"I'm All Right Jack" (and John)

Yesterday, on on BBC Radio 4's "Broadcasting House" the male presenter asked a woman journalist from an Asian newspaper, who was a guest on the programme, a question in words to the effect of : "Have Moslems become the new Fox Hunting ?". The woman was rather taken aback - and so was I - but she replied "No, we haven't". This was rather a surreal question I thought - these may be rather surreal times - but the point the presenter was raising is : Why has a "minority issue" like wearing a veil become such a major distraction for politicians and media, when there are many and much more important matters for both to cover ?

One of these impostant issues - which affects a great many people in Britain - is the ongoing relationship between labour and capital, or New Labour and the Trade Unions. Incidentally, I am not a Marxist, but do think that Marx has some interesting and even relevant ideas. However, the relationship between labour and capital seems rather overlooked, or at least not given the attention it deserves, by politicians and the media today, so I'm going to deal with it here.

There is a brilliant "study" of this theme in the 1959 classic British comedy "I'm All Right Jack". In this, the great actor Peter Sellars plays a canny trade unionist, Fred Kite, and is the "hero" of the show. The film has been interpreted as primarily a swipe at the union movement in post-war Britain, but is in fact a much broader satire of the machinations of management, government, the media, trade unions and the class system. On the latter theme, Fred Kite memorably "converts" the engaging "toff" Stanley Windrush to his class war, something which finally leaves Stanley disillusioned, and he retreats to a nudist colony at the end of the film.

Incidentally, I am toying with the idea of re-writing "I'm Alright Jack" as "I'm All Right John".
John Prescott would play the Fred Kite character, and David Cameron, Stanley. Although on reflection, the latter role might be better suited to Jack Straw : no problems with veiled women in a nudist colony after all. If anyone would like to commission this "work", please do get in touch and I'll send them my synopsis (written under the veil of a pseudonym of course !).

Now, to return to New Labour and the modern British trade unions. Some people will have been following the cash for peerages "story". I haven't really, but I vaguely remember that near the beginning of this the Labour Party Treasurer (Jack somebody or other, a Union boss of which one I dont' know, and husband of Ms Harriet Harman MP, Government Minister for something of other) announced that he had only just become aware (? via the media) of certain loans being made to the Party, and of these possibly having links to the granting of peerages. All I can hope is that Gordon Brown's management of the Treasury is a bit better. Time will tell.

Although Mrs Thatcher has been widely blamed for the decline in the role of trade unions, with "live wires" (I'm being ironic) like "Jack", as I'm going to call him, in charge, it comes as no surprise at all that many, if not most, British people now regard the unions as irrelevent, something which is actually a great shame ! For in other European countries, such as Germany, and even in the United States, they continue to play an important role in their country's commerce and industry, influencing government policy on the impact of globalisation, for instance (see my previous blog "Globalisation and Discontent"), and, in the case of Europe, playing an effective role in the continued development of high quality public services.

It has to be said that there are a few trade unionists and unions in Britain who still play a highly effective role their areas of operation. However, these are in a minority, and one of the main reasons for this - aside from people like "Jack" - is that senior politicians and the media are less interested these days in serious issues like the future of manufacturing in this country, than they are in "minority issues" like the wearing of veils. I'm not sure why this is the case. It may have something to do with the obsession of New Labour and wider society with "appearance", and with who controls the media (ie the likes of the Murdoch Dynasty). It may be that one of the few places where these serious issues can be tackled is in the "unsensored" and "dramatic" form available to the satirist.

Alright Jack/John !