At the centre of the problem is the weakness of an economy virtually stripped of manufacturing industry and struggling with a burden of debt exacerbated by years of profligate tax cuts to the rich.
To balance the books financially, (not least in order to limit public borrowing to the three percent maximum allowed under the Maastricht Treaty) Kenneth Clarke now has to make draconian cuts in spending - hence the onslaught on public sector pay, on social security, and on local government services including education.
In the ruins of the muchhyped Thatcherite economic revolution' Clarke's sole boast in today's stagnating capitalist economy is that inflation has been held down.
Retail sales are falling, house sales are at the lowest level ever recorded, and 2.5 million are claiming unem"You are about to obliterUnder Thatcher the whole Rate the professional Tory strategy hinged on succlasses' representation cessfully placating the key in the Commons," angry elements in the top two thirds Tory backbencher Alan of society at the expense of the lowest third. Duncan warned John MaThe modest aspirations of jor. ordinary people for more What draconian measmoney to spend, a house of ure did Major have in mind? their own, a life free from the He had declared general threat of crime, were skilfully support for the Nolan Retwisted into support for cuts in port's suggestions that MPs taxes (and welfare spending), should be obliged to disclose their outside earnings. sales of council houses (and This is regarded as an incentives to mortgage bor- outrage by wealthy Tory rowers), and vast increases in MPs, for whom the MP's police powers. basic salary of £32, 000 a But as the tax bills go up, year plus lavish secretarial the jobs disappear, the house and travel expenses is little becomes an unsellable, over- more than beer money. priced millstone rather than "It must be a good thing an asset and the petty crime of to get professional middle a whole alienated generation class people into this develops into an epidemic, the House. If they are being whole scenario has been told they have got to do this year, to be quite honest they are not going to come," warned former minister Sir Archie Hamilton.
Remember these are the same MPs who have voted for social security cuts designed to strip 250,000 disabled people of their benefits, and who ridicule as too expensive the notion of a minimum wage policy guaranteeing workers as little as £4 an hour - £8,000 a year.
Never mind the 'professional classes': they are already over-represented at every level in society. Not just in the Tory Party: most Labour MPs are also drawn from this same omnipresent layer.
So who will represent the workers?
Friederich Engels in the tions in Britain as deciding every so often which members of the bourgeoisie should exploit the working class.
Average wage The Paris Commune of 1871 showed an alternative: it insisted that its elected representative were paid no more than the average workers' wage -and that they should be recallable at any time by the body that elected them.
The soviets (workers' councils) which emerged as the rival state power in the Russian revolution went one step further. Comprised of representatives from workplaces and neighbourhoods, they excluded the capitalists and the manparliaments of the working class. There, too, delegates who stepped out of line were subject to immediate recall.
While Tony Blair's team of well-heeled barristers and lecturers works itself into a self-righteous lather over the Nolan proposals, they are manoeuvring to sever Labour's roots in the workers' movement.
Let's expose the corruption of top Tories and any bent Labour or Liberal MPs: but as long as the working class is forced to spectate from the outside -and capitalist boardrooms continue to take the key decisions that actually affect people's daily lives - parliament will remain a squalid, deceptive sideshow.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK No. 84 May 27 1995, Page 4. Tooled up for trouble: Met officers test out new batons BLACK Londoner Brian These investigations remain biased, inherently secret and are never made public and yet they form the basis on which the Crown Prosecution Service and the Police Complaints Authority decide whether charges are to be brought and strongly influence the shape of the inquest. Prosecutions rarely happen.
This means the police remain unaccountable to the public for their actions and are seen by many as being above the law. The only public forum for examining such deaths is the inquest with its many procedural problems - notably the lack of legal aid for representation for the bereaved, the lack of prior disclosure of any documentation and its narrow remit.
Many relatives and friends of those who die in custody have great hopes that the inquest will establish the truth and are frequently dismayed by its limitations.
1985 James Hall. Lavender Hill Police Station, London John Mikkelson, Hounslow Police Station Cynthia Jarrett, Police Raid Tottenham 1986 Stephen Bogle, Thames Magistrates Court Caiphas Anthony Lemard, Kensington Police Station 1987 Nenneh Halloh, Marylebone Police Station Mohammed Parkit, Marylebone Police Station