For E P Thompson the moral economy was a customary right, also to be found at the very least in common law, which was used not as a challenge to rising market values- it was not put forward as an alternative political economy- but as a corrective and restraint to it. Thompson was writing about the eighteenth century
Yet the idea that there are certain basic human values- in particular that people have a right to essential foodstuffs at affordable prices- and certainly prices that do not allow farmers and middlemen to exploit shortages, can be seen to have an application today.
The idea that although the economy and society are not equal,meaning there is rich and poor, there is still a framework that caps how much unfairness and discrimination there is
Rishi Sunal who went to Winchester and is the richest MP in Parliament has clearly never read E P Thompson and his actions just this week suggest that he is someone who believes not in a moral but an immoral economy
He agreed a £1000 bet with Piers Morgan on refugees being sent to Rwanda this year
He mad a transphobic jibe in the Commons at probably the most inappropriate moment to do so
He reportedly blocked a proper pay rise for doctors because it might mean a decent pay rise also for other health workers
As E P Thompson noted when society ignored the basic framework around how wealthy the rich could be and behave and how everyone else was able to exist there were protests and even riots
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