London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Jun 20, 2025

Free market didn’t work: How a major business boss admitted the failure of capitalism

Free market didn’t work: How a major business boss admitted the failure of capitalism

‘Capitalism has failed’ was the essence of Confederation of British Industry Director General Tony Danker’s message to its annual conference – presumably motivated by being on the right side of history.
The Port of Tyne in South Shields in England’s north-east is not an obvious place for Britain’s business leaders to meet.

The area was once central to the country’s industry, but has been decimated by government policy and a callous carelessness by politicians from all sides of the political spectrum over the past five decades.

This has meant that South Shields – just like other areas such as East Durham, South Yorkshire, Staffordshire, and Nottinghamshire –has been left without hope for generations. It’s become one of those places labelled as ‘the left behind’, although a truer description would be ‘purposefully and politically left out’.

Yet it was here that the Confederation of British Industry held its three-day annual conference, unexpectedly dominating headlines on account of Boris Johnson’s disastrous speech, with the prime minister losing his place, shuffling his papers, throwing out incoherent anecdotes about Peppa Pig, and making car noises. Predictably Johnson’s bizarre behaviour dominated discussion on news programmes and Twitter.

The focus, however, should have been on the serious and pressing discussions on the industrial and economic future of Britain. Perhaps the nonsensical debates about Johnson’s relationship with an animated character were a deliberate distraction, because when Tony Danker, the director general of the CBI, addressed the floor, his words were scathing and worthy of further analysis.

Bearing in mind he is a captain of industry and the CBI a champion of free market capitalism, Danker used his speech to deliver a damning critique of it, which he said had left swathes of the country in decline, accusing successive governments of allowing “old industries to die” with communities facing “benign neglect,” adding, “We’ve had five decades where the free market has palpably failed.”

Danker criticised Thatcherism and Blairism, but also the current government’s ‘levelling up agenda’, hitting out at PM Johnson for giving “very little” detail on how he planned to boost wealth around the country.

And he attacked current and historical government policies which have left great swathes of the North and the Midlands on lower wages, with poor and low-level work that offers no pride and dignity, and results in boarded-up high streets.

I wonder why these words have not been given more prominence in the mainstream media – “capitalism has failed, says capitalist” – and instead the focus has been put on the bumbling of our hopeless PM, preventing a serious and much needed debate about industry, growth, and inequality in Britain today.

It’s interesting that Danker has started to talk about the right side of history, a contemporary concern among many in politics, whether in government or on Twitter. Everyone claims to be on the right side of history, despite the fact that it is time and historians and public reflexivity which will decide that – not columnists like Owen Jones in The Guardian.

It is coming up to 40 years since the miners went into dispute with the government about pit closures. The National Union of Miners, the miners themselves, and their wider communities knew that the battle was not over the industry alone, but a fight to the death for those communities – our dignity and our future and our class.

We lost. Our villages, towns, and cities very quickly became filled with drugs as the jobs left, and anyone who could get out did, including me. Those communities are still hanging on, but only because of the resilience of the people – because even today they are still being attacked, ignored, and vilified by politicians, the media, and an ever-increasing fearful and mediocre middle class who are terrified of the British working class.

It is the mediocre middle class in particular who desperately need to be on the right side of history, through their use of whatever fashionable identity politics they need to fight for today – to appease their conscience and attempt to justify their unearned class advantages.

And yet we have had political leaders who have been on the right side of history, and it is time that their words were remembered. Arthur Scargill, the leader of the NUM, went to war with free market capitalism, because he understood what was coming once our industries had disappeared – the power that working-class people collectively relied upon would be gone and that imbalance would lead to an ever-widening inequality gap, with the poorest becoming poorer, the middle class clinging on to their position like limpets, and the elites soaring away from the rest.

In 1984, Scargill addressed the NUM conference with a straight-talking passion and a love for the people he represented that today is absent in our politics. His words now seem prescient. “The devastation threatening our communities is dramatically and tragically compounded by the destructive monetarist policies which this Government has unleashed. With over four-and-a-half million unemployed people, Britain’s industrial base crippled by lack of investment, and the nation’s social services network being torn to shreds, there is a climate of helplessness, hopelessness and outright despair. It is our responsibility as trade unionists to fight that despair and oppose the policies which created it.”

History was written by the miners’ strike, and is now being lived painfully every day through every flippant joke and nasty sneer about ‘the stupid and racist’ working class, and in every food bank, every suicide, and every crack house that has opened up amongst our deindustrialised working class communities.

I ask you how history will judge you.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
16 Billion Login Credentials Leaked in Unprecedented Cybersecurity Breach
Senate hearing on who was 'really running' Biden White House kicks off
Iranian Military Officers Reportedly Seek Contact with Reza Pahlavi, Signal Intent to Defect
FBI and Senate Investigate Allegations of Chinese Plot to Influence the 2020 Election in Biden’s Favor Using Fake U.S. Driver’s Licenses
Vietnam Emerges as Luxury Yacht Destination for Ultra‑Rich
Plans to Sell Dutch Embassy in Bangkok Face Local Opposition
China's Iranian Oil Imports Face Disruption Amid Escalating Middle East Tensions
Trump's $5 Million 'Trump Card' Visa Program Draws Nearly 70,000 Applicants
DGCA Finds No Major Safety Concerns in Air India's Boeing 787 Fleet
Airlines Reroute Flights Amid Expanding Middle East Conflict Zones
Elon Musk's xAI Seeks $9.3 Billion in Funding Amid AI Expansion
Trump Demands Iran's Unconditional Surrender Amid Escalating Conflict
Israeli Airstrike Targets Iranian State TV in Central Tehran
President Trump is leaving the G7 summit early and has ordered the National Security Council to the Situation Room
Taiwan Imposes Export Ban on Chips to Huawei and SMIC
Israel has just announced plans to strike Tehran again, and in response, Trump has urged people to evacuate
Netanyahu Signals Potential Regime Change in Iran
Juncker Criticizes EU Inaction on Trump Tariffs
EU Proposes Ban on New Russian Gas Contracts
Analysts Warn Iran May Resort to Unconventional Warfare
Iranian Regime Faces Existential Threat Amid Conflict
Energy Infrastructure Becomes War Zone in Middle East
UK Home Secretary Apologizes Over Child Grooming Failures
Trump Organization Launches 5G Mobile Network and Golden Handset
Towcester Hosts 2025 English Greyhound Derby Amid Industry Scrutiny
Gary Oldman and David Beckham Knighted in King's Birthday Honours
Over 30,000 Lightning Strikes Recorded Across UK During Overnight Storms
Princess of Wales Returns to Public Duties at Trooping the Colour
Red Arrows Use Sustainable Fuel in Historic Trooping the Colour Flypast
Former Welsh First Minister Addresses Unionist Concerns Over Irish Language
Iran Signals Openness to Nuclear Negotiations Amid Ongoing Regional Tensions
France Bars Israeli Arms Companies from Paris Defense Expo
King Charles Leads Tribute to Air India Crash Victims at Trooping the Colour
Jack Pitchford Embarks on 200-Mile Walk to Support Stem Cell Charity
Surrey Hikers Take on Challenge of Climbing 11 Peaks in a Single Day
UK Deploys RAF Jets to Middle East Amid Israel-Iran Tensions
Two Skydivers Die in 'Tragic Accident' at Devon Airfield
Sainsbury's and Morrisons Accused of Displaying Prohibited Tobacco Ads
UK Launches National Inquiry into Grooming Gangs
Families Seek Closure After Air India Crash
Gold Emerges as Global Safe Haven Amid Uncertainty
Trump Reports $57 Million Earnings from Crypto Venture
Trump's Military Parade Sparks Concerns Over Authoritarianism
Nationwide 'No Kings' Protests Challenge Trump's Leadership
UK Deploys Jets to Middle East Amid Rising Tensions
Trump's Anti-War Stance Tested Amid Israel-Iran Conflict
Germany Holds First Veterans Celebration Since WWII
U.S. Health Secretary Dismisses CDC Vaccine Advisory Committee
Minnesota Lawmaker Melissa Hortman and Husband Killed in Targeted Attack; Senator John Hoffman and Wife Injured
Exiled Iranian Prince Reza Pahlavi Urges Overthrow of Khamenei Regime
×