The globalisation scam

The media has been awash with commentators and politicians telling us how we can not allow this recession to be used as an excuse to give up on globalisation - or as they prefer to call it "free trade". Latest in the line to have their say is London mayor, Boris Johnson.

It is a natural assumption that in times of economic distress we should put our own nation first, and if you want evidence of the strength of this emotion, listen to the voices supporting the current wave of strikes.

Actually, the "natural assumption" of the British people is that our government should always put our own nation first. The emotion and anger you are seeing now is the dawning realisation that this natural assumption isn't shared by our government.

What kind of British industry do the protectionists think would emerge? Some sort of crazy autarkic system in which we tried to substitute imports with home-made PlayStations and home-made shoes and brassieres once again produced in the cotton mills of Lancashire? We would not only be forcing British consumers to accept second-rate goods; we would be impoverishing them by obliging them to pay more.

It seems that Boris' natural assumption is that British manufacturers make "second-rate goods". They would cost more than shoes and bras manufactured by eight year old Indonesian kids in sweat shops on virtual slave labour wages, but is that necessarily a bad thing? Add on the fact that the people who make the goods in Britain will most likely spend their earnings in Britain so boosting the local economies and it can only be good for us.

In case he has forgotten, Boris Johnson was elected to serve the people of London, not Lagos or Luzon. Nor is he elected to serve only a certain section of Londoners - whether that be the city financiers or immigrant population. His job is to do what is best for London and ALL Londoners - nobody else.

I'm not one of those people who believe that there is a finite limit to global wealth - we can create wealth - but at any given time there is a limit to how much there is to go around. That increases year by year, but so does the global population. That is why globalisation - as it always is - is preceded by a credit boom and why globalisation always ends in a depression when that credit runs out - as it always inevitably does.

Free trade itself is a myth outside of national boundaries as different countries have different regulations - which is why some manufacturers can use eight year olds on slave labour wages which we can't. Free trade relies on a level playing field for all traders - unless you have that you can not have "free trade" as there is always going to be an imbalance.

To counter this we end up with unelected bodies of people deciding what rules and regulations to impose across national boundaries and without reference to the peoples of the world - which is corporatism - and that spells the end of democracy.

In a way, I hope these "free trade" proponents get their wish and that globalisation continues, but the result will still be a depression - the only difference is that countries which failed to resort to protectionism will be the ones who suffer deepest and longest and will emerge from it weaker and more dependent than those that don't.

I don't want that for my country - why does Boris and all the other globalisation fanatics?