Editor’s Notes: Amid Brexit chaos, John McDonnell is ready for a Marxist revolution
Earlier this week, I was talking to a fellow pundit in a broadcaster’s green room.
“What are you in for?” I asked. “Brexit, what else?” came the reply.
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There followed a convivial conversation about the good old days when we in the media used to discuss a wide range of issues and all kinds of policy ideas were up for debate. Now it’s all backstops and Bercow.
It’s accepted that Brexit has dominated the government’s agenda – crowding out all other areas of policy – but the same applies to Her Majesty’s Opposition.
Not that long ago we could spend happy hours debating the latest hard-left policy cooked up by the Communists that make up Jeremy Corbyn’s inner circle, but these days it seems we’re only interested in the Labour party’s own Brexit woes and divisions.
So, allow me to refocus your attention on Labour’s economic policy development.
While shadow chancellor John McDonnell may be happy to keep his head down while the government tears itself apart, he’s actually been rather busy attempting to lay the groundwork for a Labour takeover of Her Majesty’s Treasury.
In a letter to the Treasury’s top civil servant, McDonnell – a committed Marxist – makes it clear that upon winning power he will set about upending the department’s processes, people and policy development with immediate effect.
An emergency tax-raising budget will be hammered out, alongside which civil servants will be re-educated with a wider “range of economic theories and approaches”.
These “new” ideas will include nationalisation, asset seizures and state-directed banking, coupled (presumably) with up-to-date Marxist thinking on capital flight and a run on the pound.
McDonnell is the brains of the Labour outfit and he won’t waste a single day in power.
Brexit may be distracting us, but Labour’s revolutionaries are ready for action.
A profit warning for TfL
On my way to parliament yesterday morning, I passed through Westminster Tube station, which is undergoing a great deal of construction work. As a consequence, there are a lot of posters from Transport for London (TfL), apologising, all of which start with the baffling assertion: “We don’t make a profit.” You must have seen these signs all over London. Frankly, “we don’t make a profit” is TfL’s slogan.
It is of course, utter rubbish. “We reinvest all our money” is the second half of their slogan, but any sane individual knows that if there’s no profit then there’s no money to reinvest. The claim is a pitiful and absurd appeal to the notion that profit is bad, and that profit-making entities must be ripping off the consumer. TfL has revelled in this claim for years but the sheer number of times I was confronted by the boast yesterday meant that it really started to wind me up. If TfL really didn’t make a profit, how would they have funded the staggering pay rises awarded to top staff last year?
Due recognition for Rescorla
I’ve written before about Rick Rescorla, the Cornishman who – as head of security for Morgan Stanley in the Twin Towers – helped to rescue hundreds of people before being killed when the building collapsed on 9/11.
He sang Cornish folk songs in the smoke-filled stairwell as he guided people out, and it’s impossible to read accounts of his bravery without welling up. This week, in a small but poignant gesture, Great Western Railway has named a new express train after him. His widow says that honouring him this way “is a great comfort”.
Read more: City watchdog boss apologises for anti-Brexit email gaffe
A certain type of Brexit party
Spare a thought for those who organised a party to mark what was meant to be our Brexit date tonight – whether to drown sorrows or toast the future.
The hard-Brexit Leave Means Leave group have turned their bash into a rally. Meanwhile, if you fancy something a little more energetic you could apply for tonight’s F**k Brexit ‘play party’ that promises to “celebrate borderless love with humans of all gender identities and orientations.” Soft Brexiteers need not apply, presumably.
Editor’s Notes: Amid Brexit chaos, John McDonnell is ready for revolution
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