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This from Maggie Nelmes, Ventnor. Ed
Did you know that last week the Treasury launched a bill which will, if passed by parliament, remove barriers put in place after the banking crash fifteen years ago to prevent another crisis?
The Financial Services and Markets Bill was being drafted while Rishi Sunak was Chancellor, and was approved by the Cabinet of which Liz Truss is still a member. It demonstrates just how out of touch both these prime ministerial candidates are with the lives and concerns of ordinary people.
Timing could not be worse
The timing of this legislation could not be worse. It could be passed this autumn, when energy prices are set to rocket again, with food and other commodity costs still rising. Millions of families will not be able to make ends meet, even though most of them have at least one full-time wage-earner.
Removing these barriers “would unleash a wave of dangerous financial trading, fuelling volatility in the economy and further driving up the prices of basic commodities”, writes Nick Dearden of Global Justice Now.
The global economy works as a giant casino
The financial crash revealed how the global economy works as a giant casino, with no ethical scruples, no consideration for the livelihoods of ordinary people or the harm that its speculation is doing to our planet.
And when speculation goes wrong, governments use our taxes to bail out the banks. It is the poorest in our society who are made to suffer the most.
Devised by Rishi Sunak
You may be shocked to realise that the former Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, hailed as the saviour of so many businesses and their employees during the early years of the Coronavirus pandemic, devised The Financial Services and Markets Bill, intended to cause a second financial ’Big Bang’, inspired by Margaret Thatcher’s first deregulation of the financial markets in 1986.
This was designed to fuel a wave of speculation and financialisation, instability and unrestrained greed.
What ‘Take Back Control’ really means
Now we know the true meaning of the slogan ‘Take Back Control’. According to Nick Dearden,
“It’s what Conservatives like Sunak always wanted from Brexit – to undercut European regulation and turn London into even more of a playground for speculators and foreign elites.
“Truss, with the zeal of the Brexit convert, wants to cut not only financial regulation, but everything – a bonfire of rules and rights.”
Cause of cost of living crisis
Steeply rising inflation is causing the cost-of living crisis. While the mainstream media and politicians tell us that the huge costs of the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are to blame, little mention is made of the far bigger role played by speculators in the money markets, who have driven up food and energy prices to make a quick buck.
Big oil companies have seen their profits soar, yet our government has not imposed nearly as big a windfall tax on them as it could have done to substantially reduce the effects of the huge household energy bills that we are facing this coming winter.
Dearden: We have plenty of food in the world to feed everyone
“This is the main reason why so many people are going hungry even when we have plenty of food in the world to feed everyone”, says Nick Dearden.
And UN Special Rapporteur Olivier De Schutter has said of the financiers “They are indeed betting on hunger, and exacerbating it.”
Need to ensure that regulators have the means to curb that power
In this time of economic crisis, any government with integrity would be reigning in the financial sector, not ripping away the safeguards already in place.
And given the huge impact the City of London has on the economies of the rest of the world, we need to ensure that regulators have the means to curb that power.
Impact of heatwaves
This summer, countries across Europe have experienced heat waves that threaten the lives of their most vulnerable people, and meteorologists warn that these extremes will become more frequent as global average temperatures rise.
This reinforces the need to prevent The City from causing even greater damage to the environment than they have hitherto.
Subscribe to Global Justice Now campaign
As soon as parliament reconvenes this autumn, Global Justice Now will be working with the coalition Finance for The Future to raise awareness of the serious widespread damage The Financial Services and Markets Bill could do and campaign against it.
Please join us by subscribing to emails from Global Justice Now.
Image: togawanderings under CC BY 2.0
