LM

I don’t see it necessarily as an objective. The reality is that, over forty years, neoliberalism has created a more unequal society.

Despite the wealth that has been created by working people, they don’t get the share that they deserve — or once used to get. Thirty years ago, 65 percent of GDP used to go into workers’ pockets in salaries; now it’s down to 51 percent. That drop is catastrophic for sustainable growth in the economy.

Neoliberalism has brought a society where the rich get richer and the poor effectively get poorer. In the fifth richest nation in the world, 13 million of our citizens are living below the poverty line. Something like 4 million children go to school hungry every day. We’ve got homelessness everywhere: not just people addicted to drugs or alcohol, but even people who work but have nowhere to go home to.

That’s what Thatcherism and neoliberalism has brought us. Its objective is not to turn us back into serfs, but we know this isn’t the world we should be living in. We should be living in a better Britain.

There’s a million people on zero-hour contracts, not knowing how to organize their lives. I was having a pint with a mate back up in Liverpool, and he was on coke . . . a Diet Coke, not [laughs] . . . and he kept looking at his phone. I said, “For God’s sake, we’re supposed to be out having a drink,” and he said, “I’m sorry, but I get a text to say there’s forty jobs tomorrow morning in such and such a place, and the first forty there get it.” I was shocked. I asked, “So does that mean you can’t plan anything?” Forget about planning a holiday with his family or a night out. What kind of Britain is that?

There are huge amounts of money. It’s not like everyone has to tighten their belts because we’re in a difficult situation. No, we’re not! We have massive amounts of wealth being created, and the problem is that mass of wealth is going to the corporate elite, the superrich. Only government intervention and policies can alter that. Trade unions, of course, have to fight — in a difficult climate — to make certain that workers are protected and have employment rights as well as having decent wages. But it’s tough when you’ve got a government who effectively want to restrict trade unions.