I’m So Bored With the USA: We Were Robbed

“He just loved to live that way
And he loved to steal your money” 

In last weeks, “Now I Know we Have Been Cheated”, I looked at how the privatisation policy of the Tories in the 1980s and 90s had cost us C.£200bn, today we look at how the Tories managed to “lose” another £100bn to their mates offering PPE during Covid. 

In case anyone has forgotten what happened, when the pandemic struck the health service, starved of funds and preparation found itself critically short of PPE. In the scramble to replace stocks of gowns, gloves and masks, they handed out contracts worth around £3.8bn through the unlawful VIP lane. More than £1bn of those contracts were for equipment that was totally useless in the NHS. 

As of July 2024, a mere £34.8m of the £1bn Tory ministers wasted on useless personal protective equipment (PPE) through fast-track contracts with friends and supporters had been recovered. 

There are numerous examples of the farcical panic, including Pestfix. They received contracts for £347m. after a director met the health department’s chief commercial officer at a birthday party More than £84.4m worth of the medical face masks, gowns and gloves supplied by them were deemed unfit for use, but Pestfix directors have recently bought themselves at least two houses worth a total of £1.7m. 

Eight VIP lane companies who supplied useless PPE worth £338m have already shut up shop, making it almost impossible to recover money from them.. 

This is so very Tory; helping their mates to get richer at everyone else’s expense. 

‘how the Tories managed to “lose” another £100bn to their mates offering PPE during Covid’

What is equally so very typical is the lack of comments from usually verbose publications such as the Daily Mail and Telegraph. When I searched for “ppe fastlane” I was on P.5 of the search before I found a link to the Telegraph whilst the Daily Mail seemed to miss it completely! 

When you compare their reaction to this actual scandal with that of Angela Rayners £40,000 stamp duty underpayment, it serves to show how bigoted and pointless parts of the media are. 

Clearly when it comes to the Tories some of the media suffer from what might be described as “love is blind”. However, the electorate vote with their feet and aren’t so besotted with them.  Of course, like a lover scorned. they might turn their adoration to Reform. 

Reform and Farage are again stealing the headlines. This time they are extending “Operation Restoring Justice”, their plan for the mass deportation of illegal immigrants living in Britain without permission. Now, they are proposing deportation on an unprecedented scale, abolishing “indefinite leave to remain”, the immigration status that allows people to remain in the UK for as long as they want, often the first step towards citizenship, on a retrospective basis.  

Farage said: “Once we abolish ILR, foreign nationals who want to work here will have 180 days to apply for a tough, new five-year renewable visa. They will have no right to benefits or healthcare without insurance. And no right to bring dependants, unless they are high earners who can afford to keep them.” 

Interestingly, he continued, saying: “We are giving British business plenty of notice that the era of cheap foreign labor is over.” 

‘they are proposing deportation on an unprecedented scale, abolishing “indefinite leave to remain”’

My, not unreasonable, assumption is that wage costs will increase, meaning businesses either reduce their profits or increase prices. We all know which they will choose, meaning inflation is baked-on. 

Of course, that part, although openly admitted by Farage, will be lost in the small print to many of the electorate who will simply focus on getting rid of some more foreigners who scrounge off us. 

For those with a brain, the question is; what is the alternative to Reform? 

The Tories are, for the foreseeable future a bust-flush. I suspect the party will survive, and, if there is a return to more traditional Toryism, make a comeback. The continual trickle of defections to Reform might actually help them, ridding the party of those who are too far to the right. 

labor also needs to return to its original values, and stop trying to fight Reform by becoming Reform. For that to happen there needs to be a palace coup; the leadership and its advisers have to go 

‘there needs to be a palace coup; the leadership and its advisers have to go’

The first litmus test as to what changes might be afoot, is the forthcoming contest for deputy leader. 

The candidates reflect the situation perfectly; the education secretary, Bridget Phillipson, represents  continuity, whilst Lucy Powell is more progressive and traditional labor. 

For example, Powell said the party had to “give a greater sense of who we’re fighting for” including by being “clear that our objective is to lift children out of poverty” by axing the two-child benefit limit. She also highlighted the solution suggested by Gordon Brown, based on raising money from gambling firms. 

There appears to be little likelihood of them being taxed under the current leadership, with chancellor Reeve’s slated to be the guest of honour at an event hosted by the chief lobbyist of the gambling industry, organized by the corporate communications company Brunswick, at the forthcoming labor party conference in Liverpool. 

Reeves accepted three tickets to a musical worth £330, courtesy of the Betting & Gaming Council in 2023 as well as £20,000 in donations from gambling executives while labor was in opposition.    

If there is to be a leadership challenge to Starmer, then the current favourite is Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, of whom one labor insider said: “His politics are now firmly at the progressive heart of the labor party.” 

‘If there is to be a leadership challenge to Starmer, then the current favourite is Andy Burnham’

The first obstacle for Burnham is to find a parliamentary seat. We can expect that, should any “safe” labor seats become available the number 10 machine will do all it can to block Burnham’s candidacy. If that scenario does come to pass, it will be interesting to see how the party itself reacts. 

Burnham stood down from parliament in 2016, and successfully ran to become the first mayor of Greater Manchester. 

During his time as mayor, the city region under Burnham has been a great success story for devolution; one of the few parts of the country with economic growth. He has used new transport powers to create the Bee Network of buses now fully under the control of the authority, designing it for users rather than profit. 

His defense of the city region during Covid which really won him recognition as an independent thinker and a fighter. 

In parliament, a number of high-profile MPs remain close to him, including the former cabinet minister Louise Haigh as well as Powell, and other friends in the cabinet such as Lisa Nandy and Jonathan Reynolds. He has considerable loyalty from MPs across the political spectrum in Greater Manchester – but also in Liverpool and surrounding constituencies. 

Others, such as Socialist Campaign Group of MPs (previously Corbynites), and new labor MPs in the labor Growth Group, are supportive of Burnham. 

One senior labor source warned, that whilst “The hardcore welfare rebels are already behind him – he needs to urgently move to build a broader coalition across the PLP or he’s not going to be an MP, much less carry the numbers for a challenge,”. 

If labor can’t or won’t cure the Starmer Issue, then the only possible alternative is the LibDems. As their leader, Ed Davey, said: “What’s increasingly clear is the voters no longer trust the two old parties, labor and the Conservatives, and I think the next election could be about the change we want. 

“And it’s either change to Trump’s America with Reform or change based on really true British values, where we deal with improving the public services properly, we get the cost of living down by reducing people’s energy bills, we make people feel much better and improve our economy and society.” 

Going into the party’s conference week, they appear in rude health. Winning 72-seats in the last election was the best result by any third party for a century. These gains were endorsed in this years’ English local elections. While labor and the Tories lost both votes and seats to Reform UK, the Lib Dems did the reverse, gaining seats and capturing three county councils. They are now arguably, “the party of middle England.” 

They are now arguably, “the party of middle England.”

However, they continue to disappoint in the polls, averaging only 14%. As the polling guru Sir John Curtice has recently pointed out, the Lib Dems are in fact less the party of middle England than a party of one side of the sharp divide in British politics opened up by Reform. 

They score best in remain-voting areas and struggling in leave ones. They are caught between two stools; do they become a radical alternative to labor or a more centrist alternative to the Conservatives. The answer might be found in our first-past-the-post system which is benefiting them in remain areas where the Tory vote has collapsed. Aside from having to defend so many formerly Tory seats captured in 2024, most post-2024 Lib Dem target seats are Tory-held, and the Tory continued drift to the right helps their cause. 

There are however, labor voters looking for a new home, and Davey’s decisions to boycott the Trump state dinner, sympathising with Angela Rayner, complaining about media bias in favour of Farage, and speaking out over Gaza, all play well with these voters.  

There is the outstanding issue of a clear, and costed economic and environmental offer to be addressed, without this undecided, disenfranchised supporters could move elsewhere. 

However, with the established duopoly looking increasingly vulnerable, there is every chance the party could reach the 100 mark in 2028-29. If that happens, and there is a hung parliament, the Lib Dems may once again hold the balance of power, forcing them to make a clear between supporting left or right. 

We finish with Reform, and to deal with their ascendency. 

Firstly, despite what Farage might tell us, he doesn’t for the British people, and doesn’t reflect the “commonsense” views of the silent majority. He is an outlier, and agitator articulating the views of a noisy minority. 

He was the architect of a Brexit that today, only 31% now say it was the right move, whereas 56%, favour its reversal and want to rejoin the EU.  

Turning to European convention on human rights, then, right-wing media aside, support for retaining our membership is close to 60% and has actually increased as the subject has been debated.  

‘only 31% now say it was the right move, whereas 56%, favour its reversal and want to rejoin the EU’

On immigration, whilst 81% of Reform voters believe migrants have undermined Britain’s culture, only 31% of Britons in general believe that. Ask about the effect of migrants on the economy and you get a similar picture.  

There are other examples of Farage being out-of-step with the majority such as returning Afghan refugees back to the Taliban. Equally,  most of us don’t respond to the question, which world leader do you most admire?”, with Vladimir Putin.  

‘Trump likes to associate with winners, and Starmer is looking less, and less like one’   

His economic judgement also leaves much to be desired, after he described “loopy” Liz’s budget as “the best Conservative budget since 1986.” 

Much to criticise, but it’s a stretch to imagine the PM doing so. 

If Farage is a Trump tribute act, the way we cow tailed to the latter on last week’s shows Starmer at his fawning worst. Trump likes to associate with winners, and Starmer is looking less, and less like one.   

“Bow down before the one you serve 

You’re going to get what you deserve” 

‘As Farage continues to strut his stuff, becoming increasingly more open about his immigration plans, parallels between Trump’s America and what a Farage-led UK might look like become increasingly important.

Trump, despite losing the first round of his legal fight with the New York Times, continues to increase his grip on power.

His tariffs are now with the supreme court for a final decision, but with the majority there, and the fact that they have always sided with him in the past, doesn’t bode well.

Alongside tariffs, Trump is close to “taking-over” the Fed, giving him de facto control over setting interest rates. Given that he thinks they should be 1%, or lower, then we are in for some fun, especially with inflation at 3%+. In the short-term the stock market will love it, the $ will fall, but the Treasury market will hate the inevitable inflation this will bring

The media is coming under closer scrutiny, and  we can expect more night time TV presenters to follow Jimmy Fallon in being silenced.

Added to that, he is supporting and helping his right-wing techies to buy-up other media outlets such as TikTok, and there are rumours about CNN and HBO, too.

But, if one thing summer-up the absurdity that is Trump is last week’s press conference and the question about former US ambassador Mandelson. His response was: “I don’t know him, actually. I had heard that, and I think maybe the prime minister would be better speaking of that, that was a choice that he made, I don’t know.”

Perhaps Trump is going senile as, in May, he praised Peter Mandelson’s “beautiful accent”. And if the camera never lies….’

Oh well……

Lyrically, we start with “Bank robber” by The Clash, in tribute to the Tories and their mates who relieved us of a cool £100bn.  We end with something for our spineless PM, “Head Like A Hole” by Nine Inch Nails.

At least Mandy and Trump were enjoying themselves at the meeting that never was.

Philip.

@coldwarsteve

Philip Gilbert is a city-based corporate financier, and former investment banker.

Philip is a great believer in meritocracy, and in the belief that if you want something enough you can make it happen. These beliefs were formed in his formative years, of the late 1970s and 80s

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