Taxing Times

So, Ed Miliband actually had the audacity to tell Google to start paying UK taxes at an event organised by Google.  Maybe there's hope for him yet.  It's certainly more impressive than Cameron's cosying up to the likes Google whilst mouthing platitudes about curbing corporate tax avoidance.  But it always seems to be one step forward and two steps back with Ed.  Despite his apparent enthusiasm for taking on tax-dodging corporate behemoths, he still seems remarkably reluctant to use either of the S-words: socialism and social democracy, (OK, the second one is two words).  He still likes to bang on about 'one nation' and, worse, that the only choice is between 'irresponsible capitalism' and 'responsible capitalism'.  Obviously, I would beg to differ on several counts.  most fundamentally, I'd like to ask him which of these versions of capitalism it was that created the welfare state that Labour used to be so proud of and were prepared to defend?

The fact is that capitalism is inherently irresponsible, ultimately concerned only with maximising private profits and allowing the accumulation of wealth by a minority, if allowed to exist unfettered.  It is the job of governments to regulate capitalism in order to curb the excesses which led to the banking crash.  Indeed, this is the very minimum that governments should do - but failed to do under both Labour and Conservative administrations from Thatcher onwards - they should also be guaranteeing public access to those services, such as education, health and justice, that the markets cannot adequately provide on a universal basis. Unfortunately, we don't hear Ed or the rest of Labour's leadership offering this up as an alternative the current government's private sector free-for-all.  In fact, we don't hear much of any alternative economic policy from them either.  It's all very well rhetorically bashing Google, but it is all meaningless if you aren't prepared to offer us anything other than the same old capitalist system which has brought the global economy to its knees.