On Corporate Welfare and political activity

In 2015 We handed £93bn on welfare benefits to corporations. That is enough to wipe out at a stroke this year’s budget deficit – and it was given to companies in direct aid, subsidies and tax breaks.
The term “corporate welfare” may sound unfamiliar to some. In the Westminster thesaurus, welfare appears alongside benefits and social security as a term for public spending targeted at individuals and households. But corporations rely on public funds, too.
When Richard Branson’s Virgin Atlantic took £28m from the Welsh government in 2011 to set up a call centre in Swansea, that was a form of welfare. The German, French and Dutch companies that now run our train services are subsidised by the British public to the tune of hundreds of millions. The £45bn taken by firms in corporate tax benefits is a form of welfare. So is the ultra-low cost insurance scheme the government runs for exporters such as BAE Systems.None of these are labelled corporate welfare, but that’s precisely what they are: direct public spending aimed at protecting and supporting businesses.

The very idea that the privileged are speaking out against a system that has disproportionately benefited them should be revealing. A working class person hailing socialism will be dubbed envious; she or he lacked the individual merit to succeed. “What ‘contingent factors’? They lacked the innovation, the ambition; they did not strive hard enough!” However, a rich person – a rich person has won, against the odds they have come out on top. A systemic redistribution of wealth is directly against their economic interests. And thus, in this respect, it is more poignant that they support it nonetheless.'

In Turkey 100,000 march against the post modern Fascist Erdogan. Last weekend 100, 000 march in London against this obscene Tory DUP government that rulers over us and in Germany anti capitalist protestors stand against the G20 meeting there. The long hot summer of political protest runs on and the populist right falters and is turned back. So called " libertarians ' condemn the protests as violent and bullying and yet the irony is that many of the libertarian right deny global warming and climate change and support globalisation that lays waste violently the cultures and people's of the world. The *libertarian* call is simply a defend of the status quo, the defence of selfishness and a certain celebration of narcissism Their argument lacks a critique of power, an understanding of how power works and a massive blindness to the facts that those who are white, middle-class and solvent do not see what it is they have and fail to see what others do not have, what they experience and how they are perceived.The Tory DUP monstrosity of government runs rapidly out of steam. And as the Summer moves on we see an isolated Trump, awkward and without purpose turning up unwelcome at every international event.

As Mosul is captured the question remains will the Iraqi government restore power. to regional governors and local communities. Will the goverment be now inclusive of the Sunni and Kurd population will they now learn of the true effects of the Blair/Bush war...much will be revealed in the next few weeks. Will there be a real recognition of ethnic and individual rights ? Have a good Monday..