These Foolish Things: “Bosses want change of Government” (1997)

The Scavenger column from the June 1997 issue of the Socialist Standard

“Bosses want change of Government”

Britain’s company bosses are deserting the Conservatives.

Nearly three quarters say splits in the Tory party are damaging trade with Europe, according to the 73,000-member Institute of Management.

And the majority believe Tony Blair is in tune with the needs of business.

An loM poll of directors and managers found that:

• 73 per cent think education is underfunded
• 65 per cent think the Tories have not improved standards
• 55 per cent think they would be worse off under the Tories or were not sure
• 56 per cent believe it is time for a change of government’’(Devizes Labour News, Spring 1997.)

The capitalist gem

Three months from Chinese rule, Hong Kong was yesterday given a last colonial budget, its coffers bursting with cash but its distaste for the welfare state undented by a widening gulf between the affluent and an impoverished underclass . . . Average incomes in Hong Kong exceed those in Britain. The island boasts Asia’s richest man, property developer Lee Shau-kee, and more Rolls Royce cars per capita than any other city. But, according to a survey by the City University of Hong Kong, 600,000 people out of a population of 6.3 million live in deprivation. Only 200,000 receive public assistance. A report by the Society for Community Organisations said 10.000 people were living in "cage homes”—filthy single-bed accommodation often surrounded by a metal cage. This is nearly four times the number acknowledged by the government. (Guardian, 13 March.)

Bash Street Kid

How it can be argued by politicians and the media that there is no connection between crime and the environment, between violence and childhood poverty, I do not know. In Mr Collins’s story each move in his progress appears inevitably to follow what went before, in the manner of a classic drama .. .The true issue of the book is whether, if you are reared in fear which only violence can apparently relieve, it is possible to be habilitated into a different sort of home life. Judge Steven Tumim, reviewing Autobiography of a Murderer by Hugh Collins. (Guardian, 27 February.)

Booming Britain

Booming Britain is turning the rich into the super-rich, creating more billionaires and multimillionaires than ever before. In the latest guide to wealth in Britain, published today . . . 16 people emerge as billionaires—six more than last year.

The top 500 in the new list, which has been expanded to include 1,000 entries saw their wealth increase by 23 percent in a year. Those 500 are now worth more than £86 billion. (Sunday Times, 6 April.)

Workfare

A heart patient whose benefit was stopped after he was ruled fit to work collapsed with chest pains as he was quizzed at an appeal hearing.

Ralph Melville, 59, of Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, was rushed to hospital and is awaiting an urgent bypass operation. “They made out I was workshy and on the fiddle. It was an insult," he said.

A Benefits Agency spokesman said: "If he is dissatisfied we have a complaints procedure.” (Mirror, 10 May.)

The Scavenger