It has often been said of George Galloway that, whilst he poses as the friend of the Iraqi people, he is in fact their enemy. Today's launch of Respect's manifesto shows that this allegation could apply equally to his atttitude towards British workers; he poses as their friend whilst threatening their interests. Consider:
1. He wants a rise in the minimum wage to £7.40 an hour, an increase of more than 50 per cent from current levels. If you raise the price of something, you'll cut demand. Exactly how this helps workers eludes me. But it's a good pose.
2. He wants to abolish VAT and replace it with increased direct taxation. Now, VAT raised £72.3bn this year whilst income tax raised £122.7bn. So, we'd need to raise income tax revenues by 60 per cent to pay for the loss of VAT revenues; in this light, the pledge to "raise the top rate of income tax" is a tautology. This combination of higher direct taxes and lower indirect taxes is, at the margin, a deterrent to work and an incentive to retire. Small businessmen would have an incentive to close their businesses, take a cut in income and live off their capital - which gets taxed at nothing at all when they spend it. Such closures would cut jobs.
3. He wants a big increase in corporation tax, taxes on the "super profits" of banks and oil companies, and a turnover tax on multinationals. Does he seriously think companies will hand the money over and forget about it? No. Higher corporation taxes will lead to some mixture of higher prices, lower investment or job cuts.
4. He wants higher taxes on share turnover and a tax on currency speculation. Such activity would, of course, merely move offshore. Who gains from that?
In these ways, Respect's policies threaten the livelihoods of the people they claim to support. Compared to Respect, the Green party is a beacon of sanity.
What's more, there's a curious omission in Respect's manifesto - there's no mention of increasing workplace democracy or overthrowing capitalist hierarchies. Sure, they want more employment rights, union rights, tougher laws against discrimination and stronger health and safety protection. But these are ways in which the state constrains capitalists' power, rather than actively overthrowing it.
So, Respect don't stand for greater power for workers, but greater power for the state. But, then, as we all know, George Galloway is just a power-fucker.
He ain't called 'GORGEOUS GEORGE' (his Glasgow nickname) for nothing!
I lived in the West End of Glasgow for 9 years, where George was my local MP. He never struck me as a principled 'class warrior' in the 1997 election - but more as someone who was willing to tart themselves to anything or anyone to get elected.
Anyhow - I didn't know about his economic manifesto, thanks for telling me.
I really think he should go on a joint ticket with David Icke.... he would sound convicing telling us that Tony Blair is a 7ft lizard alien, and Saddam knew this all along...
Posted by: Glenn | April 19, 2005 at 02:09 PM