A commentator on this blog said last night that:
Martin Wolf this weekend says the “Economic ills of the UK extend well beyond Brexit. Failings include low investment, inadequate basic education and the innumeracy of the elites.”
The quotation was appropriate. Wolf ended his piece saying:
If the UK is to thrive economically, it will not be enough for it to manage Brexit, hard though that will surely be. Its policymakers must also start from a realistic assessment of the UK's mediocre performance. This is no world-beating economy. It is not even a Europe-beating economy, except on creating what are too often low-wage jobs. It will have to do far better if it is to deliver the higher living standards its people want in the tougher environment ahead.
Why the mediocre performance? I said this last night:
Our inability to exploit ability is the strangest thing about this country.
And it is not because we do not like success: it is precisely because those who think themselves successful in the UK have no comprehension of ability.
I think it worth expanding that instant reaction a little.
First, I am saying that we are so riddled by a class system that ability has nothing to do with the comprehension of success amongst an elite.
Second, we have a financial system dedicated to the preservation of the pre-existing wealth of that elite and not to creating new wealth by innovation. So we do not invest: the UK saves. And the two are fundamentally different. As financial wealth has increased the failure to invest has resulted in stagnation for the country despite what the FT calls a glut of savings. The absurdity is almost beyond comprehension.
Third, you have to realise that the clots (I can think of no kinder word) who dominate this class and its wealth management industry also dominate the most powerful political party in the UK - the Conservative Party. The result is that we have had government for much of the last century that has shied away from anything looking like innovation because the class that has supplied us with Eton Old Boys as ministers has no idea what the benefits of investment in ideas might be.
Or to put it another way, the whole of the UK architecture of power is dedicated to the suppression of ability. And it shows.
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There is nothing to argue with here.
Totally agree. It’s systemic. Do you know of any other country in the world where the name of your SECONDARY school is of any importance whatsoever? Largely because of its class structure I left the country over 30 years ago and enjoyed the not totally but effectively class-free environment of the Contiment & Scandinavia. I only returned for family reasons. As with other countries we had the opportunity to redraw our social ‘landscape’ after the 2nd world war but for reasons that probably date back hundreds of years we were unable /unwilling to cast off our Victorian, militaristic and colonial caste structures. I’m sure volumes have been written about it.
Since then, despite the efforts of the Attlee government and subsequent progressive initiatives (viz. the Green Party), there has been an extraordinary inability to redress social / cultural inequality. And, of course, since the 1970s, the Neo-liberal agenda has further strengthened differentials in terms of asset accumulation to the point where we are today – severely handicapped to compete globally in the long-term.
Unfortunately I don’t see any movement, with a realistic power base, that might lead to root & branch reform. Seen in historical terms the British Empire had its 100+ years in the sun and what we’re now witnessing are the long-time dying embers of that. Some might say ‘karmic’. The English establishemnt is scelerotic. Whatever happened to the spirit and legacy of the great social shakers & movers of earlier centuries? I really must shrug off this pessimism.
The suppression of ability extends to no definitive and complete official explanation of how money is created to grow the UK economy which would “enable” the electorate to vote more wisely. The lack of this explanation is deliberate.
Agreed. And so long as the MSM continues to exercise the power that it does at present there’s little chance of trashing this absurd and deceitful economic ideology.
Final comment. This from the Chancellor’s speech today: “Corbyn’s big idea is to spend an extra half-a-trillion pounds. I just hope he remembers to water that magic money tree every night before he goes to bed!”
If he doesn’t understand then it’s beyond appalling. But if he does – which as Schofield suggests, I suspect he does – then it’s criminal. Richard, have you heard or read any reaction from your contacts and the world of academia?
Most academics do not understand the magic money tree
Money hardly features in macro economics
So they will not worry about this
Interesting piece.
Even Steve Keen who, I suggest, has an especial knowledge of the American outlook, has opined that Britain has a great tolerance for a diversity of ideas.
Investment in ideas is what Britain has in spite of everything — more so I’d say than our fellow Europeans.
This intellectual investment Britain is, I’d suggest, good at. Reasons are obvious to me although scientifically unproven — Britain is an island and a maritime nation. The importance of this is startlingly obvious when you live in a country/area a long way from the sea. These are much more closed in attitude to almost everything — in evidence I’d call the Northern Germans against the South and Western France against the East. The sea promotes an outward-looking attitude, yet is a cruel master and requires innovation to survive.
So the lack of ability is in the comfortable class that sees no reason, when they have that comfort, to allow an inventive spirit to flourish as they have lost the maritime outlook and I’d agree that the Comfortable Class who have Money reign to the exclusion of original thinking. They don’t want to invest money that would upset their comfort. (I wonder whether this is indicative of the general fear of ‘The cruel sea’?)
So the comfortable class is our ruin. As Beckett said in Waiting for Godot “I’m not sure comfort is healthy”. The problem is not so much that old Etonians are the Comfortable Class — probably most are, but not all – it is that the Conservatives are the Comfortable Class. And they are in government.
So we have to do everything we can to upset the Comfortable Class. Life cannot be allowed to be a logical progression of dead men’s shoes.
For me this indicates that a vital necessity is altering our constitution.
As a tiny example, on the most basic level – if councillors are required to live in their own council areas before putting themselves up for election why on earth aren’t MPs? And why are general primaries not required before adoption. Very small things would make a difference.
And importantly by getting rid of the comfort, it would help to reconnect the electorate and – especially – make the rotten borough (aka safe seat) system a little less craven.
I too totally agree, and I also wrote a piece some while ago which seems to fit in with the general mood
I shall paste it here but dont feel obliged to read it, writing was never my forte, I was too busy doing Woodwork
“I have lived outside the UK for 25 years and I look back at Britain I feel I have a better sense of perspective I find, things are sharper and more in focus, and what is in focus right now is an utter shambles.
It’s not a big surprise to me however, I have had an uneasy feeling about where the UK is going since Thatcher took the reins, which deepened yet more when Blair got in, and after reading Milton Friedman on occasion the die was cast. A neoliberal profit driven shambles based upon the ludicrous premise that the “Markets” are what control the universe and Government interference in them was an abomination.
Unfortunately, back in the UK, we have found ourselves at the mercies of an elite driven by the most entrenched class system in the world. Monty Python got it very right with their “Upper Class Twits” sketch. Out of the upper drawer, comes a steady stream of Twits, passed through Harrow/Eton and then through Oxbridge, like a pint passed through a labourer on payday night. Next stage, after maybe a year of “doing the world” is to be shuffled annually into “Something in the city”, or “somebody in Westminster”.
These inept and incapable Twits take their place in society for granted, yet couldn’t actually manage their way out of a wet paper bag. The know nothing of the problems of Industry, Education, Health, yet its fine to give them such governmental departments to play with. Some of them end up with jobs that involve serious decision making….like “Shall we go to war against XYZ”?, or “Is it OK to bomb Hospitals in Syria”? And they seem to answer these questions by tossing a coin, for they are singularly incapable of making a rational decision for themselves. Even worse…..they cannot even differentiate among the people with whom they are surrounded, between somebody who actually knows what they are talking about and a total bar steward (Think of Knighthoods, Think Sugar, Think Green….worthy of a mention on the honours list? I should bloody well cocoa).
The UK badly needs to educate itself, and it needs to start at the top and work down. Running a modern country with outdated out of touch members of the aristocracy is taking us back to the days before WW1, and we know what the upper class twits did to the people of Europe then don’t we?”
Tony B[roomfield] and RM,
Here’s an idea worth considering. What’s a top ten of books or authors to recommend for a modern education in economics, power, politics and finance? Easy, entertaining and imparting the ‘education’ not forthcoming in our schools, universities and media.
My starter, just to catch up with the myth makers and to enjoy, is;
1. Yuval Noah Harari: i) ‘Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind’ and ii) ‘Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow’
I’m reading Homo Deus now, great stuff. There is some hand waving and brevity, but Harari’s work is a compendium of ideas and ‘facts’.
Agreed, MPs are not required to live in their constituencies, but for electoral reasons most maintain a pied a terre there (at our expense of course) But that is a relatively minor matter. Some form of proportional representation would be an excellent start – because that would shake up the system, and give the electorate a much better say in who their representative is, and the MPs an interest in their constituents, rather than their local party members! Whatever one might think of the referendum, at least each vote counted!