What has the rise of American conservatism over the past few decades – seemingly reaching a crescendo in the Presidency of George W. Bush – got to do with how we get from A to B over here, on the other side of the pond? Will Hutton’s latest current affairs tour de force, following on from his analysis of UK politics in The State We’re In, shows in detail how Britain has drifted more towards this American mindset over this period whilst being decidedly diffident towards the European Union and its aims. Anyone who’s experienced the decline of our public services, transport included, since the early 80s and wondered how such a well-orchestrated campaign of confusion and farce has come to be can find the answer here.
As you might expect from a high-powered economist and former newspaper editor, the 350+ page tome has an academic slant, with many research references to clever-sounding people you’ve never heard of sprinkled liberally throughout. Many of the basic points are obvious, but eloquently made. At the heart of the process has been the unfettered expansion of the US and UK stock markets and the growth of an American corporate culture interested only in unsustainably fast money-making.
Most revealingly the author was clearly in the know about the recent Worldcom scandal way before it happened.That such a situation was apparently an open secret before the company itself owned up, is in itself an indictment of the cosy relationship between big business and government in the US.The book is packed with good insight into the surreal world of corporate America where membership fees at the ‘right’ golf club cost $30,000 a year and a $15,000 wristwatch is de rigeur. On a deeper psychological level this is a culture where any idea of direct support for the public realm is too often seen as socialism or communism in disguise – this is a country that wants knowledge of human genes to be privatised and sold to the highest bidder.
What does all this mean for us over here in little old Britain? The influence of right wing US-modelled think tanks has grown since Thatcher’s election in 1979 and the Blair government has done little to reverse a system ideologically bent over backwards in favour of free-market solutions to the provision of public services. Click here now. The supposed efficiencies of the system are given the lie by the facts; Railtrack has collapsed with millions of debt and private finance is running scared of it, whilst it will be 2008 before the London Underground Public-Private partnership reckons it can deliver any new trains. This is also an excellent read should you be considering which way to vote in any European referendum: a vote to opt out, argues Hutton, is a step closer to the American way of life and whose transport system would you rather have – mainland Europe’s or America’s? Enough said.
The World We’re In – Will Hutton
ISBN 0-316-86081-6
Publisher Little, Brown
Pages 420
Hardback UK Price £17.99
