Micky Mouse Politics

162700_491333443299_7190663_nGeorge Osborne has mocked Labour for receiving economic advice from Yanis Varoufakis and broadcaster Paul Mason, suggesting they were chosen because “Chairman Mao was dead and Mickey Mouse was busy”. Paul Mason’s reply to George Osborne is worth a read …

Yesterday the British chancellor George Osborne accused me — from the front bench and under parliamentary privilege — of being a “revolutionary Marxist”. Various media have reported that I am “advising” the Labour Party. Neither of these claims is true.

I have left Channel 4 News to become a freelance journalist, writing a weekly Guardian column, with a wide range of other projects at the planning stage, including a Medium blog called Mosquito Ridge.

I have agreed to contribute a lecture to Labour’s The New Economics series, following prestigious names such as Joseph Stiglitz, Yanis Varoufakis, Marianna Mazzucato and Simon Wren-Lewis. I will be focusing on unconvetnional monetary policy and the democratisation of central banks.
That’s all.

It’s up to the Labour Party whether they listen to what I say. But it is very specifically not formal advice.

As to Mr Osborne’s claim that I am “revolutionary Marxist” it is completely inaccurate. I am radical social democrat who favours the creation of a peer-to-peer sector (co-ops, open source etc) alongside the market and the state, as part of a long transition to a post-capitalist economy. There’s a comprehensive critique of Bolshevism in my latest book, Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future.

In the next months I will likely be travelling to hostile environments, repressive regimes and seeking access to societies where, with one Google search, people will discover that the government of my own country considers me a “revolutionary Marxist”. I will keep you posted on the outcome of that.

As for the Mao/Mickey Mouse jibe, I was tailed for hours in 2008 in Beijing by the secret police of Mr Osborne’s favourite Marxist government, after interviewing the victims of Mao’s Great Leap Forward. I am happy to state that Mao was a despot whose policies killed millions; I look forward to hearing Mr Osborne say that on his next trip to China.

Mickey Mouse on the other hand is a universal 20th century icon representing the triumph of the little guy against the bully, the innocent against the corrupt, the weak against the strong. I am happy to be identified with those ideals.

Comments (9)

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  1. Soar Alba says:

    Terrific reply Mr Mason.
    Chapeau doffed.
    What a hypocrite Osborne is.

  2. bringiton says:

    Osborne practices Voodoo economics with advice from the undead zombies of time gone bye.
    A towel folder accusing qualified economists of not knowing what they are doing is what we have come to expect from the arrogant incompetent Tories at Westminster.

  3. Gralloched says:

    Osborne considers Cameron’s mother a revolutionary Marxist.

  4. James Mills says:

    If only George Osborne’s husbanding of the nation’s economy had been based on ‘ revolutionary Marxist ‘ leanings rather than Harpo Marx , we might be in a less parlous position .

  5. Robert Ellidge says:

    the dignity ( and wit) of mr. Mason’s response is exemplary.

    If our current rulers are so confident of their correctness, why do they keep lying ?

    It surely can’t be that they are totally ignorant of any ideas other their own .

  6. Darby O'Gill says:

    Not a bad joke George. Nice to know that you have a sense of humour. I believe Adolf Hitler liked a good joke as well so your’e in good company.

  7. John Mooney says:

    Excellent riposte Mr.Mason to that pathetic pustule on the arse of the people!

  8. Mathew says:

    ‘a long transition to a post-capitalist economy’
    If only we had the time. 200 billion tonnes of CO2 will be dumped into the atmosphere in the next five years. CH4 will join in too. Environmental and economic collapse just around the corner.

  9. Penny says:

    Only the toffs would defer to Osborne and that mainly because he cuts their taxes or ignores them altogether.

    He is an idiot–and if you consider that he had every possible chance to learn and become a civilized human being and was unable to do so, then it must be concluded the raw materials were very poor indeed

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