The City of London, Wikimedia Commons. By Colin and Kim Hansen.
In a way, the story of the last decade of British politics is a simple one. In 2008, the financial system collapsed, nearly taking the whole economy with it. In 2010, the same banks and financiers paid for more than half of the Conservative party’s election campaign, and started to tighten its grip on the media. Money men don't give away cash out of the kindness of their hearts: they were buying something valuable. They were desperate to avoid regulation. And, largely, they did.
The political consequences of this failure to get to grips with big finance have reverberated across the country. An economy based on a tiny number of bankers getting rich produces a country in which people feel ever more alienated. A system which allows those who gambled with everyone’s future to walk off with millions is one which heats seething distrust of all kinds of institution. A society which funnels its surplus wealth into speculation on the housing market rather than investing in the future is one which knows, deep down, that its best days are behind it.
