Dangerous Times

There is now a palpable sense of radical change in the air. The Total demonstrations have spread like wild fire and must be seen as an urgent reminder that if a government gets out of touch with the will of the people then three things can happen.

National security and stability can be imperilled. The government can be swept out of power. The ordinary processes of democracy can be subverted.

Britain has not seen this level of industrial anger since the 1970s. Trade union
leaders are admitting that the leaders of the demonstrations are by-passing official union guidelines. The new mobility of Britain’s working class is primarily down to the internet. The web is the most potent tool yet devised in mobilising workers.

Peter Mandelson talking utter gobbledygook about the niceties of European legislation and explaining that the government’s hands are tied because of laws which are made in Brussels will not assuage the anger. Nor will the Prime Minister talking about the illegality and indefensible nature of the protests. He promised British jobs for British workers and has now – for whatever reason – reneged on his pledge.

Arguments about protectionism and the fact that British workers can seek jobs elsewhere in Europe – in the same way that the Italians are now working Britain – seem irrelevant and arcane if you are unemployed, or likely to be so, and are working and living in one of Britain’s industrial arm-pits which successive governments have ignored over decades.

If you have a family to support and a mortgage to pay it is not easy to up sticks and take off to another part of the world. Currently you will not be able to sell your house and you will not find another job in another country because this is a world slump.

And every time Mandy Mandelson appears – and with his iffy record he knows more than most about housing and getting a mortgage- it makes matter worse. Sleek, highly paid politicians and unelected peers – to say nothing of unelected Prime Ministers – must be getting frightened. They are supposed to be Labour politicians. But they are so removed from the British labour movement that they have become unrecognisable to it.

The British government is now trying to talk to Total, a French company in Britain, about employing Italians and Portuguese. There are lessons to be learned here. Britain has become a carrier for foreign companies who now control all the nation’s vital industries.

The use of foreign labour – and whether it’s cheaper or not is almost a side issue – could be the match which sparks the conflagration. Foreign companies must be taught that it is always – especially now – right and proper and ordinarily decent to forego a few extra pence on the balance sheet and to invest morally and ethically in their future in Britain.

If British workers are to be sacrificed in the interests of a few shareholders and foreign based company Boards then their continued presence in this country should be examined. If the European law needs amending then the government must get on and do it. If it means having a row with Brussels then so be it. The government must get its priorities right. And one of them – in these very difficult times – is looking after its own citizens.

On each occasion that there is a headline saying that bankers and ‘toffs’ are still getting bonuses which are obscene in this climate – two million unemployed and three million by the end of 2009 – it sends another terrible wave of anger rolling through the country.

Britain is now a dangerously fragmented nation. The divide grows each day between the have yachts and the have nothings or very little. It is crucial that the government gets a proper grip very quickly. Major civil unrest is just around the corner.

Brown has to speak to the nation and reassert his administration’s beliefs in a society that is moral and upright and – above all else – fair and ethical. It should commit itself to egalitarianism and equality. But words and promises are no longer sufficient. The nation wants and needs action. It no longer believes in empty promises and silken words.

Peers who are on the make or have criminal records should be thrown out. Bankers who have ruined their companies and wrecked the nation and have got away with massive pension pots and golden handshakes should be arrested and tried and jailed. Plutocrats who run companies in the UK while not paying a penny in tax should be tried and jailed. In some countries far worse than that would happen to both categories.

History is littered with the tragedies of governments who have got out of step with what the people are thinking. It usually results in violence or even catastrophe.

With rocketing unemployment – a spoiled and cosseted upper echelon which looks arrogant and incompetent and sometimes fraudulent – and a government which spouts promises but fails to act – the stage is ripe for tumult.

The Total affair could be a catalyst which triggers upheaval. There is disquiet on many fronts. The French-Italian-Portuguese dispute might easily act as the trigger.

These are menacing times. In such conditions hatred takes root. Prejudice and bigotry are unleashed. In Germany – where there was a weak government, high unemployment and a high crime rate – it spawned evil and the Jews were among the scapegoats.

The blame for Britain’s ills must not be pinned on immigrants and foreign workers. That would be exceedingly dangerous in Britain. There are too many areas now in the UK where the flames of a race war could be fanned by the glint-eyed, the cruel, the self-motivated and the politically inspired.

The government must act fairly and sympathetically and show an understanding of the fears and frustrations voiced by millions of workers across the UK in scores of industries.

To avoid apocalypse the government has to act decisively. Everybody knows right from wrong. Brown must underline the first principles of honesty and decency and propriety.

He must act in a way which shows he understands and will do something about the grievances of the men in Lincolnshire and elsewhere who could take the law into their own hands if the law is an ass or if it seems perpetually loaded in favour of an arrogant, uncaring upper crust.