American Dream a nightmare for poor

WOULD-BE PM Boris Johnson is a known admirer of Trump’s ultraright-wing politics. His tenure at 10 Downing Street would mark an escalation of Britain’s status as a floating aircraft carrier and arms base for US imperialism, not to mention enhancing its role as an economic satellite of the US.

Statistics released by the Prison Reform Trust show that, after 10 years of Tory austerity, Britain is already beginning to resemble the US in terms of the number of people it jails every year.

The figures show England, Wales, and Northern Ireland have the highest incarceration rates in Western Europe: 238 per 100,000 of population for England and Wales; and 222 per 100,000 of population for Northern Ireland.

These rates are twice those in Germany and three times those in Italy and Spain.

The trust’s analysis indicates that there were 140,000 admissions to prison in England and Wales in 2017.

Nearly half (46%) of those jailed last year were sentenced to six months or less, while the numbers of those sentenced to 10 years or more last year was 2½ times higher than in 2006.

Farage and Johnson share not only an antipathy for Europe, but also an idolatry of all things American. One of the country’s less

admirable ‘distinctions’ is that it has the highest incarceration rate in the world - three times that of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, at 655 per 100,000 of population for 2016.

Latest figures are sure to be even higher, given Trump’s enthusiasm for a hard-line approach to crime and criminals.

The US represents 4.4% of the world’s population but it locks up 22% of the world’s prisoners. At the end of 2016, there were a colossal 2,298,300 people behind bars in the US out of 324.2m, nearly 8% of the population.

These staggering figures tell us that the much-vaunted ‘American Dream’ is, in fact, a nightmare for the working class and poor in America, which also has the highest rate in the world of police killings of ‘suspects’ on its streets.

More Americans have died at the hands of police in the last 15 years than have died in its wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. Many of these killings have provoked riots, because those killed were posing no threat to the officers who shot them.

When you add the fact the US has no NHS, and a minimal welfare system for the unemployed and poor, the prospect of a Johnson premiership becomes even less attractive to the working class and poor of the UK.