Manchester - A Tale of Two Systems.

Manchester - A Tale of Two Systems.

Summary: The two ideologically opposed political systems that have dominated the last 150 years of world history were formulated at the same time, in the same city – Manchester, by two ideologically opposed men - Karl Marx and Richard Cobden.

Politically, many people think of Manchester, our region’s major city (sorry, Liverpool) as a hotbed of socialism. At the last General Election, the entirety of Greater Manchester returned Labour MPs, many constituencies have always been Labour held. The city has a ‘Museum of Socialism’, it is home to Co-operative Society, The Guardian, and now the BBC. Its main Football Team plays in red. It’s also where Friedrich Engels lived and met with Karl Marx – in Chetham’s Library in the City Centre.

Friedrich Engels wrote his book ‘The Condition of the Working Class in England’ based on his experiences in Manchester in 1845. The Industrial Revolution sparked into life in England some 30 years before the rest of the world caught on, and hence the transformative effect on cities like Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham – and on their populations – flocking in from the countryside to work in the factories was still a great social experiment.

In these new, industrial cities with their densely populated slums, lack of sanitation, clean air or fresh water, death rates amongst workers from diseases like smallpox, measles and whooping cough were four times higher than in the countryside, and the quality of life and diet much worse.

Engels and Marx met regularly in Manchester to discuss this deprivation and how it could be solved, resulting in their follow-up to Engels’ book – ‘The Communist Manifesto’ in 1848 and its central tenets of State Control and the worker’s ownership of the means of production. The publication of this book led to the explosion of Bolshevism in Russia and its satellites, the formation of the Soviet Union and eventually the the drudgery and oppression of Communism and deaths of tens of millions of people..

 

But few people know about the huge – and possibly greater contribution -  to Right Wing* politics and  Small State, Free Trade Liberalism, made in this great northern city.

At about the same time that Engels and Marx were squirreled away in the city’s coffee houses, writing their miserable book, Richard Cobden (1804-1865) was hard at work running his Manufacturing Company. He also witnessed at first hand the deprivation and poor living conditions of the working people in the city, and wished to put an end to it. But unlike Marx and Engels, Cobden considered the cause of this impoverishment before trying to establish a solution. The cause he identified was – ‘The Corn Laws’.

At the time, most MPs were rich landowners, who in order to be able to charge a high price for the crops from their own farms, passed laws that imposed hefty tariffs on the abundant, less expensive crops imported from overseas. This protectionism led to an effective monopoly, high prices, frequent shortages, and an unhealthy and malnourished workforce. Richard Cobden understood that scrapping the Corn Laws would achieve four morally desirable aims:

In his own words:

1. Guarantee prosperity of manufacturer by affording him outlets.
2. Cheapen the price of food and increase employment and prosperity.
3. Make English agriculture more efficient (productive).
4. Introduce through mutually advantageous international trade a new era of peace.

In 1838 he founded the Anti-Corn Law League and began campaigning for their repeal. During his campaign, he was elected as Member of Parliament for Stockport in 1841. Undeterred by fierce opposition from the landowners in the House of Commons, he began his campaign in Parliament for the Corn Laws to be scrapped. In 1846, he got his way - on the 16th of May, by pulling together a coalition of 1/3 on third of the Conservatives, and two thirds of the Whig party thus creating a majority of 98 votes, splitting the Conservatives and bringing down the government in the process.

Without the Corn Laws, the price of food dropped, and competition increased, thus improving standards. Working families could instantly afford to improve their living conditions, their diet and health, and even education for their children. This better educated, and more skilled workforce created more wealth, greater consumer spending, innovation, and productivity, thus driving the explosion in Industrial Capitalism that made the United Kingdom a World Power.

Cobden did not to stand in the subsequent General Election, instead taking a ‘year out’ to accept invitations from Europe and America to speak about his struggles and spread word of the benefits of Free Trade. Now a globally renowned statesman, Richard Cobden returned to Politics in 1847, representing the West Riding of Yorkshire. During these tumultuous times in America, and in the Ottoman, Russian and British Empires, much of Cobden’s energy was spent campaigning for peace, often against the grain of the general mood in Parliament and in the Country. Had Cobden been as influential in the sphere of Foreign Affairs as he had been in that of Economics, many of the fractious relations between states and cultures which blighted the 20th Century may have been avoided.

Cobden built on his achievements to bring about the world’s first Free Trade deal - the ‘Cobden-Chevalier Treaty’, between the United Kingdom and France, in the face of fierce opposition in both countries. Having been in a near constant state of war for the previous 500 years, there was great mistrust and animosity between the two countries. However, certain in the knowledge that Free Trade would bring about an new era of cooperation, peace and prosperity, Cobden persevered and the treaty - the first of its kind - was duly signed in 1860. France and the United Kingdom have been close allies ever since.

Cobden died in 1865, but his great legacy to the world - of international cooperation, peace and prosperity through Free Trade lives on to this day. It is no co-incidence that conflicts between countries with healthy ‘Cobdenite’ trading relationships are rare. Together with his forbear Adam Smith, Richard Cobden helped shape the modern global economic system of Free Markets, International Trade and Floating Exchange Rates, that help to increase peace and co-operation and spread wealth to developing countries in Africa and Asia and the former Soviet Block.

But it is the Industrial City in North-West England where Cobden worked and formulated his ideas that lends its name to the school of Economic Theory he established - Manchester Liberalism; The ‘Manchester School also promoted pacifism, anti-slavery, freedom of the press and separation of church and state, peace, non-intervention and retrenchment.

It is also worth noting that it is precisely the principles of Manchester Liberalism that underpin UKIP Economic, European and Foreign policy.

"Peace will come to earth when the people have more to do with each other and governments less."

"The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign nations is – in extending our commercial relations – to have with them as little political connection as possible."

- Richard Cobden.

Epilogue

Further proof that Manchester Liberalism is the route to a more peaceful and prosperous society is evident in those places where such theories have been rejected, namely the European Union. In its adoption of protectionist schemes such as the Common Agricultural Policy, the EU forces consumers to pay prices around 17%** higher for food than in countries where no such protectionism occurs due to reduction in efficiency, productivity and competition. By placing quotas on farms, instead of allowing the Free Hand of the Markets to determine production levels and prices, the EU undermines markets in developing countries through ‘dumping’ of excessive produce, keeping them in penury and reliant on an ever increasing foreign aid budget.

The Single European Currency has lumbered countries in Southern Europe with ruinous and unserviceable debts, whilst Germany has a massive trade surplus, unfairly aided by the devalued Euro - at the expense of neighbours like UK who have accumulated massive trade deficits. The aggressive Mercantilism displayed by major EU members is a persistent cause of tension with international partners.

Interfering Industrial Policies lumbering private industry with ever more red tape, regulation and social responsibility stymies economic growth and increases costs to the consumer. Conversely, by allowing corporations to dictate policy, through opaque lobbying groups and committees, and deals like TTIP, the EU has further short circuited the democratic process, and diminished the power of the electorate and abdicated the accountability of politicians.

The adoption of a ‘Foreign Service’ with an expansionist agenda - into the Ukraine and now into Turkey - (thus giving the block a porous border with war and terrorism-riven Syria) has sewn the seeds of unrest and repeated the folly of the Crimean War (against which Richard Cobden was a great campaigner) thus guaranteeing decades of future poverty and conflict.

In summary, the European Union, in almost every policy area is fundamentally at odds with the Cobdenite principles that have served we in the UK and our natural Global Partners well in the past. Quite simply, the United Kingdom does not belong in this club.



Notes:
* By Right Wing Politics, I mean low tax, individual liberty, choice, competition, a small, non-interfering state, Free Enterprise, and Neo Liberal, Free Trade Economics, not the ‘Right Wing Politics’ portrayed by the Left Wing Media – in perhaps their greatest deceit -  as Fascism, Hitler and White Supremacy. Indeed, if we scratch the surface, Hitler and his Nazis – the National Socialist Worker’s Party –, with their state control, nationalisation, disregard for individual freedoms and red flag was overtly LEFT WING.

** http://www.iea.org.uk/blog/abolish-the-cap-let-food-prices-tumble

Prejudice

An open letter to my friend Gareth.

I am reminded of my time at university, in particular the occasions my friends and I would go to the bright lights of Broad Street on a Saturday Night, just a few chaps, no girls (one of the occupational hazards of studying Electronic Engineering) (OK, to be honest, one of the occupational hazards of being a total geekazoid).

Having ironed a shirt, polished shoes, walked into town and queued outside one of the smart new bars in Birmingham's rejuvenated city centre, being denied entry by virtue of our gender was galling. "Sorry lads, not tonight", the all too familiar message from the door staff. After politely enquiring why, I was always told (less politely, sometimes) that this was because we were a group of lads, and it's always groups of lads that 'cause trouble'.

How dare they? They didn't know me, or my friends. How could they make the judgement that we were a gang of drunken hooligans hell-bent on causing trouble? All we wanted was to do enjoy a few drinks and find new ways to fail miserably at chatting up similarly aged young women far, far out of our league.

Let's get things into perspective, I was a young, white, straight man being denied entry to a bar. This was no 'Rosa Parks' moment. I wasn't being denied a job, a place at a school or the chance to vote. But I'll bet the knot in my stomach, the sense of injustice, the anger at being unfairly excluded was exactly the same - albeit at one hundredth of the magnitude of that felt every day by people who are gay, disabled or of an ethnic minority, for reasons that can make their lives very difficult indeed.

It is for this reason that I object so strongly when I hear people casually labelling us Ukippers as 'racist', 'sexist', 'xenophobic' or 'homophobic' on the basis of an unpleasant utterance by a misguided voter or party member. It's horrible. It's wrong, and we don't deserve it. I feel that old familiar knot in my stomach.

If a party member says something out-of-order, they are reprimanded and kicked out. When a voter expresses an unsavoury opinion, there is no hesitation in setting them straight on our fair policies. No question. The vast majority of the 50,000 Ukip members are fair-minded, decent people who want to make a positive difference to their country. The bitter irony is that labelling them, or our party on the basis of the actions of a few individuals is a prejudice, just like the any of the abhorrent 'isms' mentioned above.

It is to the shame of the major parties and the left-wing fringe that they have adopted the strategy of attempting to discredit UKIP by throwing these names at our party. Not only is this prejudiced and unfair, it robs those words of their true impact. Soon, the words 'fascist'* and 'racist' will come to mean 'I don't agree with you'.

* Fascism is described in the dictionary as the 'forcible suppression of opposition and criticism'. If that's not a perfect description of the tactics employed by the labour-funded thug-groups 'League Against Fascism' and 'Hope Not Hate' in their campaign to silence UKIP, I don't know what is.

Letter to the Knutsford Guardian, 13/4/15.

Osborne's Economic Failure.

I am concerned by the lack of scrutiny to which George Osborne’s performance as Chancellor has been subjected.

GDP has returned to its 2007 level. During recessions, money doesn't disappear – people stop spending it. Sooner or later cars need to be renewed, technology moves on and family circumstances change – thus forcing people to spend and easing up the ‘log-jam’ in the economy. As the world-renowned economist Irwin Stelzer agrees – economic recoveries are rarely the result of government policy.

GDP growth figures on their own are not a good indicator of future performance. Debt-ratios, the Trade Deficit and Productivity are more important. On all these measures George Osborne has failed.

Our debt-ratio has escalated from 67% in 2010 to over 90%.  The UK Trade Deficit, inextricably linked to the value of our currency and future Interest Rates has increased sharply to £34.8bn. But it is the Chancellor’s failure on Productivity that gives most cause for concern. Productivity (or GDP per capita) has collapsed to 2005 levels. In short, we now have more people producing less value. This is due to 3 things;

The placing of Social Polices onto the shoulders of industry for which the government should be responsible. Every minute a Small Business spends administering workplace pensions or cumbersome childcare voucher schemes is a minute it can’t spend generating value for our economy. This also acts as barrier to creating extra employment.

The EU open-door immigration policy has led to an influx of low-skilled workers, whilst high-skilled professionals from the rest of the world have unfairly been kept out. Skilled British workers have left our shores in record numbers.

Excessive regulation such as completing RTI tax submissions or complying with the rafts of EU regulation makes our businesses less competitive. The vast majority of Small Businesses (98%) do no trade in the EU and yet are forced to comply with all its regulations.

Increasing productivity is key to securing sustainable economic growth, securing living standards and ensuring the UK operates at the top of the ‘value-chain’.

Stuart Hutton CEng MIET

UKIP Parliamentary Candidate, Tatton.

Shortage of Engineers is damaging our economy.

In his speech to the 2011 Tory Party Conference, George Osborne highlighted the development of a new wonder-material, ‘Graphene’ by researchers at the University of Manchester. He correctly explained how the material –with its properties of extreme high strength, flexibility and electrical superconductivity - had thousands of potential applications - and that our region was well placed to be the world-leader in ‘Graphene Industries’. He even pledged £50m of funding to assist with its development.

To date, only 1% of the patents for applications of Graphene have been filed in the UK. Firms in the USA, China, Germany and Japan have over 90% of the patents. Even South Korea, a country with a population of 2/3^rds that of our own has filed nearly 25 times the number Graphene Patents.

This unfortunate and all too familiar tale of ‘defeat snatched from the jaws of victory’ illustrates perfectly the shortcomings of this and previous governments when it comes to understanding science, technology and industry.

The UK has world-leading facilities when it comes to scientific research. However, we also have a terrible shortage of Engineers to develop these new technologies into saleable products. Research by the IET (Institute of Engineering and Technology) reveals that 59% of companies were concerned that a shortage of Engineers posed a threat to their business and prevented them investing in the UK.

On my visits to schools as part of the Rotary Club’s ‘Science Week’, I am often taken aback by students who don’t even know what Engineering is, but are enthralled when I explain the interesting, varied and well-paid jobs available in the sector.

So how has the government risen to this challenge? It has scrapped GCSEs in Engineering, Manufacturing and Electronics. Unable reduce the influx of unskilled labour from the EU, it has ruthlessly clamped down on immigration of highly skilled individuals from non-EU countries. According to Home Office figures, only 1,171 Engineers entered the UK from outside the EU last year. This pales into insignificance to the 87,000 new Engineers required each year to meet demand (IET figure).

What is more, non-EU postgraduate students (a majority of research students - just like Andre Geim and Knstantin Novoselov who developed Graphene) are now being asked to leave the UK after their studies, taking all their research and knowhow with them. This is a government sponsored brain drain.

Industry does not need hand-outs of taxpayer’s money. More than anything it needs a well-educated workforce, equipped with the skills necessary for the UK to compete with the most advanced economies in the world.

UKIP’s policies of scrapping Tuition Fees on STEM subjects and introducing an Australian Style Points-Based Immigration policy based on the needs of industry will address this problem.

Cllr. Stuart Hutton CEng MIET

UKIP Parliamentary Candidate for Tatton.

Dr. Heald in 'EU Queue Doo-Doo'. - Letter to the Crewe & Nantwich Chronicle 19/2/15

Labour PPC Dr Adrian Heald stated in your letters page that the ‘EU’ queue at Passport Control in airports is usually faster - and held this up as a good reason for the UK to stay part of that corrupt and undemocratic organisation. If he paid a little more attention, he’d have noticed that the queue is actually labelled ‘EU, Switzerland and the European Economic Area’ (which includes Iceland and Norway). None of these countries are members of the EU, but trade freely within that block and enjoy unfettered access to Dr. Heald’s queue, as would the UK in the event of leaving the EU.

I suspect that Dr. Heald’s error was due not to poor eyesight, but to a desire to wilfully mislead the public over the implications of the UK leaving the EU. This comes as no surprise – we see this sort thing every day in from the pro-EU lobby, whether it be the orchestrated smear campaign against UKIP on the left-wing BBC and Channel4, or Dr. Heald’s other claim that UK Companies would suffer in the event of a ‘Brexit’.

Such misunderstanding should be expected from someone who has spent not one day of their career working in private industry. The truth is that 95% of UK firms – the small and medium companies which create the bulk of the employment in our country -  do no trade with the EU, but are still forced to comply with all its red tape and regulation at great cost.

For those larger companies that do export; will a Jaguar become less fast, a JCB less capable, or a Rolls-Royce Jet Engine less powerful to overseas buyers because the UK is not in the EU? Of course not. Companies and individuals buy things based on their value, not the political union of their country of manufacture.

Furthermore, free of the EU, the UK would be able to retake its seat at the WTO and establish Free Trade deals with the parts of the world where economies are actually growing, and not in a tailspin of debt and deflation like the beleaguered Eurozone to which we are currently chained. This would providing a boost to UK exporters, as the EU has no Free Trade Deal with the likes of China and India due to disputes over French Wine and German Solar Panels.

The public must not be taken in by the scare tactics and misinformation employed by the pro-EU lobby, but should seek to establish the facts for themselves.

Cllr. Stuart Hutton CEng MIET (UKIP).