Neil Kinnock: the speech of a lifetime

As a young shadow cabinet member in 1983, Neil Kinnock outlined his vision of what an electoral landslide victory for Margaret Thatcher would mean for the country. It is now rightly recognised as one of the greatest speeches since World War II. It is now as relevant as it was then. You need only substitute in the current names where you see [....]. The overwhelming ethos of Thatcherism in our present government continues in the same form.


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"If [Margaret Thatcher] is re-elected as Prime Minister, I warn you.
I warn you that you will have pain - when healing and relief depend on payment.

I warn you that you will have ignorance - when talents are untended and wits are wasted, when learning is a privilege and not a right.

I warn you that you will have poverty - when pensions slip and benefits are whittled away by a Government that won't pay, in an economy that can't pay.

I warn you that you will be cold - when fuel charges are used as a tax system that the rich don't notice and the poor can't afford.

I warn you that you must not expect work - when many cannot spend, more will not be able to earn. When they don't earn, they don't spend. When they don't spend, work dies.

I warn you not to go into the streets alone after dark or into the streets in large crowds of protest in the light.

I warn you that you will be quiet - when the curfew of fear and the gibbet of unemployment make you obedient.

I warn you that you will have defence of a sort - with a risk and at a price that passes all understanding.

I warn you that you will be home-bound - when fares and transport bills kill leisure and lock you up.

I warn you that you will borrow less - when credit, loans, mortgages and easy payments are refused to people on your melting income.

If [Margaret Thatcher] wins, she will be more a Leader than a Prime Minister. That power produces arrogance and when it is toughened by [Tebbitry] and flattered and fawned upon by spineless sycophants, the boot-licking tabloid Knights of Fleet Street and placement in the Quangos, the arrogance corrupts absolutely.

If [Margaret Thatcher] wins -

I warn you not to be ordinary.
I warn you not to be young.
I warn you not to fall ill.
I warn you not to get old."

The Nature of Money

This is going to cause you cognitive dissonance. Not just to find out that the whole reality of cash money is a lie, but to understand that you have believed this lie all your life.

Take a £20 note from your purse or wallet. It bears a promise from The Bank of England: "I promise to pay the bearer on demand the sum of twenty pounds".

So far so good.

Suppose you decide one day to go to Threadneedle Street in London to claim your twenty pounds. How will the bank redeem their pledge to you, the bearer? What will they give you in exchange for the note to the value of twenty pounds? Only other notes or coins.

So the note itself is worthless, and the only intrinsic value is in the promise, but it's a promise that the Bank of England can never be called upon to honour.

It is therefore an unenforceable contract.

Have a think about that for a while.

The Austerity Lie

If politicians are ideologically opposed to a particular policy, it's easy for them to say "we can't afford it". After all, that's a concept that people understand. Everybody knows there are things they want, but can't have due to lack of money.

Encouraging us to believe that government finances operate in the same way as a household budget is a trick being used to justify the current savage attacks against the Welfare State. Politicians hope that by offering an economic justification their true motives will not be challenged.

We are told that changes will need to come in the NHS because it has a shortfall of £22bn. We are also told that the welfare safety net, supposed to protect those unable to defend themselves against the worse ravages of the capitalist system, will be subject to a further £12bn of cuts. The necessity for these cuts is based on a lie.

When government decide to renew Trident for £100bn+, or announce the go-ahead for HS2 at a cost of £50bn+, the question of how it will be paid for is never raised. That's because there is no question. They have already committed to carry these things through, and can raise the money they need through the UK central bank, the Bank of England.

The Bank of England can create money for any purpose, and this new money can be used to fund any project. The transaction effectively is one part of the state guaranteeing a line of credit to another part of the state, so that a policy can be enacted to obtain goods or services needed for that project.

So do not be fooled. When you hear that we can't afford this particular service, or there is no more money for that service, what you are really hearing is a politician saying "I don't believe in that politically, so I choose not to fund it from state money." It is not about the money!

Politicians of every political persuasion should be held to account when they use the Austerity Lie, because those who use it are tricking us into accepting their agenda, when they should be representing our interests.