'The Tories aren't neoliberal'. A Response.

Response to a friend who said to me 'the Tories are nationalizing Northern Rail. This doesn't fit the narrative that they are neoliberals/Nazis':


That we have privatised rail in the first place is a really extreme example of neoliberalism. Even the US has nationalised rail.

Nationalisation of some industry doesn’t instantly make a system not neoliberal. It’s the same as saying Tory raising of the minimum wage makes them not neoliberal. But it really doesn’t. (Generally they’re just necessary concessions, to keep the system from totally collapsing, for a while at least).

People obviously need to be able to travel to keep the economy moving. Neoliberals, having caused problems such as this, are now forced to fix their mess. It should be a step towards acknowledging the damage/exploitation/inefficiencies/impracticality/failures of privatisation of major industry and resources in general, but I won’t hold my breath.

Tories aren’t Nazis, they’re just corrupt, crony, vapid, puppets of corporations/the rich; of capital. And they're imperialists - they may not be fascist themselves, but they support fascism abroad, that’s for sure. (But then so does much of the ‘left’).

Neoliberalism is a general ideology of ‘market knows best’, and individualism, pushed by those at the top who subsequently have more power and can continue making their billions exploiting the rest of us/the planet. Despite some western states now having to turn away from it, to an extent at least, (thanks to failures/public pressure), they still continue imposing it on poor countries, to make them privatise their industries/resources, so they can be extracted/profited from. Fucked up!

I very much doubt the Tories are going to significantly turn away from it though. This is just a last resort; a necessary undoing of something that was always pretty damn extreme. But if they do, I think we can be sure that whatever system they replace it with, will be one that mostly benefits the few, at our expense.