THE final proof that British capitalism is beached on the rocks has arrived.
The situation is so grave, and the reputation of UK bankers so toxic, that the coalition cannot trust one of their own with the job of Bank of England Governor to succeed the current holder Mervyn King.
They have had to bring in a ‘mere mercenary’ – who had previously ruled himself out – a Canadian central banker, Mark Carney who, in return for his £624,000 a year, will be taking out British nationality, no doubt with the facility to return to his original status if the job proves to be beyond his capacity and, indeed, beyond the capacity of any of the central bankers.
It is their system after all that is in its death throes, creating hunger, poverty, homelessness, joblessness, wars and revolutions in every part of the world, as it proves over and over again that it deserves to perish, as did the feudal system before it.
Mark Carney is the governor of the Canadian Central Bank. He will serve for five years, and his main job appears to be to try and give the impression that he is not a tool of the British bankers and, as a new broom, is dedicated to their regulation. In reality, he is to provide a clean front while government funding is poured into big and small businesses.
The notion of regulating the banks is a charade. The truth is that it is many times easier to end the rule of the bankers with a socialist revolution, than it is to carry through the smallest regulation of the anti-social profiteering of the City of London casino.
The current governor, Sir Mervyn King, steps down from the post next June. He said that Carney represents a new generation of leadership for the Bank of England.
Tory chancellor Osborne told Parliament that Carney, 47, would bring the ‘strong leadership and external experience the Bank needs’. For good measure, Labour shadow chancellor Ed Balls welcomed the incoming governor as a ‘good choice, good judgement’.
Other candidates for the post included Bank deputy governor Paul Tucker, FSA chairman Lord Turner, Sir John Vickers – who led the government’s recent review into breaking up the banks – and Santander bank’s UK chairman Lord Burns.
Tucker had been widely tipped to replace Mervyn King. However, his failure to act on the recent Libor rigging scandal made him a toxic choice, while the money laundering activities of the HSBC were enough to damn all British bankers.
So you have a new broom to help with all of the anti- working class dirty work ahead, centring on the destruction of the Welfare State, while billions will be handed over to business as the slump deepens.
It is already being mooted that the Tories will need to push up VAT to 25 per cent, and to increase taxation in a desperate attempt to balance their books.
It is already being said that the struggle against inflation should be given up, along with quantitative easing and, that while the cost of living rockets, the bank rate should be raised to defend the pound sterling, and state aid given directly to business by the Bank.
Carney is the man for this job. He spent 13 years at Goldman Sachs, was appointed deputy governor of the Bank of Canada in 2003, and left a year later to become deputy finance minister, holding that position until he was appointed Bank of Canada governor.
The working class has a different job on hand. This is to defend the Welfare State, and its jobs and living standards in the only way that this can be done.
This is by a general strike to bring down the coalition and bring in a workers government that will expropriate the bosses and the bankers putting an end to capitalism and bringing in socialism.