregs at bottom, the middle excellent."
Today's froth never had it better. Poor Brits are enduring their hardest times since post-WW II recovery.
Middle class society is fast disappearing - like in America. Britain's weekly Spectator magazine says it's "shrinking and sinking."
"The lifestyle that the average earner had half a century ago - reasonably sized house, dependable healthcare, a decent education for the children and a reliable pension - is becoming the preserve of the rich."
"Middle-class pensioners look on amazed at how their children, now into adulthood, seem to have a far harder time."
Rich elites run things more than ever. They doubled their wealth since 2009. The average worker earns less when adjusted for inflation and wage cuts.
Former Bank of England governor Mervyn King said middle class society is enduring the longest squeeze in living memory. Rich folks never had it better.
London is unaffordable to live in. House prices average over 0,000. The average wage is less than ,000.
In January, thousands participated in a March for Homes rally. They demanded solutions to unaffordable housing prices - worsening as they escalate.
They carried banners saying "People before profit." Build council homes (reasonably priced ones for working class people)." "Take the wealth of the 1%."
Rents surged an average 13% annually since 2010. So have repossessions and evictions. Britain increasingly is unfit to live in - just like America.
New Labour claiming "Britain can be better" rings hollow for millions enduring increasing hardships.
They're "all the same," growing numbers of voters say about a system increasingly ignoring their needs.
They promise one thing. They do another. Serving monied interests and allying with Washington's war machine matter most.
Respect Party Bradford West MP George Galloway is running for reelection. He calls himself "your traditional, much-loved black cab."
"You don't know what you've got until it's gone. There are not a lot of us black cabs around any more."
His constituency is one of Britain's poorest. It's struggling to reinvent itself. Despite his best best efforts, he's up against a corrupted, uncaring system.
He's one of 650 House of Commons members. "Recovery, what recovery," he asks?
"We keep hearing that the economic recovery is better in Britain than in any other European country."
"Well it may be in London and the Home Counties, but it certainly isn't here" and most other places in Britain.
Millions are suffering. Food banks are proliferating, Galloway explained. "Can you imagine what the country will look like by 2020 if these barbarians are returned" to power, he stressed.
"We need investment in jobs and infrastructure…But it won't come under the Tories or this miserable local Labour administration." Or New Labour if it bests the Torries nationwide.
Social justice is fast disappearing. Force-fed austerity is official UK policy.
So is growing wealth inequality. It's risen four times faster since 2008 compared to the seven preceding years.
It bears repeating. Britain is like America - governed of, by and for its privileged elites alone.
It's corrupt, fundamentally unfair and ruthlessly anti-democratic. Young people have no futures.
An entire generation is lost. Social welfare cuts hits Britain's most disadvantaged hardest.
Inequality is booming. Politicians able to make a difference don't care. Increasing amounts of public wealth in private hands is a slippery slope to third world status.
Margaret Thatcher escalated inequality. She oversaw one of the greatest ever transfers of wealth to British society's most well-off.
David Cameron is worse. New Labour's Ed Miliband is no better. Robbing poor Peter to pay rich Paul is official bipartisan policy.
It's endorsed by Liberal Democrats, Britain's third ranked party. It's neither liberal nor democratic. It's hard right like the rest.
On Thursday, voting options are death by hanging or firing squad. Ballot choices exclude government serving everyone equitably.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
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