The exploiters and the exploited

Almost a year ago I opened a Euro deposit account. So am I happy to read that the pound has now plunged to an all-time low against the Euro? No I'm not.

I see this morning that my Euros have made a gain of 17% since last October and despite some recent turbulence my gold shares are worth more than double what I paid for them. Am I some kind of mini-Soros figure whose aim is to bring down the pound and the government? No, I'm just a guy who is trying hard to protect his savings against a rapacious political class. Unlike some, I don't have a gold-plated, inflation-linked pension guaranteed by the government taxpayer. I have to rely on my wits and that means spreading my investments around a bit.

Writing on a possible housing bailout, Alice Cook has this to say:

The title is very telling: "Government must act on property market now". The RICS didn't say "sellers must act", or "Estate agents must act". It didn't even point to themselves and say perhaps we, the RICS should act. No, the RICS said that the "housing market on its knees, the RICS is calling on the Government to act swiftly and decisively on a range of proposals to help the buying and selling process - now and in the future - for both consumers and business."

What this demonstrates is that the political class that I mentioned above does not consist solely of MPs, MSPs and the like. It also includes well-heeled professionals - in this case the surveyors - who use the state for their own private ends. The real class struggle is between those who live on the free market and those who look to the state to further their own private ends. The enemy class extends far beyond the politicians.