News media were falling over one another the other day in their uncritical acclaim for the announcement that a former brickworks will be the site of a new multibillion-pound theme park from the entertainment behemoth Universal.  The venture is projected to bring 8.5 million visitors near to the market town, which is 50 miles north of London. It is claimed that the development will create tens of thousands of jobs and become the biggest visitor attraction in Britain.

Starmer declared it was all down to Labour’s new vision for growth and partnership with business despite the fact that talks with the former Tory government had been well underway. The boss of Comcast, which owns Universal and Sky, was treated like royalty in Downing Street. No planning permission has been granted yet but given the government’s new ‘flexible’ policy on regulations this should not be an obstacle.

Nobody is arguing against new job opportunities and with the closure of the nearby Luton car factory there is a need for them in the area. But the way Labour and the mainstream mass media play this is to focus solely on the number of jobs as though Comcast are some sort of benign philanthropists.  Often job numbers are artificially inflated at this stage of the process. These people do not invest unless there are good profits to be made and this surplus, generated by the hard work of those thousands of workers, will not be going to the public good but to private shareholders.

Labour handouts to corporatations… again

Then there are the sweeteners that the government is handing to this big profit making machine – the roads, the infrastructure and tax breaks. The Guardian reported:

As part of the announcement the government said it will make “a major investment in infrastructure around the site” to ensure it is easily accessible.

 No doubt there will be more handouts that have not be made transparent as yet. The corporate sector talks a good game about entrepreneurship and the need for low taxes and a small state but they are happy to lobby for big state support for these sorts of projects.

It looks like the same thing is going to happen with British Steel. Labour could take this key sector into common ownership so that the conversion to environmentally sustainable production can be made in a way that working people do not pay the costs. However it is proposing to pay the coking coal costs for the Chinese owners to keep the furnace open. Apparently it is ‘ideological’ to nationalize it but this operation which is subsidizing the capitalist owners, is not ideological!

What are our taxes being used for here? 

Now theme parks are popular but not universally so. Recently there was a survey about British tourist attractions and Alton Towers, one of the biggest theme parks in the country, was voted the worst.

A popular theme park, based in Staffordshire, UK was revealed to be the most disappointing tourist attraction in the world – with 49.4 per cent of reviews being negative and 18 per cent of reviews touching on the theme park being overpriced.  (Daily Maii,7 April)

Ticket prices at Alton Towers start at over £30 and go up to over £60 – the Water park experience is extra. So a family day out is not cheap and you need to bring your own picnic since the catering prices are high.

Labour are emphasizing that Bedford is more East Midlands than the South East but a lot of people in the North will see it as another way governments tend to support investment being sucked into the South East of the country. 

The whole project is also based on the fact that this is the first Universal Studios theme park in Europe so it will act as a hub bringing in other European visitors. The site is located close to Luton Airport. No surprise that earlier this week, the transport secretary approved plans for its major expansion which will see annual passenger numbers almost double to 32 million by 2043. They overruled planning inspectors who had recommended blocking the scheme on environmental ground  Once again we see Labour’s green vision taking second place to its priority of partnerships with big business.

Labour’s vision and ours

When we examine Labour’s policy choices, we have to scrutinize them – as they themselves often say  – on the basis of how it improves the lives of working people.  Now you can say there will be more jobs and this is better than no jobs but the jobs are going to be normal not exceptional. Wages will reflect the same very unequal salary system and will be skewed to the bottom as British salaries are lower than in most European countries. 

Will the government insist that Comcast recognize trade unions?  Bloomberg reported in April 2023 that Comcast managers in its NBCUniversal sector went through role play exercises on how to oppose unionizing drives. Other left sources in the US report on battles to try and unionize in the past against Comcast.

Another question is how another theme park of this type will make our lives better, happier or more fulfilled. Should government money being going into financing a rather limited cultural experience that essentially helps Comcast reproduce and consolidate its already existing entertainment franchises. It is not as though the British public does not already have unlimited access to Universal’s movies, comics, toys, computer games and so on. 

Are there better ways of investing in culture that would enrich our lives and provide a more participation rather than facilitate passive consumption of a culture produced by US corporations?  Recently I went to the Arcola theatre in Hackney to see some of plays created and performed by various groups in the community – the over 50s, the Queer Collective and the mental health group.  These were amateurs having a go at making culture with others, not paying a wad of money to go to a glossy artificial spectacle reproducing what they had already seen on a screen.  Such community groups receive very little support from the local or national state. Indeed that contribution has been decreasing for some time with government austerity policies.

Lots of jobs could also be created in the community if the government invested money in things we all own in common. Youth clubs have been practically closed down. Thousands of jobs could be created if we built up a proper network of places for young people to do their thing. Rather than cutting disabled people’s personal independence payments we could be developing thousands of jobs for carers or animators of activities supporting disabled people.

Nye Bevan had a neat phrase for leaders like Starmer who are parading the Comcast project as Labour’s vision:

The Prime Minister has an absolute genius for putting flamboyant labels on empty luggage.

NB Featured image picture of Universal Studios, Hollywood