Britain in Decline and The Rise and Fall of Neoliberalism and Thatcherism
We Must Never Forget or Forgive the Enemies of progressivism and Progressive Values
Composite: The Guardian
The Final Outcome: The Humiliation and Caricaturisation of Neoliberalism and Thatcherism
Now it is glaringly obvious that Thatcherism and Neoliberalism, are nothing but a socio-political and an economic ideology that rewards psychopathic personality traits by inflicting inhumanity, anxiety, fear, hopelessness, pain, poverty, injustice, racism and chaos for the many, whilst facilitating thieving by the the few, for the few, and of the few. This inhumane and false ideology in turn has changed our ethics, values and our personalities, and has in the process brought out the worst in us.
The Fall and Humiliation of Liz Truss should Herald a New Beginning
Politicians in general and the Tory ministers in particular: Are You Hearing the Cries of your Constituents?
Time for Repentance and Humility. Time to Discover What it means to be Human
Time to Rebuild Trust with the British people
Enough of Decline and Humiliation, the Lies of Thatcherism to put Great back into Great Britain!
The time is Now to Wake Up to a New Beginning
N.B. Amid all the misery, pain and repeated failure of decades of experimentation with Neoliberalism and Thatcherism in Britain, Truss's socio-political and economic actions were wicked. They were nothing short of desperation and self-harm. Her actions also exacerbated the already tarnished image of the Tories in the face of a crisis of confidence, reputation and trust in politics in general and the Tory governments in particular.
To my mind, Truss’s humiliation alongside of her spectacularly discredited, dismal so-called Trussonomics , surely has, once and for all, put the final nail in the coffin of this inhumane and false ideology. Thus, perhaps we can now be more hopeful and feel more positive that her fall from grace will in turn herald a new beginning and a new story of progressivism to build a better country in the interest of the common good, as I had tried to press upon her only a few weeks ago when she was first ‘selected, by just 81,000 Tory Party members to lead our country: My Plea to Liz Truss: Our Country Needs Caring, Healing and Transformation
Photo: Getty Images
Thatcherism Mark II like the one before it, Thatcherism Mark I Fell in Disgrace, Humiliation, and the Global Ridicule and Laughter
They Privatised Everything, Devalued Education, Devalued the Values and in the Process Devalued Themselves, Heartless, Souless, and totally Useless
‘Liz Truss is the nearest thing we’ve got to Margaret Thatcher'- Said the guy who got it spectacularly wrong on Margaret Thatcher, Liz Truss, Brexit and everything else on earth!
‘Back in July BBC’s Nick Robinson interviewed Liz Truss.
He asked: “Will borrowing billions of pounds, you say over £30 billion, increase or decrease inflation?”
Ms Truss replied “My tax cuts will decrease inflation.”
Mr Robinson interjected: “Really? You don’t point to a single Chancellor or a single Governor of the Bank of England, a single leading economist who thinks that cutting taxes with borrowed money does anything other than increase inflation.
Ms Truss hit back: “Patrick Minford. He’s written an article about it this weekend.”- The London Economic
Don’t you think the time has arrived to hold to account those who have lied to you, cheated and humiliated you and have insulted you and your intelligence ?
Britain’s New Prime Minister Liz Truss Can Be a U.K. Powerhouse Just Like Margaret Thatcher Was
Trussonomics: who were doomed mini-budget’s biggest cheerleaders?
The Destruction of our World and the lies of Milton Friedman
Patrick Minford: maverick economist who inspired Truss and Thatcher
The Damning Impact of a Toxic Philosophy: The Tragedy of Ayn Rand
The Neoliberal Road to Serfdom
On the Road to Serfdom, Death and Destruction With the Koch Brothers
Throughout history Britain’s ruling class has created crisis after crisis – just like now
‘Why Are Our Politicians So Crap?’ The rise and fall of Britain’s political class
Photo via The Guardian
The Daily Telegraph also enthusiastically backed Truss, declaring she was the “competent and proficient” candidate who is “ready to assume the highest political office in the land”.
The Daily Express went further, saying: “Thanks partly to her long involvement with centre-right thinktanks, no one at the top of her party has a better understanding of policy development, or a deeper knowledge of the British state and its failings.”
Allister Heath, the editor of the Sunday Telegraph, went further and declared Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget to be a “moment in history that will radically transform Britain”.
“The neo-Brownite consensus of the past 20 years, the egalitarian, redistributionist obsession, the technocratic centrism, the genuflections at the altar of a bogus class war, the spreadsheet-wielding socialists: all were blown to smithereens by Kwarteng’s stunning neo-Reaganite peroration,” he wrote.-Jim Waterson
Moreover, we must never forget that: ‘Every recent Conservative prime minister has placed the interests of transnational capital above the interests of the nation. But, to a greater extent than any previous leader, Truss’s politics have been shaped by organisations that call themselves thinktanks, but would be better described as lobbyists who refuse to reveal who funds them. Now she has brought them into the heart of the government.
‘Her senior special adviser, Ruth Porter, was communications director at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), an extreme neoliberal lobby group. An investigation by the democracy campaign Transparify listed the IEA as “highly opaque” about its funding sources. We know from a combination of leaks and US filings that it has a history of taking money from tobacco companies and since 1967 from the oil company BP, and has also received large disbursements from foundations funded by US billionaires, some of which have been among the major sponsors of climate science denial. When she worked at the IEA, Porter called for reducing housing benefit and child benefit, charging patients to use the NHS, cutting overseas aid and scrapping green funds…
‘Her political secretary, Sophie Jarvis, was head of government affairs at the Adam Smith Institute (also “highly opaque”), and funded, among others, by tobacco companies and US foundations.
These groups represent the extreme fringe of neoliberalism…In his autobiography Think Tank, Madsen Pirie, founder of the Adam Smith Institute, explained how it worked. Every Saturday, in a wine bar in Leicester Square, staff from the Adam Smith Institute and the Institute of Economic Affairs would sit down with Conservative researchers and leader writers and columnists from the Times and Telegraph to plan “strategy for the week ahead” and “co-ordinate our activities to make us more effective collectively”. The Daily Mail weighed in to help the lobbyists refine their arguments and ensure there was a supportive article on its leader page every time they published a report.
‘But now the thinktanks don’t need a roundabout route. They are no longer lobbying the government. They are the government. Liz Truss is their candidate. To defend the interests of global capital, she will wage war against any common endeavour to improve our lives or protect the living planet.’- George Monbiot
Lest we forget, there were many progressive observers, including myself that had tried to show the now fallen Liz Truss how she might be a better PM. But sadly like her hero she remaind stubborn, arrogant and short-sighted until it was too late:
My Plea to Liz Truss: Our Country Needs Caring, Healing and Transformation
As noted above, it is now glaringly obvious that: Thatcherism and Neoliberalism, are nothing but a socio-political and an economic ideology that rewards psychopathic personality traits by inflicting inhumanity, anxiety, fear, hopelessness, pain, poverty, injustice, racism and chaos for the many, whilst facilitating thieving by the the few, for the few, and of the few. This inhumane and false ideology in turn has changed our ethics, values and our personalities, and has in the process brought out the worst in us.
Thanks to Liz Truss, a self-declared mad Thatcherite, this false and inhumane ideology is now fully and officially discredited and ready to be dumped in the dustbin of history. This can best be seen today in the country that to all our shame and guilt gave the world the horror of Thatcherism over 40 years ago, lest we forget.
Now is the Time to Celebrate the Demise of Neoliberalism and the Timely Death of Thatcherism.
Liz Truss, the fallen PM and her sacked Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng, were amongst five Zombie Tory MPs who wrote an infamous book and called it ‘Britannia Unchained: Global Lessons for Growth and Prosperity’ The tragic socio-economic and political events in Britain in the last few weeks, since the two comical partners introduced their fancy ‘Mini Budget’ has now once and for all proved that Thatcherism is finally dead and buried.
These two who between them have made ‘Unchained Britannia’ the butt of jokes and laughter at home and abroad, have also resurrected Karl Marx by reminding us that, yes, he was so correct, so to the point: History does indeed repeat itself – the first time as tragedy, the second as farce.
Thatcher Mark I was truly a disaster, destruction and tragedy. Thatcher Mark II (Liz Truss) is truly a farce, a joke that so nicely buried Thatcher Mark I. Thank you Liz for your services to Britannia Unchained!!
In the last few weeks the junking of neoliberalism in Britannia has clearly shown the world the inhumanity of Thatcherism, the so-called mumbo jumbo, voodoo economics.
Whilst aware of the consequences and the cost of this inhumanity, this ‘Bastard Economics’, and mourning its victims, nonetheless, now is also the time of celebration that finally Thatcherism is dead and buried.
As a person who has been a life-time critique of Thatcherism and neoliberalism, I cannot be happier: At long last we now all know the TRUTH.
Nota bene
The Broken and Dehumiased Economic Model
(First published as an email to the GCGI members in May 2011)
‘Do you remember Margaret Thatcher, the so-called Iron Lady!! She told the Brits that she was going to put the “Great” back into “Great” Britain. Do you remember? Then, she told us this can only happen if we accept and implement the “Washington Consensus”, the so-called dreaded neoliberalism. She told us that there was no alternative. She told us we will all prosper and develop more fairly and equitably. She won election after election. Everything was privatised, deregulated, self-regulated. Industry, manufacturing, (the real economy) was destroyed. Instead, the banks and the bankers were encouraged to rule the world. The economists with no principles and values were “bought” and the business schools, such as Harvard and Columbia were showered with money to act as “Cheerleaders” for the dreaded neoliberalism (see the Inside Job for evidence). Communities were dis-mantled and dis-organised. We were told that there is nothing as a society and community. We are all in it just for ourselves, we were told. Destructive competition at the expense of life-enhancing cooperation, collaboration and dialogue was greatly prompted. We were told to say no to love, kindness, generosity, sympathy and empathy and say yes to selfishness, individualism and narcissism, as these values will fire the engine of capitalism and wealth creation! In short, the hell with the common good, we were encouraged to believe.
``We were brain-washed. Our other Prime Ministers repeated her nonsense and have carried on her footsteps. It is now over 30 years since the neo-liberalism experiment in Britain. Are we any “Greater” than we were in 1979? Are we any fairer or more equitable? The country is nearly bankrupt, with public and private debt at unprecedented levels, with the greatest levels of poverty and wealth disparity ever. The house of neo-liberal capitalism is now at its nadir of decadence.”
‘You see, all those interested in life’s bigger picture, have been saying the same, over and over. The neo-liberals are not in touch with humanity. They will prostitute all in the interest of profit maximisation, cost minimisation, highest return to the shareholders, and the biggest and juiciest bonuses for the CEOs, the bankers and their lackeys.’
A Reflection on Neoliberalism/ Thatcherism: A Pick from our Archive and a selected few from the media
Welcome to the doom loop of Tory Britain: an austerity that kills, a democracy routed
People’s Tragedy: Neoliberal Legacy of Thatcher and Reagan
The Broken Economic Model and the Inhumanity of the Lost Decade of Austerity
Bastard Economics of Greedy Neoliberalism and the Killings of the Innocents in London Tower
Hunger in Britain: cruel and unnecessary
Economic Growth: The Index of Misery
Calling all academic economists: What are you teaching your students?
‘Neoliberalism – the ideology at the root of all our problems.’
Neoliberalism has brought out the worst in us.
Neoliberalism and the rise in global loneliness, depression and suicide
Selling off our Motherland: The Biggest Crime of the Broken Economic Model
The Observer view on Liz Truss and the sacking of Kwasi Kwarteng
Rightwing papers backpedal after helping Liz Truss reach No 10
Liz Truss’s resignation is the nail in the coffin for Britain’s love affair with political crankery
55 Tufton Street: The house that ‘influenced’ the UK economy’s downfall
A Humiliating End to Trussonomics
The Guardian view on Liz Truss’s resignation: a quitter after all
Britain Has Become a Sinking Ship of Systemic Corruption, Cronyism and Chumocracy
Corruption drives this government’s policies
David Cameron’s lobbying scandal
The Moral Blindness of the English Posh Boys
Britain today and the Bankruptcy of Ideas, Vision and Values-less Education
Neoliberalism destroys human potential and devastates values-led education
Brexit, Trump and the failure of our universities to pursue wisdom
Climate crisis: Boris Johnson ‘too cosy’ with vested interests to take serious action
Oh Kwasi Kwarteng. You made this a Black History Month I’ll never forget
Trussonomics will be a reckless exercise in slashing the state when there’s nothing left to cut
Liz Truss and the Tories: it’s time to go
The Liz Truss Travesty Becomes Britain’s Humiliation
Do you have an eye for justice and sense of duty? Then, these questions are for you.
If you want to know the truth about Brexit, Trump, and the rise of Populism, then you must see this!
BREXIT Broke My Heart: The Moment that the Milk of Human Kindness Went Sour and Lumpy
...And now read about the possible paths on how we may put right what has so tragically gone wrong, on how to stop death and destruction and how we may begin to value and nurture life again
I am positive and hopeful. We can change the world for the better. Come with me on this journey of self discovery in the interest of the common good.
Yes, We can win over death and destruction, the neoliberalism, If we listen to the Voice of Hope, echoing across the world, Composing a New Life
My Plea to Liz Truss: Our Country Needs Caring, Healing and Transformation
Boris Johnson: This is How to Become a Force for Good
Dear Prime Minister May-Britain needs a New Economic Model
Good Riddance to Trump: A Disgraced Man who Never Cultivated Goodness and Humanity
The Journey to Sophia: Education for Wisdom
My Economics and Business Educators’ Oath: My Promise to My Students
To All Striking Academic Colleagues in Britain: Turn the Strike to a Force for the Common Good
Remaking Economics in an age of economic soul-searching
The World would be a Better Place if Economists had Read This Book
In Praise of Darwin Debunking the Self-seeking Economic Man
Composing a New Life: In Praise of Wisdom
Small is Beautiful: The Wisdom of E.F. Schumacher
Brexit, Trump and the failure of our universities to pursue wisdom
Calling all academic economists: What are you teaching your students?
Values-free, Market- Driven Education: What a Disaster!
The Journey to Sophia: Education for Wisdom
Wisdom and a Well-Rounded Life: What Is a University?
My Economics and Business Educators’ Oath: My Promise to My Students
What might an Economy for the Common Good look like?
The Age Of Perpetual Crisis: What are we to do in a world seemingly spinning out of our control?
Wouldn’t the world be a better place with a bit more kindness? Harnessing the Economics of Kindness
What if Universities Taught KINDNESS?
Have We lost the Art of Knowing What it Means to Be Human?
A Businessman and an Economist in Dialogue for the Common Good: Dubai 2004
The World would be a Better Place if Economists had Read This Book
Make COP26 The Dawn of a New Beginning
Towards COP26: Education to Heal the World
Ten Love Letters to the Earth: “Walk as if you are kissing the earth with your feet”
Environmental Crisis, Hope and Resilience: A Pick from our GCGI Down to Earth Archive
…and now, finally a reflection on Thatcherism, Britain in Decline and the xenophobic, pseudo-nationalist Brexit
“And Britain Broke” : Brexit What a Terrible Act of Self-harm
Economy in crisis, Tories in meltdown: how I have told the sad, strange story of Britain
The Most Compelling Story of Boris Johnson’s Madness and his Nonsensical Brexit
Racism in Britain in the post-Brexit age
Boris Johnson the architect of Brexit is the modern-day Enoch Powell
I was Boris Johnson’s boss: he is utterly unfit to be prime minister
Independence’ and the Lies of Brexit
BREXIT: When England Betrayed Churchill
“Darkness Over Britain?”: ‘Britons are peering into the abyss after Brexit vote’
And So, They Got Their Brexit Done!
The Aesthetics of Joy, illustration by Ingrid Fetell Lee
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