-Caveat Lector-
> WSWS : News & Analysis : Europe : Britain
>
> Blair denounces public sector workers to an audience of Venture
> Capitalists
>
> A man haunted by the persistence of class
>
> By Julie Hyland
> 12 July 1999
>
> Back to screen version
>
> Prime Minister Blair took the opportunity of a speech July 6 to
> the Venture Capitalists Association conference in London to vent
> his spleen against public sector workers.
>
> Unveiling a £50m fund to back budding entrepreneurs, Blair said
> his Labour government wanted to be the "champion of
> entrepreneurs", and to bring about a "revolution" in peoples
> attitudes towards what he called the "front-line troops of
> Britain's new economy". "We need society as a whole to applaud
> you", he continued.
>
> In a departure from his prepared speech, Blair told the audience
> of speculators that British culture is "fundamentally
> anti-meritocratic."
>
> "Too often in Britain, if people saw someone with money, they
> were jealous of them, whereas in the US they wanted to emulate
> them". The years of "snobbery" against people making money was
> particularly entrenched in the public services, he went on. "Try
> getting change in the public sector and the public services. I
> bear the scars on my back after two years in government and
> heaven knows what it will be like after a bit longer. People in
> the public sector were more rooted to the concept that 'if it has
> always been done this way it must always be done this way' than
> any group of people I have come across."
>
> He would continue to try and "tear down the barriers to upward
> mobility" and help to change such "unhealthy" public attitudes,
> he pledged.
>
> Faced with an immediate barrage of criticism—particularly from
> public sector employees—Blair's spokesman attributed the Prime
> Minister's deviation to "stress". There is undoubtedly an element
> of truth in this. His outburst came amidst growing problems for
> the government in a number of areas.
>
> Blair was the most belligerent supporter of NATO's bombing of
> Yugoslavia. But the last weeks have exposed that, far from
> safeguarding Kosovar Albanians, NATO's actions inflamed ethnic
> conflicts within the region. Its aftermath has created a new wave
> of refugees and atrocities against Serbs and gypsies.
>
> In Northern Ireland, Blair's attempts to seal the so-called
> "peace process" through a combination of horse-trading,
> contradictory assurances and "deadline" ultimatums has yet to
> come to fruition.
>
> In Britain, mass abstentions in recent local government and
> European elections dealt a further blow to the Prime Minister who
> had sought to utilise them to establish his credentials as a
> popular leader.
>
> But Blair's attack on the public sector was specifically
> directed. As well as slashing spending, the government is
> attempting to push through their Private Finance Initiative
> (PFI). Under this scheme, the entire public sector is being put
> up for grabs to the highest bidder. Private contractors will
> build, own and operate a range of services—including schools,
> hospitals, roads, etc. Blair, in his speech, offered the Venture
> Capitalists Association government money as an inducement for
> them to participate in this "risk-taking", but highly profitable,
> venture. He also promised them further opportunities in the
> telecommunications market and called on pension fund managers to
> stop being “too cautious” in investing in risk-taking ventures.
>
> An element of Blair's frustration is rooted in the mounting
> opposition to his government's attack on the public sector. Far
> from being resistant to change, public services have changed
> beyond recognition over the last two decades under both Tory and
> Labour administrations. Whilst Blair praised the "get rich quick"
> spirit, some five million public employees have faced an
> effective wage freeze that has left them amongst the poorest paid
> workers in Britain. More than 60 per cent of full-time workers
> now earn less than the average wage of £20,770 per annum. The
> average has been skewed upwards due to large increases for a
> small group of high earners—executive pay increased by 7 per cent
> and boardroom bonuses by 23 percent last year—and the exclusion
> from the survey of 6 million part-timers, who mostly earn less
> than £100 a week.
>
> The growing levels of inequality have greatly exacerbated social
> problems and placed further strains on public services. Labour's
> response is to blame public sector workers for "failing their
> consumers" and to starve them of cash. The resulting crisis is
> then used to legitimise privatisation.
>
> Millions of public sector employees—who looked to Labour for
> salvation after two decades of Tory attacks—regard the
> government's actions as a betrayal. At the British Medical
> Association (BMA) conference last week, doctors openly denounced
> Blair's policies and complained that their hopes that health care
> would be safe in Labour's hands had been "massively
> disappointed".
>
> Beleaguered on all sides, Blair believed that in front of an
> audience of venture capitalists, he was finally amongst friends.
> He even confided that, in his youth, he had set out on a
> risk-taking venture—organising rock tours—and failed. His speech
> was an appeal to New Labour's real constituency to come to his
> aid. But his intemperate remarks reveal a fundamental flaw in his
> grand design to refashion British society along the lines of his
> favoured American model. His “Third Way” rhetoric and assertions
> of a new entrepreneurial meritocracy are aimed at removing what
> he believes is the “British obsession” with class. He believed
> that the constant assertion by Labour's well-oiled PR machine
> that there is no such thing as opposing class interests would be
> enough to convince everyone of the error of their ways.
>
> Propaganda can indeed be an effective weapon. But in the final
> analysis, it cannot persuade working people to ignore the reality
> of their own lives. Moreover, there is a widespread recognition
> that when the private sector so beloved by Blair last held sway,
> the conditions of life for the majority of people were appalling.
>
> Even within the Labour Party, Blair's remarks caused disquiet.
> Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott was faced with the unenviable
> task of addressing a meeting of public sector workers immediately
> afterwards. By way of an apology, he told his audience that
> "Since the 19th century it has been local councillors and the
> public sector who have forged a modern society. When the private
> sector failed, the public sector stepped in locally and
> nationally. It was the public sector who made possible universal
> education, developed public transport, provided affordable and
> good quality housing, maintained parks and open spaces—and
> organised care for those most in need."
>
> Prescott has played the role of New Labour's “working class
> face”. He is a supporter of PFI and every measure introduced by
> the government over the last period. His riposte reflects
> concerns that Blair's arrogance and stupidity is endangering the
> very project upon which the government has embarked.
>
>
>
>
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------
> -------
>
> Copyright 1998-99
> World Socialist Web Site
> All rights reserved
>
>
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