If you want to see how class and power operate in Britain today, look at the different ways in which “regulation” is applied to working-class people and businesses. In the one case, it is about imposing ever-tighter restrictions, making it increasingly difficult for workers to take action to defend their interests if in doing so they might damage the interests of business. In the other case, regulation involves removing as many restrictions as possible even when doing so hurts the interests of ordinary people, and in the most monstrous fashion imaginable.
On Thursday, the government signed off on a new law allowing businesses to employ agency staff to replace strikers – in essence, state-sanctioned strike breaking. “This was a criminal offence. Now it’s an option for business,” tweeted business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, perhaps letting slip more than he intended about this government’s approach.
