By Isle of Wight Observer
Dear Editor,
Simon Radcliff suggested that “Trumpism is what is required” to fix the Island’s ferry problems (IW Observer, March 14).
This was the last line of his letter, and the reasoning behind the wish to Trumpify our connection to the mainland is obscure.
Either it is a parody, or it misunderstands the mechanisms of Trumpism.
If Trump stands for anything, it is a type of oligarch international, prioritising global private investment opportunities at the cost of domestic or worker prosperity.
If the Isle of Wight has one feature which echoes this out-of-control global market structure, it is the Red Funnel. Not only is the company owned by both domestic and overseas investors (all of which are private companies), but its mounting debt of hundreds of millions of pounds is concentrated around a dense bureaucratic lending scheme. This same undemocratic banking system, which directly intervenes in an ethical market structure, is one that Trump has consistently and proudly admitted to exploiting for private gain.
The idea that Trumpism could ‘Make Ferries Great Again’ would be like suggesting that a leg fracture could be ‘reversed’ by once again banging it against a concrete wall. The bureaucratic, international banking systems that Trump exploits replicate the very model which is slowly burying Red Funnel under unpayable debts.
I would instead make a counter- suggestion: Lenin would sort the Red Funnel out. Even at the cost of sending some ferry investors to a 21st century Gulag, my insane suggestion is still saner than the idea of fixing a problem with the same atrocious financial practices that are responsible for this problem.
Trump openly embraces unethical investment and trade models. At least a situation like the Red Funnel would be impossible under the administered market and de-privatised public services that Leninism insisted on.