Ryanair: As the Bank of England celebrates its independence is this really the sort of capitalism we want?

Theresa May used the anniversary to sing the praises of the free marekt. The low cost carrier gave a demonstration of its dark side as it cancelled more flights and fell afoul of the Civil Aviation Authority

Ryanair: An exemplar of capitalism red in tooth and claw (AFP)

Much debate about free markets with the Bank of England celebrating 20 years of the independence granted it by the first Government of Tony Blair.

Prime Minister Theresa May leapt to their defence as the engine of a successful economy, seeking to draw a contrast with the current Labour Party's approach that is increasingly winning traction with an electorate that becomes more jaded by the May government by the day.

There are many who will find her talking about strong economies rather ironic. With their approach to Brexit, the Conservatives have embarked on a programme of economic lunacy that even Marx might have baulked at.

Meanwhile, the dark side of the free market she was praising was openly on display in the form of Ryanair.

The low cost airline is an exemplar of capitalism red in tooth and claw, in the way it treats its workers, and its customers.

But its model has led to the chaos of the mass cancellation of flights. Part of the reason for that is its approach to its workforce.

Short of pilots, it needs those it has on its books to give up their holiday to solve its current problem. They are disinclined to play ball.

Even with the prospect of a sizeable bung being dangled in front of their noses, numbers of them would much rather talk about about a new, collectively bargained, contract incorporating better working conditions. Suddenly they've found that the market is working in their favour, and they are exploiting their power in it. Who could blame them?

Meanwhile, the company has got itself into a spot of bother with the Civil Aviation Authority. Its boss, Andrew Haines, said he was “furious” that the airline had claimed it did not have to re-route unhappy passengers caught short onto rival airlines.

With Ryanair announcing thousands more cancellations, the CAA said the airline “has again failed to provide customers with the necessary and accurate information relating to their passenger rights, particularly around rerouting and care and assistance entitlements, which includes expenses”.

Ryanair responded by saying it would meet with the CAA and play nice. But enforcement action has been launched.

Maybe the CAA, which has had run ins with Ryanair in the past, means business this time.

The problem with free markets of the Anglo Saxon variety that the PM was singing the priases of; the laissez faire kind, is that the natural end result is Ryanair. Or Uber. Or Sports Direct.

They’re cheap as chips, and consumers love them for that reason. But they get that way by dumping on people. Sometimes it’s the customers themselves, and in some ways they have only themselves to blame for that. It’s not as if the way Ryanair conducts itself is a big secret. Ditto Sports Direct and Uber.

More often it's the people that work for them. The Uber drivers paid less than the minimum wage. The zero hours Sports Direct workers subject to awful treatment at its warehouse before their plight was made public. The Ryanair ground crew told to upsticks to Europe for six weeks at their own expense or go without pay. The Ryanair pilots who see the chance of getting something better.

Situations like that at Ryanair will occur when the free market isn’t constrained by rules that require the companies that operate within it to conduct themselves with a modicum of decency, or where those rules that do exist aren’t enforced with sufficient intensity. Cheaper prices. Yes you'll get them. But there is a cost to them. One that sometimes impacts on the consumer as well as the worker.

As the Bank celebrates its anniversary, and there have been an awful lot of windy speeches, rarefied debate, and pomp, perhaps we should look to the future and consider whether we really want to be a Ryanair nation, or whether there might be a better way.