Control freakout

"Who's in control?", asks the Guardian's Gary Younge. "Nation states or global corporations?" It's not exactly a tough question to answer - and indeed, Anthony Sampson did so some time ago in Who Runs This Place?, the fully revised and updated version of his classic Anatomy Of Britain.

However, what's interesting is not Younge's point that corporate money pulls the strings but that both those on the right of the political spectrum and those on the left share the same concern at the consequent loss of national sovereignty and powers of self-determination. It's just the appropriate solution or response that the two sides can't agree upon: "while the left holds out hope of building a more inclusive society in the future, the right has built its populist credentials on retreating to an exclusionary past". It might be a bit simplistic, but ultimately that's what it boils down to: hope v hate. I know which side I'm on - and I also know which side, in light of the far right's significant gains in the recent elections across Europe, needs to buck its ideas up and start getting its message across more clearly.

(Thanks to Phil for the link.)