The day I received my British passport in December 1982 was one of my proudest moments. I had spent five years here as a white African immigrant with a resident’s permit, being frequently checked up on by the Home Office and the police. My business travel was limited. Then, all of a sudden, as a British citizen, my life changed. I then spent the next 40 years enjoying the privilege of being waved through European immigration, often by just showing the cover of my passport.
I was so confident in my Britishness. We were the top country in the world, as far I was concerned, and I held my head high. Today, I am still not ashamed of being British, but I am very ashamed of the United Kingdom. Nearly every value that attracted me here has disappeared – generosity of spirit, fair treatment for all, a vibrant independent citizenry and excellent public services.
In the early 1980s, living in the life-enhancing culture of Sheffield, I could cope with the class system and the growing ascendancy of the very rich and privileged. Even the early steel closures during which 50,000 were laid off were manageable, although heart-breaking. Margaret Thatcher’s clumsy and unfair attempts to apply the market economy to all aspects of life were annoying, but people seemed to ride the changes, especially as they rallied around the striking coal miners.
Selling the family silver
Then the drive for privatisation picked up. Under Conservative rule from 1979 to 1997 Britain lost 37 major assets to the private sector, including energy companies, water, telecoms and British Rail. These were vital strategic assets, built and paid for by the British people. Even that Tory grandee, Harold Macmillan, was appalled, characterising the process as some tragic tale of aristocratic decline: “First of all the Georgian silver goes. And then all that nice furniture that used to be in the salon. Then the Canalettos go”.
The economic reality
The Conservative trope was that the private sector was more efficient, better value for money. But even at the level of the most basic economic thinking, privatisation has been a disaster. Many organisations were sold off for a pittance. The Treasury received just over £64bn from these sales of Britain’s assets. Adjusted for inflation this would be £148bn today. Compare this with the estimated price tag of £88bn for a long-awaited HS2 upgrade to the railways, which could rise to £106bn.
The result is that the revenue from the 37 privatisations is actually only about 37% more than that single Conservative flagship project today. This is without considering the intellectual capital that has gone into designing the finest train of its time, the HST, which had a working life of 40 years; the sunk cost of the production of trains; and infrastructure, of course, such as stations. Billions-worth. And this is just one privatisation.
A disaster for travellers and service users
What did the rail travellers get? A running disaster of unreliable services, the most expensive fares in Europe and rank bad management planning. If British Rail had not been privatised, the government would have saved at least £6bn, since 1996, on train leasing charges alone. Today the government is also paying for a guaranteed £600mn a year for profits to the train operating companies – because they are badly managed. Money to pay dividends, but not to help reduce the fares. One for the capitalists, nothing for the citizens.
To further understand the extent of the value of the possible revenue that has been lost over this period we need only look at the water companies. These alone have paid out £72bn in dividends since privatisation, far exceeding the proceeds at the time (£3.6bn) and are the worst performing public service in the UK – because this money was not put into maintenance and upgrading.
What did the citizens get? Over three hundred thousand pollution incidents. What did the directors get? The CEO of the worst polluter, United Utilities, has a salary package of £2.3mn. In comparison, the highest paid director of publicly owned Scottish Water earned £366,000 in 2022.
The UK’s assets, bought and paid for by the citizens, have been sold for a mess of pottage to a bunch of mainly overseas oligarchs by a bunch of economically illiterate politicians. Why should we let them govern us?
Austerity and cost-cutting
To heap insult upon injury, chancellor George Osborne’s austerity policy introduced a new political mindset, that of cost-cutting public services. This was a flagrant misuse of power, using Treasury legislation to damage public services, punish the average workers and public servants and enhance the opportunities for the richest, especially those in finance.
We, the public, are picking up the tab: an underfunded NHS and social care system failing; underfunded councils struggling; underfunded schools struggling, energy bills uncapped; filthy rivers and beaches. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) persecutes the poorest; the Ministry of Justice has a courthouse backlog; HM Revenue & Customs are understaffed and has not charged any British firm with the offence of ‘failure to prevent tax evasion’ in the past six years; the Home Office is in chaos; and teachers and nurses are on strike for better wages.
Meanwhile, the rich get richer while the poor are still neglected, despite the urgings of such authorities of Sir Michael Marmot. The nation is oppressed by a ruling class of incompetent politicians and plutocrats that are sucking the life out of it. Why should we let them govern us?
Independence for Yorkshire
As an ex-colonial I experience a strong feeling of déjà vu. The British people are being colonised by neoliberal politicians and greedy oligarchs, just as India and Africa were. We are no longer a working democracy. We are governed by the equivalent of the old East India Company oligarchs and its servants in Whitehall. It is time to declare independence for Yorkshire, following the example of the Boston Tea Party, where American independence began, by refusing to pay unjust taxes.
The starting point has to be resisting paying such a large share of council taxes to the Treasury. In 2019/20, local authorities in England received 23% of their funding from government grants, 50% from council tax, and 27% from retained business rates – revenue from business rates that they do not send to the Treasury.
Local government in England has very limited revenue-raising powers compared to other wealthy countries. We need to change that, starting with increasing our share of retained business rates to over 50%, given just how wasteful Westminster is with our money.
Unlike this government, we do not reward incompetence and negligence. Two things must happen now:
- At the May elections elect only those politicians who represent us, not a party – unless it’s a party for independence. We need representative democracy, not party democracy if we, the people, are to be heard.
- Introduce a new kind of economic thinking that starts with what is best for the household, the smallest economic unit. Go back to the work of that brilliant but overlooked political economist of the late-19th and early-20th century, Edward Carpenter, who spent his most influential years in Sheffield. His understanding of the importance of the household and smallholdings is second to none, as his criticism of banking and profiteering.
A new charter
Then wind forward to today, to the works of one of our great economic historians, Dr Frances Hutchinson of Keighley. Read What everybody really wants to know about money (1998). This will indicate the way ahead for Yorkshire.
Finally, if you wish to know what to do about the energy crisis and how to localise energy, check out the work of Dave Berry’s Sheffield Renewables, Emma Hoddinott of Rotherham’s Can’t Wait to Insulate and Hugh Goulbourne, CO2Sense – all Co-operative Party members. You can also come and hear Chris Cook, a national expert in local energy, with me, at the Sheffield Festival of Debate: Sheffield: Where Real Economics beats Neoliberalism, on 9 May.
In 2015 Britain celebrated 800 years since the signing of Magna Carta. Today, we reflect on the Founding Fathers of the United States of America, who in 1776 looked to the charter as a historical precedent for asserting their liberty from the British crown. It is now time for Yorkshire to produce its own charter with similar political, economic and cultural rights enshrined in its independent government.
