No one has announced it, but the general election campaign in 2015 has begun. It is hidden in debate on the spending review, but since this is to have impact in 2015-16 onwards it is hard to call it anything else. This is about election promises, but not about things that will necessarily happen.
So, we have Osborne planning to announce £11.5 billion of cuts now. But that's not the whole story: the Resolution Foundation thinks these cuts will have to be followed by £28 billion of cuts after the next election if the books are to be made to balance as Osborne says he wishes to do. That would leave BIS shrunk by then by 45.1% compared with 2010-11. The Home Office would be smaller by 45.8%, defence by 38.2%, the Foreign Office 64.3%, and Communities and Local Government 54.9%. This is cutting to the core of government, and society, when justice spending is also being cut by over a third.
In compensation the Tories are promising billions of investment on decidedly un-green projects to help big business on projects like upgrading the A14, a new Mersey Gateway bridge in the north-west and the first tranche of work on the HS2 high-speed railway.
Let's be quite clear about what all this means. As Osborne always planned, the capacity of government to act is being destroyed. You cannot slash the spending of ministries to the extent noted and maintain effectiveness. That's impossible. And whilst some change was of course necessary in what all ministries were doing - which is true of all organisations, always, these cuts can only have happened if what they were doing was completely wasteful - which I seriously doubt. The long term impacts could be very serious indeed.
In addition, it's obvious that these cuts will still not close the deficit, so yet more benefits cuts must be on their way.
And to compensate there is investment - but not in the things we need. HS2 is transport for an elite. Roads are the non-green investment that this country cannot justify if carbon limits are to be met. And these projects are all designed to boost business profits by way of the state bearing its costs for it at cost to the rest of us. If there was evidence of the capture of te state by business that is then usiung that capture to cut its own taxes (only big business is seeing cuts) whilst oppressing ordinary people to force them into low paid, insecure work and at the same time using the power of the state to bear its own investment costs then this is it.
This is, of course, the cowardly state I described in The Courageous State.
We need investment, of course. But it's in house building and repairs, in providing the classrooms we're going to need for the next 15 years to manage a baby boom, in flood defences, in local rail and transport systems, in green energy, in R & D to make tidal power possible in the UK, and so much more. But that's not what we're getting. Have no doubt, there is politics in investment decisions.
And much of this may not go on the balance sheet. So what? We still need it. And that's why it should be done. But dogma and the interests of bug business is ruling the day. What we have to hear now is opposition.
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There is no opposition! That is until the spririt of Taksim Square, Brazil wakes up the traditionally lethargic British which may take some years! No -one wants social unrest but when political choice is so stymied and so captured by coprporate interest, what else can happen? Of course, it might be that a diet of Sky T.V. and computer games has neutered the populace. labour party is beyond contempt.
Nothing will be gained at the ballot box. We’ll only have widespread protest when the food banks can no longer cope with the demand!
I continue to and always will believe in democracy
But we don’t have it, as you know and the main parties are leaving many people disenfranchised – so in the present context, the ballot box IS of little worth.
PR might make the ballot box more meaningful but without a party that can represent the concerns of people who support the aims of this site the ballot box is tokenism.
Where I live that is undoubtedly true
But of all the systems we’ve tried that are bad it still is the best
Interesting series from Philip Pilkington on the role of the state in Nazi Germany:
https://fixingtheeconomists.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/nazism-and-neoliberal-mythmaking-part-iii-the-descent-into-primitivism/
His argument is ‘that Nazism was, if not an anti-state ideology, at the very least one which aimed at a weak subordinated state’, a bureaucracy
“Nazism was thus an attempt to realise a highly primitive form of social organisation at the level of mass society. Society itself would come to resemble a pack of hunter-gatherers with the most charismatic at the helm deciding what should be done next. This was the true evil of Nazism and it also explains its irrationalism and its brutality. It certainly required that an advanced state be possible — how else could you rally millions? — but its primary feature was the reduction in significance of the state-form and the rise of a pack-mentality that was vicious, brutal and filled with a terrifying love for aggression and violence that is characteristic of humans that have not been properly civilised.”
Pilkington concludes that ‘The real lesson of the Nazis is that a society without the limits placed upon it by the state, a society without a strong autonomous state-form that can maintain stability, is a society that quite literally descends into overt barbarism.’
Essentially, this is the converse of your arguments in ‘The Courageous State’ … the dangers of reducing the State. As Brit found in his assessment of the defining characteristics of fascism:
‘Corporate Power is Protected – The industrial and business aristocracy of a fascist nation often are the ones who put the government leaders into power, creating a mutually beneficial business/government relationship and power elite.’
And:
‘Rampant Cronyism and Corruption – Fascist regimes almost always are governed by groups of friends and associates who appoint each other to government positions and use governmental power and authority to protect their friends from accountability. It is not uncommon in fascist regimes for national resources and even treasures to be appropriated or even outright stolen by government leaders.’
The parallels with the current government are more than alarming. We desperately need a party to argue for ‘The Courageous State’.
Thanks
I wish we had such a party
We need the structures in place to ensure that such a party does not get strangled at birth by the likes of News International.
If you think there is no opposition you should have been at Central Hall Westminister on Saturday for the People’s Assembly, something that the media has totally ignored, there is plenty of opposition and it is beginning to find its feet and organise. There could be trouble ahead……
I wanted to be there – and booked
But was just too tired after the G8 to go – and needed to be dad for a day
Sorry
Unfortunately, I could not make it either David, but the draft statement on their website looks positively thrilling. If I may quote some of the best bits:
“We therefore choose to resist”.
“We are clear in our minds that our stand will require us to defend the people’s right to protest, and so we support the right of unions and campaigns to organise and take such action as their members democratically decide is necessary.”
“We have a plain and simple goal: to make government abandon its austerity programme. If it will not it must be replaced with one that will.””
“We will call a national day of civil disobedience and direct action against austerity on November 5th and a national demonstration in Spring 2014.”
“We will support the call for local demonstrations on 5th July, the 65th Birthday of our NHS and specifically, at Trafford Hospital, Manchester, the birthplace of the NHS.”
At long last, the left has correctly realised that the ballot box is futile — we will all die of old age waiting. The only way to make change is to democratically force it through protest and disruption. (this last bit is in my words, not a quote!) Mouth watering, exciting times.
Article in new Statesman about peoples Assembly and frustration with Labour:
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/06/milibands-offer-austerity-red-rosette-failing-voters