Can we hope that this may signify the return of some sense to the politics and economics of the 21st Century?
After being bashed over the head for years over how imperative deregulation is for the proper functioning of the Economy, how imperative it is we leave everything up to the market that knows best, after the idiocy of the supposed “trickle down effect” of supply side economics, we have at last heard the hint of some reason coming back.
Ed Milliband said he would freeze energy prices, whereupon out come the guns of the terror squad the neoliberal aficionados employ, not unlike neo nazi hit squads, and start screaming No! That is impossible! It would be a disaster! It would lead to energy black outs! The country will be plunged into darkness if any kind of regulation returns! We must be free to hike up prices whenever we chose to keep our profits rising to keep share holders happy! There Is No Alternative! As shrill and piercing in our ears as ever.
Milliband comes back and states the obvious, what no party leader has dared even mutter over the last thirty years. Certainly not Tony Blair who turned citizens into consumers when it came to schooling and health care. Milliband just came out and said, “the King has no clothes.” He said this is the same kind of terrorisation we heard from the banks, the same scare mongering tactics to preserve high profits at the expense of citizens. It is not acceptable and we need to bring back regulation.
Hear hear! The whole financial sector is in dire need of REregulation, so are the huge energy monopolies and most other big businesses for that matter. Regulated capitalism worked very well, and the whole thing started breaking down with the hysterical, dogmatic deregulation mania of the zealots.
The gap between rich and poor has grown out of all proportion, the middle classes are being wiped out, the standard of living for the 99% of citizens has plummeted. So just what has all this deregulation achieved? Well just that. It has accumulated wealth into very few hands at the expense of civilization as a whole.
However, if the energy industry continues to threaten black outs if they are not allowed to hike up prices on citizens whose income is steadily and surely decreasing, I would say they themselves are providing the perfect argument foe Nationalisation!
There! I’ve dared say it!