Captive State: The Corporate Takeover of Britain
George Monbiot
Reviewed by David Cromwell
Macmillan (London), 2000
430pp., ISBN 0-333-90164-9
Anyone following George Monbiot's Guardian columns recently will have noted an emerging theme: the appropriation of British public life by private interests. Inner city regeneration, the NHS, biotechnology, the food chain and even the funding of science are increasingly being exploited by corporations keen to expand into new markets in the neverending quest for profit. And it's all happening with the collusion of our 'democratically’ elected government, Blair quickening the pace set by Thatcher and Major. Welcome to the twenty-first century 'captive state'.
Consider the Private Finance Initiative. This mobilises private capital, so business and government tell us, to fund public schemes - hospitals, prisons, schools, the London Underground - to improve efficiency and to save the taxpayer money. The reality is somewhat different. For example, Transport 2000 estimates that when the various hidden costs are taken into account, private roads turn out to be two and a half times more expensive than public roads.
The PFI-funded, exorbitantly-tolled Skye Bridge is a glaring example. Monbiot hears from one protester: 'What hurts us most is the sense of betrayal. These ministers were campaigners before they got into power. Now they're just suits'. True enough. When Alastair Darling was Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, he lambasted the Tories on PFI for using commercial confidentiality 'to hide the truth about the extent of the taxpayer's commitment from the public'. But, as Monbiot shows, New Labour has using the 'commercial confidentiality' card with equal abandon ever since they took power.
Mainstream press reviews of Monbiot's cogent analysis have been enlightening. They have either been non-existient or vicious. The Independent's David Aaronovitch, for example, glibly dismissed Monbiot's meticulously assembled case exposing the domination of big business over the government, claiming that this is 'neither a new phenomenon nor Š a hugely damaging one'. True on the former count - the privatising of public resources is a continuation of the centuries-old process of enclosing the commons' - but false on the latter, if one believes that democracy, social justice and a protected environment are in any way desirable.
Aaronovitch's vituperative review is a classic example of the response of those in power, or their media handmaidens, to attacks on capitalism. 'Life is not that simple', they mock. As Noam Chomsky once said, such a riposte is typical of those who fail to engage with what is actually being said. Glib dismissal is but one tool wielded by elite interests to marginalise serious discussion of the alternatives to business as usual.
In fact, Monbiot provides plenty of evidence - notably on biotechnology - where corporations have co-opted largely willing governments to do their bidding, at the expense of democracy and environmental protection. Both corporations and governments may believe that they are 'doing the right thing’, but then they would say that, wouldn't they? Meanwhile, under the auspices of such cosy corporate institutions as the Transatlantic Economic Partnership, 'regulations protecting human health, human rights and the environment are being contested and, where possible, dismantled on both sides of the Atlantic'.
'Captive State' has one glaring omission though; namely, that the corporate takeover of Britain is taking place largely unreported by the corporate media. It's not surprising. The mass media itself is big business, tied into stock markets and the globalised economy, and dependent on corporate advertising. How likely is it that anyone calling for radical change in society, or even anyone criticising the present power structure - whether human rights activists, the peace movement, or environmentalists - will be consistently and fairly reported by mainstream news organisations? No explicit media censorship is required, just subservience to the commercial constraints that dictate what is 'news'. The net result is that the 'free press' is not even free to examine the relentless privatisation of public life.
Thank goodness, therefore, for Monbiot's book. It is timely, cogent and blasts a gaping hole through today's corporate and political hogwash. George Orwell once said that all writing is worthless unless it provokes action. 'Captive State' ought to inspire a revolution.
December, 2000.
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