Two issues are dominating the political scene, which, although apparently unrelated, are both symptoms of the same disease - the chronic corruption and chaos caused by capitalist profiteering.
Cameron is still battling to disentangle himself from the scandal over the Panama tax scam. Having first been in complete denial, he finally had to admit that he had benefited from it, thanks to his father. And now, he's busy trying to convince us that there's nothing wrong in being rich enough to be able - unlike the rest of us, PAYE taxpayers - to rob the taxman, by using fiscal "evasion", since it's "legal"!
Meanwhile, the 15,000 workers employed by Tata Steel UK, together with another 25,000 working for its suppliers, are facing the threat of being just as "legally" robbed of their livelihoods by giant multinational Tata Steel. On the grounds that their labour doesn't produce enough profits, the company says it has no other choice but to dump them, together with their communities.
Real causes and red-herrings
Ironically, almost everyone blames Tata's dumping of its workers on China's dumping of cheap steel - - from Tata bosses themselves and Cameron, to Corbyn and the union leaders.
Never mind that China's steel exports mostly go to Asia, not to Europe, or that, at around 100m tonnes a year, they represent but a small fraction of the world's excess production capacity of 600m tonnes a year! Never mind too, that steelworkers are under threat not just here, but also in China, where the Chinese government plans to cut up to 800,000 steel jobs over the coming 2 years!
The truth is that if these threats against jobs should be blamed on anything, it is on the chronic chaos of this profit-based, capitalist system.
For a long time already, there has been a worldwide overproduction of steel, partly due to massive (and very profitable) speculation and partly due to the economic slow-down caused by the banking crisis. As a result, rival steel giants maintain their profits by cutting both investment and wage bills to the bare bone. And steelworkers are caught in the crossfire of their on-going rivalries, here, just as much as in China!
Being based on the permanent competition between rival capitalists, the capitalist system's inability to plan production according to need is already, in and of itself, a cause of chaos - and even more so, in the context of the on-going crisis.
But the fact that, in addition, the capitalists are able to make huge profits by speculating on everything that can be bought and sold - thanks to the sophisticated tools made available by financial markets - only results in an exacerbation of this chaos, on a colossal scale.
Let the capitalist class pay!
Against this backdrop, all the talk about "white knights" coming to steelworkers' rescue, or "part-nationalisation" is just a con designed to pull the wool over our eyes.
Take the government-sponsored "deal" whereby Greybull Capital has bought the Scunthorpe plant for a symbolic £1. Greybull was set up by an ex-Lehman Brothers banker, after this bank's collapse triggered the banking crisis. It specialised in "sweating the assets" of troubled businesses. For instance, it bought the charter airline Monarch for a pittance. Workers were blackmailed into taking a 30% wage cut and losing 700 jobs. Having "turned around" the company on workers' backs, Greybull is now looking to sell it on, at a huge profit!
It is clear that Scunthorpe workers can expect nothing from the "white knight", Greybull. It is already blackmailing them into agreeing to a 3% pay cut and to undisclosed "changes" in their pensions. And given Greybull's record, they've got no guarantee whatsoever concerning their future!
As to the rest of the Tata workers, especially those at the large Port Talbot plant, they are likely to face the same fate. Liberty House, another fast-buck outfit, seems to be bargaining for government aid in order to take it over.
Roy Rickhuss, the steelworkers' union leader may well claim after the Scunthorpe "deal", that it "represents a significant contribution by the workforce towards turning the business around". Except that only the workers are "contributing" - not the steel bosses and shareholders!
This is where the Panama scandal and the steel crisis come together. The tax havens' popularity with big companies and the wealthy, reflects their colossal hoarding of cash, which they use only to speculate. For fear of losing out on their profits due to the crisis, the capitalists are starving the economy of the resources it needs. And the only way out is for the working class to expropriate them. And take over the running of society!