{"id":12060,"date":"2015-09-09T18:58:02","date_gmt":"2015-09-09T23:58:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=12060"},"modified":"2015-09-09T18:58:02","modified_gmt":"2015-09-09T23:58:02","slug":"the-citys-stranglehold-makes-britain-look-like-an-oh-so-civilised-mafia-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=12060","title":{"rendered":"The City\u2019s stranglehold makes Britain look like an oh-so-civilised mafia state"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The City\u2019s stranglehold makes Britain look like an oh-so-civilised mafia state<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Dodgy donations, misselling, trading scandals, tax evasion: wherever you sniff, something stinks<\/strong><\/div>\n
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\"Illustration<\/div>\n

\u00a0\u2018The financial sector exploits an astonishing political privilege: the City of London is the only jurisdiction in the UK not fully subject to the authority of parliament.\u2019 Illustration: S\u00e9bastian Thibault<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Be reasonable in response to the unreasonable: this is what voters in the\u00a0Labour election<\/a>\u00a0are told. Accommodate, moderate, triangulate, for the alternative is to isolate yourself from reality.<\/p>\n

You might be inclined to agree. If so, please take a look at the reality to which you must submit. To an extent unknown since before the first world war, economic relations in this country are becoming set in stone. It is not just that the very rich no longer fall while the very poor no longer rise. It\u2019s that the system itself is protected from risk. Through bailouts, quantitative easing and delays in interest-rate rises, speculative investment has been so well cushioned that \u2013 as the Guardian economics editor, Larry Elliott, puts it \u2013 financial markets are \u201cone of the last bastions of socialism left on Earth<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

Public services, infrastructure, the very fabric of the nation: these too are being converted into risk-free investments. Social cleansing is transforming central London into an exclusive economic zone for property speculation. From a dozen directions, government policy converges on this objective.<\/p>\n