Capitalism is becoming more and more inequitable as the rich become richer and the poor become poorer. 'The wealthiest 1% will soon own more than the rest of the world's population, according to a study by charity group Oxfam. The charity's research shows that the share of the world's wealth owned by the richest 1% increased from 44% in 2009 to 48% last year.' (BBC News, 19 January) , On current trends Oxfam says it expects the wealthiest 1% to own more than 50% of the world's wealth by 2016. RD
The Glasgow & Edinburgh Branches Blog. Towards a better understanding of the world, in order to change it.
Monday, January 19, 2015
Legal Action
LEGAL ACTION
Scottish health boards are fending off more than 1,500 legal actions from patients and staff who are seeking millions of pounds in compensation for negligence and and medical errors. Recent figures show that Grampian NHS is facing up to £24 million for alleged failures in treatment. 'NHS Dumfries and Galloway said that more than 50 claims had been made against the health board ....' (Sunday Times, 18 January) RD
Socialism cannot wait
The Socialist Party believes that socialism is the alternative
to capitalism. Socialism requires the joint efforts of workers worldwide. Socialism
is the only answer for the working class. And that we must organise as a class
whose goal is that. The Socialist Party has never had as a policy that
“socialism can wait.”
The Scottish National Party is the party of a certain
segment of the Scottish capitalist class. Brian Souter, the owner of the
Stagecoach transport network has given more than a million pounds to the SNP.
Needless to say, he did so knowing full well that the party would not challenge
his wealth or power. In particular, the SNP has made it clear that the bus
system and the railroads will remain in the private sector. The SNP has gone
out of the way to reassure the business community, including the transnational
corporations, that they have nothing to fear because an independent Scotland
would not threaten their interests. There can be no question that the SNP will
act to protect the interests of the capitalist class, even though this means
defending the interests of huge transnational corporations based outside of
Scotland. The SNP has been skilful in presenting one face to the people and a
very different one to the corporations. To the former the SNP claim to be
social democrats who believed in greater equality and to the latter, the SNP
stands for a strong economy and continued growth. The SNP leaders support a
continuation of capitalist exploitation in an independent Scotland. This was
summed up in their White Paper that proposed cuts to corporation tax for big
business while seeking to bind the trade unions into ‘partnership’ and a ‘Team
Scotland’ approach. In practice, this means accepting attacks on their wages
and working conditions for the so-called “national interest”. The SNP has
"tacked leftwards" in rhetoric, though not at all in policy
implementation. Voting for nationalist parties simply helps to confuse and
divide an already confused and divided British working class even more.
For too long, the left has accepted the orthodoxy that there
exists a “right to national self-determination”, and that we should support any
struggle to that end. The left is wrong, and that the damage caused by this mistaken
idea is second only to that caused by the corruption to the socialist cause
from the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.
At first hearing, the very sound of a “struggle for national
self-determination” suggests that it is democratic and progressive. To throw
off the yoke of imperial government, to fight the occupiers and the
foreign-appointed governors: it all sounds just. And yet what does it amount
to? Having thrown off the yoke of foreign rule, the ex-colonies of the European
empires have largely established their 'own' governments. Has this seen their
peoples achieve freedom and plenty? In most, undemocratic foreign rule has been
replaced by undemocratic home rule. Different face in different uniforms hold
the same guns, and the people still stare down the barrels.
Worse, the old colonial rulers retain all their former power
through overpowering military supremacy and economic dominance. What the UK
once controlled through occupation, the US now controls through their
manipulation of trade backed by the implicit threat posed by their sole
superpower status. The EU and China desperately compete, and the 'great game'
of rival empires continues. The new 'home' governments of ex-colonies are
allowed to line their own pockets and bully their populations, but are
otherwise kept it in line. The question remains, when the left have supported
demands for 'national self-determination' - which can only mean the right to
form nation states - have they expected it to bring freedom and plenty? The
answer is no. Socialists are internationalists, and do not believe that
socialism can exist within a single state: the results of Stalin's 'socialism
in one country' proved that forever. It can be seen that when the left limit
their demands to what they see as the 'limited’ perspective of the people they
claim to 'lead', this patronising nonsense does enormous harm. As a result, our
most famous slogan must always be: “Workers of the world, unite!” We demand
open borders, and the abolition of states altogether. We believe that states
exist to oppress!
If socialists oppose the state, how much more that we oppose
the nation state. It is bad enough that people should be penned by the world's
rulers like cattle owned by farmers. It is worse that such states should
attempt to exclude those of the wrong 'nation' or 'people' or ‘race’. In
attempting to harness the power of struggles for national self-determination to
the socialist cause, the left have dragged the workers’ movement into the mud
and mire of nationalism. The right of self-determination is not national, but
the right of every individual, and of all humanity. It includes to right to
determine where to live and work, regardless of states, or borders, or
'nationality'. Humanity's freedom will not be won by building new states, but
by destroying them all. The problem with countries is if you love your country
or only your ethnicity, you separate from others like you. We become divided as
a human race. Countries divide us; governments divide us; when we truly are one
global species, one people.
We know that the future belongs to us, the workers. We know
socialism is possible. We know that only the working class can bring socialism
about. We need to build a society where we own the factories, the land, the
transport—a society where we are guaranteed housing, education, healthcare and
jobs. A society where there will be no borders for people. Rosa Luxemburg’s once
wrote “socialism or barbarism” but these days we may very well qualify it by
adding “Barbarism… if we are lucky”. Our choice in these days of environmental
cataclysm is one world or none.
Sunday, January 18, 2015
$95,000 For A White Truffle!
Recently released figures by Oxfam clearly show the inequalities in society. Eighty-five of the world's billionaires collectively have as much money as the 3.5 billion poorest people. Between March 2013 and march 2014, those eighty -five had their wealth increased by $668 million – that's $1.8 million a day just for the increase! Russian mining 'tycoon', Vladimir Potanin spent $95,000 on a 1.8 kg white truffle – he's worth $13.9 billion so can afford it. It would take Bill Gates two hundred and eighteen years to spend all of his money if he spent a million dollars a day, not taking into account interest on what would be left each day. It would take ninety three years for a South African platinum miner to earn the average CEO's annual average bonus. Sound crazy? You bet. We must get rid of such stupidity. John Ayers.
A Desperate Plight
Immigrants trying to reach Europe highlight the dangers of their would-be ocean crossings. 'Last year, at least, 3,419 migrants lost their lives trying to cross the Mediterranean,according to the UN refugee agency, making it the deadliest migrant route in the world. ...Spanish coastguards rescued 3,500 of them last year, a 55 per cent increase on the previous year.' (Times, 17 January)The desperation of these workers and their attempts to create a new life away from the dangers of North Africa can only be imagined. RD
Capitalism must go
Socialism has gone beyond the patchwork of anti-capitalist slogans,
utopian proposals, and romantic hopes. One group of workers co-opting a factory
in a capitalist society doth not a revolution maketh. Let's imagine a single
factory closes down, and is occupied, taken over and self-managed by its
workers. This may or may not be a good thing; Even those most critical of
self-management would not begrudge workers trying to survive, although some may
argue occupying to demand a higher severance package would be a better approach
than assuming management of a failing firm. But a single act like this doesn't
challenge the totality of capitalist relations, it would just swap a vertically
managed firm for a horizontally managed one, leaving the 'totality' of the
system unchanged.
However, if factory
takeovers were happening on a mass scale, such that they could start doing away
with commercial/commodity relations between them; and at the same time there
were mass refusals to pay rent/mortgages and militant defence of this
resistance from the States subsequent coercion subsequent... And if this was
happening across several countries then we might be looking at a social movement
at the level of toppling state power, superseding commercial relations, making
possible social reproduction (housing, food, health) without mediation by
money, self-management of the activities necessary for this (rather than
self-management of commodity production and wage labour). This would only be
the case to the extent the movement grows and extends; if it was contained
within a couple of countries say, then the movement could go into reverse and
the acts may lose their revolutionary transformative character.
Self-management of production within capitalism can be seen
as an integral part of the revolutionary process only if it becomes part of a
greater social political movement where capitalism is challenged in other ways
and only if there are as soon as possible moves made to abolish wages and
markets. Self-managed industry operating under a market system by definition
does not involve the undermining of exchange relations, value - workers are
continuing to sell their labour-power on the market; their relationship to
capital is little different to if they worked for a private capitalist.
Another argument which comes up when discussing struggles
against the closure of workplaces due to unprofitability or capital flight is
that the conditions that made the business unprofitable doesn't vanish, so long
as the workplace still exists to sell stuff on the market (and workers continue
to sell their labour-power on the market). The most that can be achieved by
occupying and self-managing the workplace in such a context is to keep on
working, competing with other producers on the market, subject to the same
market conditions that made the workplace close in the first place only with
workers enforcing pay cuts and job cuts on themselves, rather than a boss doing
it.
Defenders of capitalism often say that socialists fail to
recognise gains under capitalism that make socialism unnecessary. This sort of
criticism is considered superficial, not because its claim to progress under
capitalism is unfounded but because it fails to meet the major point of
socialism that, whatever the record of economic progress under capitalism, the
existence of private property and the profit motive inherently limit the
potential of capitalism to serve human needs in an adequate way.
Socialism tends not to offer a blueprint of the future organisation
of society and hold the belief that working people, once given the chance, are
able to democratically choose their own path. Socialism remains an impossible
dream only to those who denounce it as utopian even though every advance in
technology and science turns the potential into more of a reality that is
possible to realise. Today's production of goods in abundance and the
accompanying knowledge, have transformed the utopias of an earlier time into
practical alternatives to our everyday existence. The trouble with capitalism
is that in this system production is for exchange not consumption. The merchants
offer food to sell, not for people to eat. If you've got money to buy this food
then you won't starve. If you have no money you will. This explains famine in
Africa and the slow increase in malnutrition starting to show itself in Europe.
It's a shortage of money not a shortage of food.
Inside a socialist society the major aim initially will be
to produce enough food to feed everyone. That's all of us; the whole of humanity,
all over the globe. Planned production worldwide will do away with malnourishment
and starvation forever. Capitalism could never achieve this spectacular
improvement in everyday life if they lasted another hundred years, because they
only produce things to sell. That is the sad heart of this miserable life
destroying system called capitalism. It's just production for exchange, so the
ruling class can collect the profits contained in the commodities they sell.
They have no interest in people's needs. Just their own greed for profit. We
need is more and more planned production, so that all human needs can be
satisfied and humanity grow, mentally and physically, so that its enormous and
as yet untapped potential can begin to be realised. It's the same with health
and education. With communism we will produce more hospitals and better schools
so that everyone can have a proper chance to grow. We will produce better
people and a better society!
Saturday, January 17, 2015
Neither the Saltire or Union Jack but the Red Flag (video)
We may take issue with Maxton and Hardie being included in the ranks of Marxists but the anti-nationalist sentiments of the song, can be shared by many in the Socialist Party .
British Threat
After raids on a Jihadi cell which appears to have been planning to murder officers There are fears that the British police may be the target of an attack similar to that which was narrowly averted in Belgium. 'Worryingly for authorities fears that, the suspects had police uniforms and radios in their possession. The elevation of the threat level brings the police service in line with the general threat level which has been at severe for some time.' (Daily Telegraph, 16 January) There are just as many crazy terrorists in Britain as in France or Belgium. RD
More Platitudes
In a new book edited by the Archbishop of York, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York have called for an end to "income inequality" in the UK, warning that some people and communities are being left behind. 'In his essay collection, called On Rock or Sand? Firm Foundations for Britain's Future, the Most Rev John Sentamu says the country is facing "a new poverty". Dr Sentamu writes: "The poor in this 'age of austerity' experience what I call a 'new poverty', where many of the 'new poor' are in work. "Once upon a time, you couldn't really be living in poverty if you had regular wages. You could find yourself on a low income, but not living in poverty. That is no longer so." (BBC News, 15 January) Men of the cloth are forever uttering platitudes about poverty but of course they all support the system that produces poverty. RD
Whisleblowers Beware
A paramedic whistleblower has been banned from two hospitals after he reported overcrowding in A&E. Stuart Gardner, of West Midlands Ambulance Service, received the ban after telling the BBC under-pressure emergency units were "not safe". 'He said the chief operating officer (COO) of Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust has told him he was "not welcome" on either of its sites. The trust said the ban was imposed as Mr Gardner's comments had upset staff.' (BBC News, 15 January) Things have come to a strange conclusion when whistleblowers are disciplined for doing what their job dictates they should be doing. RD
For a social revolution
One of the successes of the capitalists is convincing us to
accept the status quo as normal - inevitable even - and forgetting just how
absurd a system it is. Inequality is at grotesque levels. 1% owned 40% of all
wealth and the top 10% owned 85%. Meanwhile, the poorest 50 percent--half the
world's population--own barely 1% of all wealth. It is impossible to justify
such vast wealth when 800 million people go to bed hungry every night. This is
getting to the heart of what is so crazy about capitalism, the gap between what
is possible and today’s reality. Take food production. There's enough food
produced in the world to make everyone fat, yet millions of people starve. The
logic of the system is that the food must be destroyed rather than given away at
a loss, or otherwise profits would suffer. When they say socialism will never work,
socialists simply ask: Exactly how is capitalism working? With capitalism this is as good as it gets. But it's not enough
to just hate the capitalist system. We need to believe a better world is
possible. A socialist world, is possible, not to mention necessary if we want to survive as a species.
One way to see the potential of a future society is to look
at the workers’ movements of the past that have shaken capitalism. Another kind
of society is possible. And the reason we can say this with certainty is a
series of historical experiences of struggles and movements that have shown--if
only for a brief time--what amazing things are possible when the working class
take control of society. Most of the time, as individuals, we're powerless to
control most things in our lives. This is often described as apathy, but it's a
pretty understandable response. Everything changes when people get a taste of
their collective power. Suddenly, politics become relevant in a way they never
were before. There are countless examples to show that workers are perfectly
capable not only of shutting down production, but also of running things for
themselves.
Socialism can only be established on a worldwide level.
Capitalism is international; no country today is economically independent from
the world market and thus no workers’ government would have on its own all the
resources needed to produce an abundance of goods. Socialism is premised on abundance,
and worldwide there is an abundance of resources to take care of everyone. In a
socialist society, we would have time to focus on the things that really matter
to us. We'd also have the time and energy to actively participate in making
decisions about how society is run. The communications technology and corporate
media that is now used primarily to sell things and perpetuate the ruling ideas
of capitalism could be turned loose under public control to facilitate the most
widespread and varied debate. All borders will be open and all individuals,
regardless of their country of birth, will be free to live and travel wherever
in the world they please. And, eventually, all our existing borders and
nation-states will fade away. Human solidarity will encircle the globe and
conquer it. The state will wither away because it will cease to have any role
to play. Who would need to be repressed in a society without exploiters and
exploited? The government over people (military, police, courts, prisons) will
be replaced by the administration of things (coordination of services,
distribution of goods.) A classless society is possible is that the economic
and technological potential exists today to produce more than enough goods and
services for everybody on this planet — an abundance. It is impossible to
overstate the importance of this point. All the enormous cultural changes can
only proceed from a dramatic rise in society’s economic productivity, through
the use of technology to produce more quality goods, more efficiently and more
sustainably. Socialism cannot be created from will alone. For millennia, people
have dreamed and fought for an egalitarian social order, but all such past
movements were faced with the insurmountable obstacle of the material poverty
of their society. No matter who was in power there was still not enough wealth
to go around. A democratically planned world economy, even with today’s level
of economic development, could guarantee a decent standard of living for
everybody on the planet.
Imagine growing up in a world in which you've never known
exploitation or oppression, nor deprivation, a world in which the needs of
people and the planet come first. Imagine living in a world where you don’t
have to worry about how you will pay the bills or whether you will still have a
job next month. Imagine a society freed from capitalism’s straightjacket on
technology and production.
Friday, January 16, 2015
Having to beg for a morsel
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A record number of adults and children relied upon food
banks in Scotland in December, according to new figures obtained by the BBC. Nearly
10,500 people visited the Trussell Trust's 48 food banks for the first time in
the charity's history.
The data also reveals a third of users cited low income -
and not welfare benefit delays - for their predicament. 3,005 people (28%) said
they used a Scottish food bank due to low income in December, closely followed
by 2,527 (24%) because of a benefit delay, and 1,555 (15%) due to a benefit
change. The Clyde, Avon and Nethan food bank reported that 77% of people given
a food package in December cited low income as the main contributing factor. Many
users visiting the food banks at Airdrie and Lochaber also blamed low incomes
(50% and 48% respectively.)
The figure is a 13% increase from the 9,263 people who used
a Trussell Trust food bank in December 2013. In December 2014, 10,489 people
visiting Scottish food banks were given a three day supply of nutritionally
balanced food by the charity - a third of them children. The charity underlined
that the final figure for December visits is likely to be even higher as food
bank staff continue to input data into their system.
Ewan Gurr, the charity's network manager for Scotland, said
he was concerned that many low income families were forced to face hunger in
the run-up to Christmas due to financial difficulties. He said: "Every day
we are hearing working people describe the devastating reality of sustaining
their families with static incomes and unstable employment against consistently
rising costs of essentials like food and rent. In the most harrowing accounts,
we hear from the families choosing whether to prioritise heating their homes or
feeding their families and parents losing weight because they overlook their
own health and wellbeing to feed their children."
The Trust, which partners with churches and communities,
currently operates more than 1,200 food distribution centres across the UK. The
Trust's figures also reveal Dundee had the highest number of adults (3,750)
using food banks in the last year, while south east Glasgow had the highest
number of children (1,975).
A government document published last month suggested low
income families may face increasing financial difficulties in the future. According
to the report, approximately 820,000 people were living in relative poverty in
2013 - an increase of 110,000 from the previous year. This increase in relative
poverty - where someone lives in a household that receives less than 60% of the
UK average income - was attributed to a continued fall in incomes. The report
concluded: "Low wage growth (particularly for those in less skilled
employment), changes in the labour market, and tightening of eligibility and
conditionality under welfare reform have resulted in lower median income."
Belgian Intervention
Belgian authorities have thwarted plans for massive attacks on police stations, one week after 17 people were killed by Islamist gunmen in France. Police have shot dead two members of armed group and arrested another in a shootout on Thursday in the eastern city of Verviers . 'Police said the three were Belgian citizens and some of them had returned from Syria. Prosecutors said the group was about to launch attacks on a grand scale, and that they raided about 10 locations including some in the capital, Brussels, to block the plan.' (NHK WORLD News, 16 January) RD
Money Money Money
Capitalism distorts everything in modern society. Fine arts are judged by the prices they can command, sport is evaluated by transfer fees and salaries. Reading a football report today is like studying double-entry book-keeping. Speculation about the possible transfer of Lionel Messi of Barcelona is a case in point. 'Messi's buyout clause from Barcelona is £250 million. He has more than three years left on a contract that is worth £16.3 million a year. Taking the salary and transfer fee together, then, the overall cost of any deal could be well in excess of a quarter of a billion pounds.' (Times, 14 January) To show how crazy some of these deals have become it is reported that Manchester United have a ten-year kit deal with Addidas worth £750 million. RD
Mere Doggerel
MERE DOGGEREL?
Although some may dismiss it as just a piece of doggerel I remember it as being quite memorable when I first heard of the case for socialism and somehow this old burlesque rhyme has stuck with me. 'The banker calls it interest and heaves a cheerful sigh. The merchant calls it profit and winks the other eye. The landlord calls it rent as he tucks it in his bag, but the honest old burglar simply calls it swag!' RD
More Prejudice
There has been an increase of 20 per cent in the past year of Jews emigrating to Israel because of antisemitic attacks and other incidents. 'The Jewish Agency said that there were 620 immigrants from Britain last year compared with 320 in 2013. This coincided with an increase by by almost 40 per cent of recorded antisemitic incidents in Britain.' (Times, 14 January) Capitalism breeds hatred and prejudice and the main sufferers are always the workers. RD
Capitalism Must End
Today we are faced with multiple interrelated crises, for
example the threat of catastrophic climate change or equally catastrophic
thermonuclear war, and the threat of widespread famine. These threats to human
existence and to the biosphere demand a prompt and rational response; but we
are failing to take the steps that are necessary to avoid disaster.
A serious weakness among activists in movements for social
change has been a lack of understanding of the true nature of the system they
live under. Instead of naming capitalism as the problem activists often use
vague populist terms like “the 1%,” “the rich,” “banksters,” or “greedy
corporations.” But the problem runs much deeper than the corruption of any
particular individual or institution. It lies in the structural foundation of
the entire way of life that currently dominates the globe. This is an integral
part of Socialist Party’s function; to educate people on the complex and long
history of capitalism. We need to understand how it works and what the nature
of the crisis is and the nature of the different moments that it passes through
so that we can identify its vulnerabilities and weaknesses. We ask ‘What’s the
labor theory of value?’ and say of those militant protesters ‘How can you call
yourself a socialist if you don’t even know what the labor theory of value is,
one of its basic concepts?” The labor
theory of value means that the exchange value of a product is based on the
socially necessary amount of labor power that is generally required to produce
it. But under capitalism, one of the key ingredients is surplus value. And
under capitalism, the buyer of labor power — the capitalist — appropriates the
surplus value generated in the process of commodity production. But theoretical
clarity for its own sake is pointless intellectualism; instead, it should be a
guide for action. Mastering Marxist political economy is tough enough. But
putting it into action is even harder.
One increasingly urgent reason to abolish capitalism is its
prominent role in harming the planet. Capitalism possesses an inherent growth
imperative. This means that the normal functioning of capitalism is causing
water shortages, polluted oceans, destroyed forests and ruined depleted topsoil.
But even if the pending ecological catastrophe weren’t upon us, capitalism
would still need to be dismantled because it’s based on exploitation. There’s
no reason why the social result of production needs to be in private hands and
that only a few people should own what everybody produces.
Critiques of capitalism have entered the mainstream debates,
with Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century and Naomi Klein’s
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate as notable examples. Both
authors, however, approach capitalism from a reformist stance and hold up
social democratic versions of capitalism as viable alternatives. For sure, it
is worth defending the social safety nets and more enlightened views on
environmental issues. But it has to be kept emphasized that capitalism, in
whatever form, is inherently destructive because it converts the natural world
into commodities. And it’s inherently exploitative because profit always comes
from the exploitation of workers. It doesn’t matter if you give them healthcare
or a higher salary; you’re still exploiting them for private gain.
The problem with Piketty and Klein is that regardless of
intention are complicit in promoting the supremacy of capitalism which remains
unchallenged questioned. They no matter
how reluctantly only offer a framework that exists within the system. Their
debate has to be inside that framework. Nothing can exist outside. It is not
unlike when Thatcher said, ‘There is no alternative. It’s hard for people to
imagine that there could be any alternative. People think this is all there is.
This is the only way humans can behave. Capitalism is natural. The level of
political consciousness within the working class is very low. And that didn’t
happen by chance. It is by design and it’s by indoctrination and conditioning.
The capitalists and their representatives in government are adept at finding
new ways to squash and tamp down threats to their control. So the socialist
movement has to keep evolving our tactics as well. The Occupy movement provided
a glimpse at what’s possible. It made people realize they can rise up and take
collective action. It was very inspiring to people for that reason. It made
people feel good that they weren’t alone and it showed the potential of what
could happen. But Occupy also was a learning experience. It expressed the
discontent, it showed the weakness and the need to be stronger. But if we’re
actually going to go up against the system, it can’t just be a spontaneous
gathering of a bunch of people. It has to be organized — planned and strategic.
Many are pessimistic about the prospect of a socialist
revolution, probably with a certain amount of justification, and they know that
eradicating capitalism is a long shot. But it’s our only shot. The reason that socialists
are politically active is because there’s nothing else. The only other
alternative is to give up, surrender and submit to a slow death for ourselves
and our planet. When we accept things
the way they are we’ll end up in a worse situation. If a person really
understands what’s going on, he or she cannot stand idle. It’s a matter of
human dignity and it becomes part of our historical social responsibility to
try and change things. Accepting things the way they are would mean allowing 10
million children under the age of five to die annually because, under the
normal functioning of global capitalism, it’s not profitable to save them. It
would mean continuing to accept racism, which has always been central to
capitalism’s divide and rule manner of domination and control. It means the
acceptance of capitalism’s expansion and the unremitting accumulation of
capital.
We should never forget that we are potentially stronger than
they. We outnumber them. But equally important, we have right on our side.
Thursday, January 15, 2015
Capitalism Is Unpredictable
All sorts of self-styled experts claim that they can predict how capitalism operates, but recent developments in the North Sea illustrate how wild that boast really is. Energy firms are pulling the plug on billions of pounds worth of investment in the North Sea, as industry leaders prepare to meet ministers to discuss mounting jobs crisis caused by plummeting oil prices. 'In the latest blow for Scotland's oil industry, the Edinburgh-based global consultancy firm Wood Mackenzie said nine projects that had been earmarked as requiring £2 billion of investment over the next two years and had been awaiting final approval could be axed as a direct result of the dramatic decline in global prices over the last six months. (Herald, 14 January) Capitalism's booms and slumps leave the so-called experts clueless. RD
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Paternalism is a common attitude among well-meaning social reformers. Stemming from the root pater, or father, paternalism implies a patria...
