Author(s): Austin Mitchell

Current Affairs

Yorkshireman
Austin Mitchell lived in New Zealand for eight years while lecturing on
political science. In 1972 he wrote his best-selling commentary on the New
Zealand way of life, The Half-Gallon Quarter-Acre Pavlova Paradise. Now
he returns to the fray with Revenge of the Rich, an outspoken opinion
piece on the impact of neo-liberalism on society in Britain and New Zealand,
based on his popular lectures as a visiting fellow at the University of
Canterbury in 2016.
In his
down-to-earth and lively style, Mitchell, who experienced politics first-hand
as a long-serving Labour MP for Grimsby, denounces the economic policy of the
last three decades as `a long march down Dead-End Street' - a neo-liberal
experiment that has benefitted the rich and eroded the `good society' with its
welfare state and governments' commitment to the betterment of the people.
He charts
the development of a neo-liberal creed, market-driven and with governments
devoted to efficiency, cost-cutting, and austerity at the people's expense, and
draws parallels between Thatcherism in the United Kingdom, Rogernomics in New
Zealand, and all that came after them. Mitchell observes how neo-liberalism has
failed to deliver on its promises, including that of the `trickle-down' effect,
resulting in much greater inequality in both countries. Ultimately, he finds
useful lessons in its failure and possible pointers to a fairer society for
all.