The UK’s problems are not unique. Since the post-war boom ended in the 1970s every state in the world is faced with the consequences of ‘declining growth’ (aka profit rates). Workers’ share of the national income in all the rich countries has been declining for over four decades. Services such as the NHS, school budgets, social benefits, pensions — all funded by deductions from workers’ pay — have all been cut. Finance capitalist outfits which speculate on international markets run the utility companies, meaning we get higher bills, as rivers and coasts are polluted with sewage.