Splendid Isolation

While I’m following advice on staying at home, I thought it might be fun to plumb my musical ignorance. Ask me a question, any musical question.

Feel free to share this offer and stay well,

Best wishes

David

The Dangers of Brexit #1

I’m no admirer of EU bureaucracy, but …

[A paradoxiacal outcome of] the backlash against neoliberalism’s crushing of political choice has elevated just the kind of man that neo-liberals worship. Donald Trump, who has no coherent politics, is not a classic neoliberal. But he is the perfect representation of Hayek’s “independent”; the beneficiary of inherited wealth, unconstrained by common morality, whose gross predilections strike a new path that others may follow. The neoliberal thinktankers are now swarming round this hollow man, this empty vessel waiting to be filled by those who know what they want.

… as professor of political economy Abby Innes argues, neoliberalism has reached its Brezhnev phase: “ossification, self-dealing, and directionless political churn”. Like Leninism, neoliberalism claims to be an infallible science. Its collision with the complexities of the real world has caused political sclerosis of the kind that characterised the decline of Soviet communism. As a result, “the only way to complete this revolution today is under cover of other projects: Brexit is ideal”.

Just one example of leading Brexiteers’ mendacity …

MP and UK Cabinet Minister Jacob Rees-Mogg is estimated to have earnt £7m from one of his investments since the referendum according to an investigation by Channel 4 Dispatches.

In an interview with the programme Conservative MP Mr Rees-Mogg refused to disclose the precise amount he received in dividends from Somerset Capital Management (SCM), the investment firm he set up in 2007. However, an analysis of its accounts shows that in the past two years, the fund has seen profits almost double and it has paid £47m to members over that period.

• Mr Rees-Mogg owns at least 15% of the firm which according to one financial expert’s estimate could have put him in line for a pay-out of around £7m since 2016.
• Asked if the figure of £7m is accurate, Mr Rees-Mogg told Dispatches: “The amount that I received is not for public disclosure. I’m entitled to the same privacy in my affairs as anyone else in parliament is.”
• Mr Rees-Mogg declares in his House of Commons Register of Interests that he is paid £500 an hour for his work at SCM and takes home around £15,000 a month on top of his MPs salary.