Let me start off by saying I know nothing about F1 racing and its supposed attraction to millions of people world wide. For that matter, I know nothing about racing of any description, be it cars, bikes, horses, dogs or humans. I did absentmindedly visit a greyhound evening once in a country town in Australia a few decades ago, and the only two things I can remember is of getting quickly bored and a feeling that an element of animal cruelty was somehow involved, though on this second point I remain open-minded.

Perhaps the dogs actually enjoy it. Anyway, to return to F1, I was very much impressed with Catherine Bennett’s article aptly titled, ‘When it comes to fawning, our politicians are in pole position. That fairly accurately sums up where the article is heading but just in case there’s any doubt, Bennett adds a sub-heading, ‘F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone has an inexplicable hold over our leaders.’

As Bennett goes on to explain, there is nothing inexplicable about Tory and Labour fawning towards Ecclestone. He is extremely rich, possibly to the tune of billions rather than just millions and our politicians of all persuasions just cannot resist the lure of the rich and powerful. The smell of money and the accompanying power is like an aphrodisiac to them. They get off on it without fail. It doesn’t matter if it’s the Hitler admiring Ecclestone or the fascist leaning Berlusconi, or the megalomaniacal Murdoch, our politicians just cannot resist. And the least said about our love affair with Russian billionaire oligarchs the better.’

What lies behind all this fawning and grovelling? The politicians tell us it’s all about the national interest and in a way they are right. The only little word omitted is that of ‘corporate’. So if we now say all this fawning and grovelling is in the national corporate interest it all starts to make sense. Blair, Brown and Co are no fools. They never set out to abolish capitalism any more than they set out to radically reform it. The most you can say is the Blair/Brown Labour Party had a vague idea of managing capitalism a little more efficiently than their predecessors. In order to achieve that, they had to be careful not only not to alienate the City, but to positively come across as business friendly. UK PLC is safe in our hands was the key message.’

Redistribution of wealth; forget it. In fact we are told, even by Labour think tanks that the gap between rich and poor has got larger under the past 12 years of Labour. What a terrible legacy for a Labour government to have to defend. Furthermore, we learn that class mobility has declined over the past decade with ever more of the professional classes being drawn from the public school sector. The writing was of course on the wall from the very start when Blair refused to abolish university fees, instead, keeping with the previous Tory policy of debt crippling loans that were trifling for the wealthy but totally de-motivating for low income aspirants. If there was one policy that Blair should have reversed, that was it. Better to holiday with Berlusconi though than make inroads into Britain’s deeply ingrained class structures. So much for Blair’s meritocracy. How pathetic that now, after twelve years of grovelling to their corporate masters, a few ministers should be popping their heads above the parapet to call for greater banking regulations, easier access to university and measures to break down social class hierarchy. How revealing that after twelve years of trying to create a socially responsible capitalism, we are told by Brown and Co that we need to kick start the social housing programme. Too little, too late fellows.

As for FI and its boss Mr Ecclestone, I must defer to Catherine Bennett, who sums up the situation thus:

‘An unashamedly sexist, racist, absurdly polluting celebration of speed, run for enormous personal profit by a Hitler fan who hates democracy is, you gather, up there with the World cup and Olympics as a fount of national pride and prosperity. In reality, given motor racing’s indelible associations with fascism, it’s hard to imagine a sport with a nastier history, in line with its unspeakable present.’

Not a glowing reference you must admit.