Fuel for the hard-Left

ANYONE mystified by the rise and rise of Jeremy Corbyn should look no further than today’s survey of chief executives’ rocketing pay.

Nobody believes more strongly than the Mail that the hard-Left socialism preached by the front-runner in the UK Labour leadership contest would be an unmitigated disaster for Britain.

Indeed, wherever politicians have tried to translate Marx’s preaching into government policy, from the Soviet Union to Venezuela, they’ve spread hardship and misery – with the poorest suffering most.

But no wonder Labour activists rail against social injustice and demand radical alternatives, when the High Pay Centre finds chief executives of Britain’s top 100 firms earn almost £5million a year each.

That’s a staggering 183 times the average worker’s salary of £27,000.

You don’t have to be a Bolshevik to find this huge disparity frankly offensive. For in most cases, it owes nothing to merit or the true market worth of individual directors – and everything to the greed of mutually backscratching remuneration committees. Indeed, even ardent champions of capitalism will be appalled that senior bosses have helped themselves to an extra £800,000 each over the past four years, while imposing minimal increases or pay freezes on their employees.

As most Britons are intelligent enough to see, Corbynite socialism is no answer. But while the boardroom pay racket continues, the enemies of capitalism will never be starved of support.