Without a fair tax on tech, it could be the end of the state as we know it
November 12th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
This is the title of an interesting article by John Harris in today’s “Guardian” newspaper.
He highlights two connected questions:
“The first is obvious: what do we do about the corporations that are driving huge social and economic change, but have so far proved reluctant to pay anything approaching their fair share of tax? From that follows the second, even graver conundrum: if things stay as they are, what could happen to just about everything that depends on government funding?”
He points out:
“According to analysis by the financial services company Standard and Poor’s, between 2007 and 2015 the average effective rate of tax paid in the US by the country’s 500 highest-valued firms was put at 27%. By contrast, over the same period, Apple paid 17% of its US profits in tax, Alphabet (Google’s parent) paid 16%, Amazon paid 13%, and Facebook paid just 3.8 %. In 2017, Amazon’s US profits were more than $5.6bn, yet it paid almost no federal income taxes, partly thanks to “excess stock-based compensation deductions””
.His solution?
“The beginnings of an answer might lie in what economists call a unitary tax. In this model, firms would be obliged to give the tax authorities of any country in which they operate both a set of accounts for their global activities and information about their physical assets, workforce, sales and profits for the territory in question. Tax would then be decided using a formula based on these factors. Some state taxes in the US work on a comparable basis, and the European commission has made supportive noises about the concept.”
You can read the John Harris column here.
Posted in World current affairs | Comments (0)
A review of the new female heist movie “Widows”
November 10th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
It is so good to see more leading roles for women in mainstream films, even in a genre like the heist movie where men have traditionally dominated.
It is only a few months ago that we had “Ocean’s Eight” where all the gang members were female and now with “Widows” again we have an all-female team, but this time the characters – as well as being fewer – are deeper (and mostly of colour) and the action is grittier. In fact, this is a remake of a British work – the television drama by Lynda La Plante – and the director and co-writer is the British Steve McQueen, but the action is relocated from London in 2002 to Chicago in 2008.
It is an impressive cast with African-American Viola Davis (a really strong performance), Latin American Michelle Rodriguez, black British Cynthia Erivo and Polish/Australian Elizabeth Debicki playing the gang members and some well-known actors – Liam Neeson, Colin Farrell and Robert Duvall – taking smaller male roles.
Following an exciting opening sequence in which an all-male gang is explosively wiped out, there are some tough action scenes, some clever twists and plenty of social observations which altogether make this a most satisfying work.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
What actually happened in the US mid-term elections?
November 9th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
Three weeks ago, I attended a lecture at London’s City Literary Institute to discuss what was at stage in the United States mid-term elections of 6 November and this week there was a follow-up lecture to examine the actual results. Both lectures were given by the college principal Mark Malcolmson.
Not all the results are in and there will need to be further detailed analysis, but the broad contours are clear.
As expected, the Democrats took control of the House of Representatives where all 435 seats were up for election. They needed to gain 23 seats and have made a net gain 27, picking up 29 Republican seats but losing two of their own. In the popular vote, the Democrats beat the Republicans by about seven percentage points. So, not a ‘blue wave’ but a solid result.
It was always unlikely that the Democrats would take the Senate, where a third (35) of seats was being contested, because they already held a large majority of the seats at stake (26). In fact, the Republicans have picked up at least two more seats, improving their previously very small majority. But they only polled 33 million votes in those races against the Democrats’ 45 million.
There were elections for 36 state governors. The Democrats took Kansas, New Mexico, Michigan, Nevada, Illinois and (particularly satisfying) Wisconsin, but failed in Florida and Georgia (where they had terrific, but black, candidates).
There were votes on all sorts of propositions too. In Florida, they voted to restore the right to vote to felons which will increase the electorate by 1.4 million. In Colorado, they voted to abolish slavery (honest).
Turnout was exceptionally high for mid-term elections. It was around 47% which is some 10 percentage points up on the norm.
Americans like to think of their political system as a beacon of democracy, but gerrymandering and voter suppression substantially distort results and a Senate where every state has two seats considerably favours the Republicans.
To conclude: the major development is the Democrats taking the House of Representatives which means that they can block Trump’s legislation and instigate enquiries into his affairs. This is the famed system of ‘checks and balances’ playing its vital role. The excitement continues …
Posted in American current affairs | Comments (0)
This could be my last conference speech
November 7th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
I’ve been speaking in public for around 55 years, but this week I might just have made my last conference speech. The occasion was a London event organised by the consultancy Independ and the publication “The Water Report”.
The title of the event was “Defining the social contract: essential public services, private business and better outcomes for society”. I gave a Powerpoint presentation with the title “What do customers want of providers of their essential services?” in my capacity as Chair of the Essential Services Access Network (ESAN).
I first starting public speaking at secondary school when we had both class and school debates and I was School Captain and spoke at the Speech Day. At university, I won the Freshers’ Debating Competition, competed in the “Observer” Mace Debating Competition, and served a year as full-time President of the Students’ Union addressing many student gatherings.
In the 1970s, when I was at my most politically active, I spoke at lots of Labour Party branch and constituency meetings and fought two two General Elections as a Labour candidate which involved many more public speeches.
In my 24 years as a trade union official, I addressed many branch meetings and conferences and lectured a lot at the union’s educational college. Since taking early retirement from the union and becoming a consumer advocate, I have continued to address meetings and conferences.
But I am now 70, my portfolio career is coming to an end, and this week’s speech might be my last such performance.
What have I learned with all this public speaking? I have produced two sets of advice on my website as follows:
Posted in Consumer matters, My life & thoughts | Comments (0)
A review of the new political film “Peterloo”
November 5th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
On 16 August 1819 in St Peter’s Field in central Manchester, around 60,000 pro-democracy reformers gathered in a peaceful protest that turned savage when it was attacked by armed cavalry, resulting in 18 deaths and over 600 injured. Until recently, the only public commemoration of this historic event was a plaque on the wall of what used to be the Free Trade Hall and is now the city’s Radisson Hotel. Most people have never heard of this event which was quickly called Peterloo.
However, I have always been aware of it because I grew up in Manchester until I was 23; I spoke as School Captain at my school’s Speech Day in the Free Trade Hall; and I studied in the Central Library in what is now St Peter’s Square.
Now a new film, called simply “Peterloo”, both written and directed by Mike Leigh – together with bicentenary events next summer – will highlight this neglected piece of working class history. Leigh has crafted his work with great attention to historical accuracy and period detail and he brings home very powerfully the grinding poverty and perpetual hunger of the working class folk of Manchester and the surrounding Lancashire mill towns.
The story is filled with a large group of well-cast personages, most notably Maxine Peake as Nellie, mother of a young, traumatised soldier back from Waterloo, and Rory Kinnear as Henry ‘Orator’ Hunt, the eloquent speaker at the rally calling for parliamentary representation more than a decade before the Great Reform Act of 1832.
This is an immensely worthy work that reflects my own politics, but my experience of viewing it at the cinema – even on the opening weekend, it was screened in a small theatre in front of a small audience – suggests that it is not going to pull in the punters.
The reasons are clear. There are too many characters giving too many polemical speeches; too many of the characters – especially the politicians and the justices – are in fact caricatures; and, at two and a half hours, the whole thing is just too long and too pedestrian. This is such a pity because the history lesson is a vital one and the final massacre scene is stunning.
If you’re interested in films with a political message, you’ll find some suggestions here.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (2)
Only one more day to the US mid-term elections
November 5th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
Some 33 million votes have already been counted in early voting, vastly more than at this stage four years ago.
Turnout is on track to be the largest in a mid-term election for more than 50 years.
Posted in American current affairs | Comments (0)
Only two more days to the US mid-term elections
November 4th, 2018 by Roger Darlington
I’ve been following this year’s mid-term elections in the United States like no other. Never have I seen a sitting president campaigning so hard in such elections, but Trump knows that these elections are all about him.
In a piece in today’s “Observer” newspaper, Simon Tisdall explains that:
“Set against the overwhelming weight of historical precedent, political experience and poll predictions, logic suggests Trump and the Republicans should lose on Tuesday, possibly big time. But will they?”
He points out that:
” … if the political world has learned anything since Trump’s shock victory in 2016, it is that traditional indicators must be taken with a barrow-load of salt. Trump does not behave like a conventional politician, for the simple reason that he is not one. His midterm campaign tactics have surpassed, in crudeness, the worst excesses of his most cynical White House predecessors.”
Just two days to go … Meanwhile, if you’d like an explanation of how the American political system works, you can read my guide here.
Posted in American current affairs | Comments (0)
A review of the new film “Bohemian Rhapsody”
November 3rd, 2018 by Roger Darlington
This film of the British rock band Queen has had a troubled journey to the screen with a change of lead actor (Rami Malek replacing Sacha Baron Cohen) and, late in the shooting, a new director (Dexter Fletcher taking over from Bryan Singer).
American-Egyptian Malek is outstanding as Indo-Parsi Freddie Mercury (originally named Farrokh Bulsara), wearing a set of false teeth to create that famous over-bite and the four extra incisors that apparently gave the singer a greater vocal range. And the music is just fantastic which is why the movie should be seen on the big screen. The group had so many iconic hits and the title track was just breathtakingly original (if utterly unintelligible).
But the film has some problems.
The rise and rise of Queen, the four-member group, is not that interesting a story and certainly the remake of “A Star Is Born” – released a few weeks before – has a much more engaging narrative. Mercury’s own story is much more complex, but the film avoids going into too much detail on his sexual activities and hedonistic lifestyle and band members Brian May and Roger Taylor, who co-produced the movie, righly ensure that Mercury does not receive all the credit for the group’s success. Finally some of the dialogue is a bit clunky and some of the visual effects rather naff.
All that said, this is a thoroughly enjoyable romp and the recreation of the 1985 Live Aid concert is alone worth the ticket price.
Posted in Cultural issues | Comments (0)
A revolution that succeeded – until it was crushed by other revolutionaries
November 2nd, 2018 by Roger Darlington
This week, I attended a lecture on the Georgian revolution of 1918-1921. It was delivered by my friend Eric Lee and the venue was the Centre of Contemporary Central Asia & the Caucasus in London.
Eric quoted an assessment of the Georgian revolution at the time by the noted German Marxist Karl Kautsky: “In comparison with the hell which Soviet Russia represents, Georgia appeared as a paradise”. But it was the Soviets who took down this democratic system.
Eric has written a book on the Georgian revolution entitled “The Experiment” and you can read my review here.
Posted in History | Comments (0)
A review of the important new film “The Hate U Give”
November 1st, 2018 by Roger Darlington
What a change and what a delight to see an American mainstream movie where virtually all the characters are people of colour: young as well as older, female as well as male, gay as well as straight. And how impressive that a film with a young person’s focus addresses so directly and fairly the issue of race relations in today’s America.
The central character is 16 year old Starr Carter who lives in a poor black neighbourhood but attends a largely white private school and attempts to staddle these two contrasting worlds until a violent death shakes up her life and beliefs. Amandla Stenberg is excellent in a role that carries the film but her voice-overs remind us that the origin of the script is a young adult novel by first-time author African-American Angie Thomas. The film is the directorial debut of African-American George Tillman Jr so, one way and another, a lot of new black talent is on show here and it is impressive.
Not since “Detroit” have not seen a movie which brings home so vividly what it is like to be a young black person at the mercy of a white police officer. “Detroit” portrayed real events in 1967, whereas this work is fictional, but the storyline reflects the experience of so many prominent and controversial police killings of young blacks in contemporary America that has given rise to the movement Black Lives Matter.
The film does not hide its support for the movement but uses a black cop to explain the viewpoint of the white cop facing a black youth who might be armed and about to kill him. Whites are not the enemy here – Starr’s white boyfriend is both understanding and supportive – but the movie highlights dramatically the routine abuse of power by the police and the unresponsiveness of authority to black voices and concerns.
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