‘Feed the Rich’ – the Creed of Today’s Labour MPs
Who Are the Next Nine?
True-Born English – Not Replaced, But Diminishing
Black Insiders Defending Hedge-Fund Hegemony
China Still Rising
Snippets
‘Reform’ – Fools are Fooled Twice
International Law – Never a Reality
Idealism Is Still There
Roosevelt the Hopeful But Imperfect
‘Feed the Rich’ – the Creed of Today’s Labour MPs
Had every single Hedge Fund been wiped out in the crash of 2008, that would not have hurt most of us.
Likewise if banks that had gambled had been taken into national ownership. There had been plenty of well-run banks owned by governments, until it became an Economic Dogma that this must be disastrous.
Sadly, the West’s centre-left had been transformed by Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. Most elected representatives became convinced that they must look after the rich. And many of those individuals became part of the rich elite that had grabbed more and more wealth since the 1980s.
New Right Economics never made good its promise of Trickle Down. Had faster economic growth been achieved, it is anyone’s guess if a smaller share of a larger cake would benefit the majority. But it never happened. Growth slowed in much of the West. The USA suffers a growing economic malaise.
Despite these hard facts, both Tory and Labour governments squeeze ordinary people for the benefit of the rich. Pamper people who already have a far larger share of the wealth than their actual talents and skills would merit.
If indeed they have anything special. About half the super-rich inherited their wealth and power.
Yet politicians keep looking after them, as if we would all perish without them, Why?
The British Labour Party isn’t what it once was. It used to have plenty of people who had begun as ordinary workers. Who had risen as working Trade Unionists before becoming MPs. But John Prescott was almost the last of these to have real power. And an undistinguished tail-end: his working life was as a steward and waiter in the Merchant Navy, working for Cunard.
The naïve leftists of the 1970s forgot that class and work-experience mattered. They rejected most trade unionists as potential MPs, finding they had one or two views not in tune with fashionable leftist views. It was later discovered that most of those who had said leftist things when it was the way to get ahead were very willing to switch when the balance of advantage shifted.
With the Soviet Union collapsed and China mistakenly seen as having gone capitalist, there was a rush to believe in New Right economics. Labour could be radical on social matters, including normalising open homosexuality for people outside of the entertainment industry. But there was an ‘economic reality’ that caused them to squeeze ordinary people, rather than risk upsetting the volatile financial markets.
Only a minority of MPs will consider having a Wealth Tax, which a clear majority of voters favour. Or at least that’s the current position. Now that the leader of the Green Party promises a Wealth Tax, they are closing the gap. And there is the growing challenge of ‘Your Party’, launched by Corbyn and Zarah Sultana and still holding a debate on its final name and policies. But liable to win over many disillusioned Labour voters.
Who Are the Next Nine?
Naïve leftists tend to denounce a billionaire elite, and promise that suddenly replacing Capitalism with Socialism will solve everything. In Britain, that would never convince more than a small minority.
Globally, there are about twenty million individuals with at least a million they can invest. Money over and above their pension fund and the houses they live in. Slightly more than 3000 are actual billionaires, but they are in no way a distinct group. They hold one-fifth of the wealth of the wider millionaire class. Probably much less of the actual political power.
It’s best to talk of a more-than-millionaire elite rather than the 1%. All sorts of people will promote themselves into an elite they have no hope of joining. More than 20% of US citizens, in one US survey.
It is also not a matter of 1% against 99%, as a now-vanished protest movement tried to have it. If you look at who has gained or lost from the inequality that has grown massively since Reagan and Thatcher, there is a clear middle ground: the Next Nine. Roughly the same as what Britons call the Upper Middle Class, and by income it includes most academics and journalists.
And since ordinary people often promote themselves unrealistically, I’ll give an exact definition of what the Next Nine are. DeepSeek puts it nicely:
“If you have a pre-tax income of around £67,000, or your household has a post-tax income (adjusted for size) of around £61,400, you are in the top 10% of earners in Britain.”
I myself never made that grade. Not even the Next Nineteen: that’s at least £41,800.
And where do MPs fit?
“£93,904, effective from April 2025. This represents a 2.8% increase from the previous year’s salary of £91,346. (Google AI.)
That’s the basic, with plenty of expenses. Plenty of entirely legal ways to make more. A real prospect of joining the multi-millionaire elite, as Tony Blair has.
Class matters. Most Labour MPs seem privately clear about where they belong. Clear about who they will help, and who they will denounce for wanting gold elephants.
True-Born English – Not Replaced, But Diminishing
Back in 1987, there were some local riots by Black Britons. And panic that Enoch Powell’s Rivers of Blood warning might be coming true. So I wrote an article called Trickles of Blood, saying that it was ‘Reformist Rioting’. Part of the integration that was already happening. You can find it at https://gwydionwilliams.com/40-britain/the-brixton-riots-of-1987/, still reading quite well. Vindicated by events, just as I was correct two years later when I said that Peoples’ China was not going to collapse in the way that the Soviet Union was then doing. (https://labouraffairsmagazine.com/very-old-issues-images/magazine-001-to-010/magazine-012/what-tiananmen-1989-was-really-about/.)
I had a different view from most leftists of the overall shape of the society. My Irish friends had made me aware that Mild Racism is the norm in English culture. There was some prejudice against Irish, rather more against South Europeans, and more again against Blacks and Asians. But this had never been deep-rooted, and was unlikely to consolidate itself.
Back in 1987, I had refused to call Powell a racist. He was fighting to stop the UK becoming less English, less Christian, and more cosmopolitan. He lost, just as Farage will probably lose. But it’s sensible to recognise what the protests are. Not Radical-Rightists in the way that Mussolini and Hitler were.
Hoping to be able to reassure the English protestors, I took a look at what the overall balance is. And was rather surprised at how much things are shifting (in percentages) :
| 1981 | 1991 | 2001 | 2011 | 2021/22 | |
| White British | 96.00 | 94.5 | 92.1 | 87.2 | 83,0 |
| Asian | 2.4 | 3.5 | 4.4 | 6.9 | 8.6 |
| Black | 1.3 | 1.7 | 2,0 | 30 | 3.7 |
| Mixed Race | 1.2 | 2.0 | 2.7 |
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_Kingdom#Ethnicity). There are no figures for Mixed Race before 2001. Probably no vast number until a new generation of Asians and Blacks grew up in mixed communities.
The English and other ‘Aboriginal British’ are also ceasing to want organised religion:
| 2001 | 2011 | 2021/22 | |
| Christian | 72.0 | 59.0 | 47.0 |
| Islam | 3.0 | 4.0 | 6.0 |
| Hindu | 0.9 | 1.3 | 1.6 |
| Sikh | 0.5 | 0.7 | 0.8 |
| Judaism | 0.45 | 0.4 | 0.4 |
| Other Religion | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.6 |
| No religion / Religion not stated | 23.0 | 33.0 | 43.0 |
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_Kingdom#Religion).
In the USA, Trump also is fighting against the genuine processes of the country becoming less Christian, less White, and more cosmopolitan. Not a Radical-Rightist. Also not a believer in welfare for the Superior Humans, as the older sort of racists were. Or not unless he defines the rich and white and male as the only real Superior Humans. But he reacts to real events that the liberal-left try to pretend are not happening.
I’d already been told that the USA no longer had a majority of individuals classed as being of the so-called White Race. The Wiki confirmed this:
| 1930 | 1970 | 2000 | 2020 | |
| White | 89.0 | 83.0 | 69.0 | 58.0 |
| Hispanic | 1.0 | 4.0 | 13.0 | 19.0 |
| African American | 10.0 | 11.0 | 12.0 | 12.0 |
| Asian | 0.2 | 1.0 | 4.0 | 6.0 |
| Native American | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.7 | 0.7 |
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States#Race_and_ethnicity).
And also for religion:
| Year | All Christians | Non-Religious | Jewish | Muslim | Buddhists |
| 1900 | 97.0 | 1.3 | 1.4 | ||
| 1950 | 93.1 | 3.3 | 3.1 | 0.1 | |
| 1970 | 91.3 | 5.2 | 2.6 | 0.4 | 0.1 |
| 2000 | 82.0 | 12.0 | 1.9 | 1.2 | 1.2 |
| 2020 | 74.2 | 19.7 | 1.7 | 1.4 | 1.3 |
| 2050(P) | 66.3 | 25.8 | 1.3 | 2.6 | 1.8 |
In the Global South, religion is making a come-back in many countries – but only marginally in China. A way of asserting their own values, now that the West has increasingly discredited itself.
On race, I always regarded it as unreal. Humans vary a lot, but the so-called White Race has exactly the same range of skin colours you find in North-east Asia – see https://mrgwydionmwilliams.quora.com/Myths-of-a-White-Race-and-a-Yellow-Race. Genetically, it is part of a wider regional gene-pool that included North Africa and West Asia, before the rise of Islam made a sharp cultural split. (https://labouraffairsmagazine.com/problems-magazine-past-issues/post-liberalism/being-an-aboriginal-european/.)
Black Insiders Defending Hedge-Fund Hegemony
I mentioned earlier how Labour leftists shot themselves in the foot by failing to choose ordinary working-class people as MPs.
It was remarkable that there were quotas for women, and a broad acceptance of a racial balance, but class was ignored. A lot of the current feed-the-rich MPs come from working class families, but had also done well in our education system. They had ascended into the Next Nine, the Upper Middle Class, and had realistic hopes of rising into the More-Than-Millionaire elite. Particularly if their work as MPs always gave priority to the needs of this elite.
Some are women, some are black, some are black women. But a depressing majority of them defend the elite once they themselves have membership of it.
In the USA, things were always worse. Most politicians have always been rich, often from rich families. Lacking British rules that limited election spending, they had to look after other rich people to get properly funded. Very few were able to go against this. And most ordinary US citizens thought this an essential part of US Liberty. Have been continuously puzzled by why such politicians keep failing to serve their interests.
The separate matter of university admissions got a necessary reform when the state machine moved seriously to attack racism in the 1960s. But given the sort of politicians who controlled the process, it is not surprising that class privileges were ignored. More women and more racial diversity, but still tied to the rich minority.
I recently read a book that detailed the matter. Class Matters: The Fight to Get Beyond Race Preferences, Reduce Inequality, and Build Real Diversity at America’s Colleges, by Richard D Kahlenberg. He explains how race-based rules gave easy access to higher education to the children of fairly privileged African-American families – people in what I call the Next Nine. Those classed as White (privileged) but in the 90% complained that this was unfair.
The book explains that if class rather than race were used, there would still be as many African-Americans, but more of all races from the 90% rather than the Next Nine. A sensible idea, but I fear it will never happen.
China Still Rising
China’s growing power is a clear fact to anyone doing business with them. If you look at the small print, our heavily-biased BBC still has enough truthfulness to admit it. The headline suggests failure.
“China’s economic growth slows as trade tensions with US flare up.
But looking further, you find :
«China’s industrial output grew by 6.5% last month from a year earlier, with its 3D-printing, robotics and electric vehicles manufacturers among its strongest performers.” (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c9v1medkk3vo)
They only fall into untruth when it comes to the Mao era. Speaking of preparations for the 26th Five Year Plan and admitting that there is still a lot of control, they also say:
«[In 1978] Soviet-style central planning had failed to lift prosperity and many were still struggling in poverty.
«The country was still recovering from Mao Zedong’s devastating rule. The Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution – campaigns led by Communist China’s founder to reshape the nation’s economy and society – resulted in millions of deaths.» (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjr045x425vo).
The Great Leap Forward was actually working, until China got hit by the tail-end of an El Niño event. The pattern was not widely recognised before the 1980s, and it included the mighty Yellow River drying up. China avoided mass starvation, unlike previous regimes, but the death rate rose to 25 per thousand. This would have been a normal year in many poor countries. It only looked bad when set against the vastly reduced death rates for other years of Mao’s rule. And the Cultural Revolution, widely observed by foreign reporters, included just a small number of deaths from faction fighting.
Economically, China’s fast growth began under Mao, and was only disturbed a little by the first two years of the Cultural Revolution. I’ve done a detailed study: (https://labouraffairsmagazine.com/recent-issues/2019-11-magazine/2019-11/)
China retains great confidence in its Five Year Plans – see https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3326401/why-chinas-five-year-plan-matters-and-how-it-could-steer-economy-turbulent-times
Snippets
‘Reform’ – Fools are Fooled Twice
Labour’s immediate worry is Farage’s ‘Reform’ party. But I find it baffling that he still has followers, after all the rubbish he talked about what would happen after Brexit,
Maybe a lot of his voters are die-hard believers in Brexit, or people who think it would have worked with the right people in charge. But a feeling of being cheated over promises of an end to immigration counts for a lot.
It helps them that the left pretend that there is zero cost to immigration. It’s true that many of them do jobs that people born here would not do, or not at the wages offered. But since most of those jobs are essential, employers would have to pay more without a steady supply of new people.
That’s the economic cost. There is also a social cost. I reject racism: we can integrate anyone, and have done this many times in the past. But to say that we can integrate anyone does not mean that we can take everyone. If we just dropped controls, tens of millions might want to move. And with what we have, there is a cost. A cost mostly dumped on the 90%.
Left politics is dominated by people comfortably in the Next Nine. The people who get more benefits than costs.
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International Law – Never a Reality
Real international law has never existed. And the major powers will never allow it to be applied to themselves.
In 1945, most of the world’s surviving military power was possessed by the USA and the Soviet Union, yet with the British Empire still significant. Britain added the French Empire – like Britain, a white core giving no real power to its non-white subjects. And the USA added China, then ruled by Chiang Kaishek as a nominal Christian heavily dependent on US support.
China was also much the largest non-white nation that was officially independent. At the time, Upper London still wanted to rule the entire Indian subcontinent. The Dutch were reconquering what is now Indonesia. The French Empire fought bitter wars in first Indochina and then Algeria.
The Big Five were put above all possible law by Veto power at the Security Council.
It was not about human rights for all humans. And the Soviet Union’s best period, when their challenge to the West secured many advances for both those not classed as white and for all women everywhere. The whole advance was pushed by the left, with liberals dragging their heels. (See https://labouraffairsmagazine.com/m-articles-by-topic/m99-topic-menus-from-long-revolution-website/998-from-labour-affairs/the-french-revolution-and-its-unstable-politics/against-globalisation/the-left-redefined-the-normal/.)
There was broad support for state sovereignty, while the Soviet Union was still a power. The post-Stalin leadership had offended: Hungary and Czechoslovakia and Afghanistan. But not beyond what was seen as their Sphere of Influence, though many in the Global South were alarmed by Moscow sending its own army into new territories.
The major saboteur from the early 1990s was the USA, mostly backed by the rest of NATO. Claiming a right to impose their own notion of Freedom on other people. A specific Western idea of what to encourage, permit, discourage, or forbid.
Consider the scandal of obvious Western sabotage of a Russian gas pipeline to Germany. Poland just discarded all the normal rules. A suspect may not be extradited to face trial in Germany, because a judge decided that circumstances can be treated as a war, despite not being so outside of Ukraine. (https://korybko.substack.com/p/explaining-the-polish-judges-rationale.)
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Idealism Is Still There
“Why I gave the world wide web away for free, by Tim Berners-Lee…
“I relentlessly petitioned bosses at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), where I worked at the time, who initially found the idea ‘a little eccentric’ but eventually gave in and let me work on it. I was seized by the idea of combining two pre-existing computer technologies: the internet and hypertext, which takes an ordinary document and brings it to life by adding ‘links’.
“I believed that giving users such a simple way to navigate the internet would unlock creativity and collaboration on a global scale. If you could put anything on it, then after a while, it would have everything on it…
“We see ubiquitous algorithms that are addictive by design and damaging to our teenagers’ mental health. Trading personal data for use certainly does not fit with my vision for a free web.
“On many platforms, we are no longer the customers, but instead have become the product. Our data, even if anonymised, is sold on to actors we never intended it to reach, who can then target us with content and advertising. This includes deliberately harmful content that leads to real-world violence, spreads misinformation, wreaks havoc on our psychological wellbeing and seeks to undermine social cohesion.” (https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/sep/28/why-i-gave-the-world-wide-web-away-for-free).
Note that the World Wide Web is something different from the Internet, which was originally a confusing collection of chat groups. Neat pages of information reachable with one simple step required Hypertext. An old idea that was made real by a very smart thinker and a system of public science not concerned with immediate profit.
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Roosevelt the Hopeful But Imperfect
“Chan said the US government established the Office of Censorship soon after entering World War II, and that President Franklin Roosevelt decided Japanese atrocities in the Pacific should not be publicised…
“After the war, the US granted immunity to Japanese military scientists, especially those in Unit 731, in exchange for biological warfare data. The deal contributed to a broader cover-up that kept the atrocities out of public view.” (https://www.scmp.com/news/china/science/article/3327526/us-records-shed-light-forgotten-western-victims-japans-wwii-human-experiments
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Old newsnotes at the magazine websites. I also write regular blogs – https://www.quora.com/q/mrgwydionmwilliams
Labour Affairs 