Third British Prime Minister in Two Months
Hedge Fund Conception of "Economic Stability and Confidence"
People's Assembly Against Austerity, Birmingham, October 2,
2022.
On October 25, Rishi Sunak, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer of Great Britain (2020 to 2022) and Chief Secretary to the Treasury (2019 to 2020), became the third Prime Minister of the U.K. in two months.
Bloomberg News proudly announced, "Hedge Funds Get Their First Prime Minister."
Sunak is reported to be the
richest MP in history, worth £730 million, according to the
Sunday Times rich list. He and his wife Akshata Murthy
are among the top 250 wealthiest people in the whole of Britain.
The major source of their wealth is Murthy's 0.9 per cent stake
in her billionaire father Narayana Murthy's IT company, Infosys.
The stake is estimated to be worth around £690 million, which
allowed the couple to collect £11.6 million in dividend income
last year. The Sunday Times says that the source of
their wealth is a "technology and hedge fund," implying that the
remaining £40 million may originate from Sunak's time as a
partner at the hedge funds Children's Investment Fund Management
and Theleme Partners, or from his time as director of Catamaran
Ventures, the investment firm also owned by his father-in-law,
which he led from 2013 to 2015 before going into politics.
Sunak's net worth is said to make him richer than King Charles III himself, who before his inheritance had a net worth around $440 million, according to an estimate provided by research institute Wealth-X. From the people's point of view, perhaps that makes him a worthy business associate for the king, but hardly any more fit for public office than the king himself.
In his first speech as Prime Minister, Sunak immediately set out to assure financial markets that he is their man. Britain "is facing a profound economic crisis," he said. Who knew?
After paying formal tribute to predecessor Liz Truss, he committed his first act of fraud by declaring he is legitimate because he had been "elected" as Conservative Party leader and hence Prime Minister. In fact he was the choice of some150 or so members of the Tory party who are Members of Parliament. In no way does this furnish him with a credible mandate to represent the people of Britain. He was chosen to fix Truss's ineptitude which means to do a good job of covering up the pay-the-rich agenda of the British government. The message he gave was in fact very similar to that of Truss, but his language was designed to give confidence. He said he would "place economic stability and confidence at the heart of this government's agenda," as if his "economic stability and confidence" will please the people, not the stock market.
The anti-worker, pro-austerity agenda is the same and, of course, "This will mean difficult decisions to come," he said. But this is not something the working class and people will accept, and are not accepting because they already suffer the consequences of the anti-social neo-liberal agenda and its slogan All for One and Nothing for All.
The Enough Is Enough campaign, the campaign for a People's Assembly and the demands to stop paying the rich and increase investments in social programs continue across Britain, calls for a general election are also increasing and hundreds of thousands of people have signed a petition calling for one. The revolt of the working class is such that the demand for a regime which upholds the rights of all is the call which imbues all other demands, irrespective of which cartel party forms the government.
Rishi Sunak's claim to bring
"compassion to the challenges we face today" is unlikely to
placate working people suffering under the cost-of-living
crisis. Similarly, his implied condemnation of Boris Johnson in
saying, "This government will have integrity, professionalism
and accountability at every level," is unlikely to win the trust
of the electorate as the economic crisis continues to deepen, no
matter how much Sunak declares that "I fully appreciate how hard
things are." There was even an echo of Truss's hero Margaret
Thatcher, as Sunak concluded that "we" -- by which he
fraudulently means the people and government together -- will
"fill tomorrow and every day thereafter with hope." This was
said without conviction and bereft of credibility, as though
"hope" was as far as people could expect to go under his
government.
The choice of Rishi Sunak as Prime Minister along with the "revolving doors" of Cabinet, big industry and finance confirm that narrow private interests have been politicized, which means they have directly taken over the functions of the state.
Sunak attended Winchester College, an elite public school where fees are currently £46,000 per year. From there it was straightforward for him to go to Oxford, and read Politics, Philosophy and Economics. With his Winchester and Oxford background it was a matter of the right contacts for Sunak to get into Goldman Sachs and earn his first millions in investment banking, and then move on and up into the world of hedge funds and private wealth management. Marriage to the daughter of a billionaire was a suitable arrangement.
His appointments to Cabinet appear as a shuffling of the cards, not as a manifestation of Cabinet as a "broad church" as the rulers like to pretend it is, by which they mean it is representative of all walks of life and opinion. The ministers do not inspire the "trust" of which Sunak spoke because they are all tainted with the same brush of entitlement, corruption and fraud. Jeremy Hunt retains the post of Chancellor to indicate that the economies of austerity are to continue for the mass of working people. The appointment of Suella Braverman as Home Secretary has horrified all right-thinking people. She is as wild a racist and advocate of transporting asylum seekers to Rwanda as it is possible to get.
The fact that the measures announced in the "mini-budget" one week could be overturned a week later reveals the arbitrary powers the British government wields and who they serve. Sunak seeks to give the financiers confidence that all will now be calm and the chaos and ineptitude of Truss's 45-day premiership has ended. However, it cannot be readily forgotten that it was his resignation from Cabinet that finally precipitated the downfall of the corrupt and entitled Boris Johnson who continues to insist he is fit to rule. So long as Sunak and his new Cabinet are tainted by deceit and treachery, their conscience cannot come clean. Sunak may well find that asserting he leads the Tories at this time is something of a poisoned chalice.
Class War in Britain
The independent program and politics of the working class puts the human being at the centre of considerations. That is the exact opposite of what the Tories are doing right now. One of their chief considerations is to make sure Britain has an effective war government so as to remain competitive in the arms market and its striving for control over markets in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean as well as in Europe. Despite the fact that war production is parasitic and a drain on the economy, does great damage to all public services as well as being disastrous to the environment, Sunak's government is set on this course.
In this regard, Sunak's stand is to whip up hysteria against Russia and China. He has stated that he considers China to be "the biggest threat" to Britain. When he was contending for the leadership of the Tory party, Sunak set out a series of plans he would undertake if elected Prime Minister, to defend against Chinese "technological aggression."
"China and the Chinese Communist Party represent the largest threat to Britain and the world's security and prosperity this century... I will build a new international alliance of free nations to tackle Chinese cyber-threats and share best practice in technology security," he said.
This article was published in
Volume 52
Number 11 - November 2022
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2022/Articles/M5201110.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca