Cameron’s crony capitalist kleptocracy will lose him the 2015 election

Ed Miliband’s promise to freeze energy costs may have been economically illiterate, but it left the smug Tories reeling. Why? Because it tapped into a feeling amongst the public that however hard they work, ordinary people are no longer getting a fair deal.

PM David Cameron made his big conference speech rightly claiming there was a clear difference between Ed Miliband’s ‘back to the future’ reversion to 1960s socialism and the supposedly free market capitalism being offered by the Tories. The only problem is that the version of capitalism being offered by the Tories is a corrupted version of the kind of capitalism which has given so many countries economic growth.

I’m not sure what we should call Cameron’s capitalism. Perhaps it’s “crony capitalism” or “capitalist kleptocracy” or “corporatism”. In Cameron’s capitalist kleptocracy we see:

1. Huge companies exploit their power over us to enrich their bosses. The energy companies, the water companies, the banks, pension fund managers, railways all rig markets, assisted by a venal political class, to crush competition and protect their rent-seeking

2. In the public sector, the NHS, the BBC, the Border Agency, HMRC, social workers and even the National Audit Office – none of these serve us. They all shamelessly exploit us to grab power, wealth and privilege for their bosses

3. Our politicians no longer represent our interests. Instead they grovel to the vested interests and lobbying of major companies and large public-sector organisations

4. The rule of law no longer applies to these powerful organisations. Large companies decide whether they feel like paying tax and how much they want to pay. Bankers committing fraud are never investigated or punished. Tax-avoiding companies are never pursued by the authorities and are offered sweetheart deals by civil servants who then move on to work for the accountancies assisting tax avoidance.

5. Similarly, corrupt, incompetent, self-serving public-sector bosses (like Sir David Nicholson?) seem to be above the law and are never sanctioned, however appalling their actions

6. Our politicians mostly seem to come from an elite political class, few have ever had a proper job, most seem to be thoroughly incompetent and, instead of representing the interests of voters, they lie and steal and prostitute themselves to the powerful and the wealthy in order to enrich themselves

7. While the rich get richer and the powerful get more powerful, ordinary people are crushed by stagnant or falling wages, rising prices and ever-increasing taxes.

Cameron has made the disastrous mistake of being seen as a protector of this crony capitalist kleptocracy, while Miliband has started to position himself as opposing the vested interests of the rich and powerful. That’s why Miliband will win the 2015 General Election.

I understand that this crony capitalist kleptocracy actually flourished under Blair and Brown. But Cameron’s problem is that as a multimillionaire toff, most voters will associate him with protecting the interests of the kleptocrats and will see Miliband (quite wrongly) as being against the ruling elites.

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