Three years ago I wrote a book called the Courageous State. There were those, of course, who predictably thought that a book that suggested the state had a role to play was deeply left wing. Actually, the book was about the need for individuals to have the opportunity to fulfil their potential, on the virtues of the mixed economy, and on the need for politicians who recognise when the state is the best provider of services and who shamelessly step up to the mark and deliver what only the state can efficiently supply - of which there is much.
We do not have a Courageous State. Instead we have what I described as a cowardly state. That is a state where politicians do not believe in the institutions they run. That is because they believe instead in the mantra of competition that neoliberals have promoted as the prevailing logic of service supply. As a consequence they believe for ideological reasons and, candidly, for reasons of personal gain, that it is their duty to step back from decision making and hand over tasks to private sector companies. The absurdity of this is obvious from the fact that many of those private sector operators then become monopoly suppliers of services and the contracting process that grants this absence of choice is frequently staged between a few predictable outsourcing companies whose ability seems to be mainly in controlling access to the contracting process.
The destruction of political confidence that has resulted from this process is, however, of crucial importance, as is the message delivered that the UK's political class is neither competent to deliver and will usually step back from any opportunity to do so. The result is the political scenario that the UK faces today. The LibDems, who compromised their principles most when the Orange Bookers turned them neoliberal and made them into the biggest political cowards in the land, have paid the highest price. The Conservatjves, after leading a government bent on destruction, have surely now lost all chance of a second term in office, coming third a year from a general election, whilst Labour are very clearly not making the gains they need to secure a mandate for office because no one knows what mandate they want - other than the right to shrink government further.
In the circumstances the success of UKIP - as revolting and worrying as I find it personally - is, I suggest, undertandable. People want leadership. They want politicians who know what they are about. They want politcians who will make decisions and not pass the buck. They want politcians who they believe will use the powers afforded to them to deliver what they promise. UKIP appears to fit that bill, even down to being honest about saying it will shrink the state and unashamedly declaring it will set out to do so, however misguided that is. Most of all UKIP says it will use state power to control immigration, and for many people that is the touchstone of the fear that typifies the life of quiet desperation that for too many is the inevitable consequnce of our current economic structuring of society as hope is denied to most in the UK.
What is required to address this? Courageous politics, of course. The type of politics that has motivated some to defend the NHS. The issues based politics that motivates the Greens. The type of politics that once motivated Labour to deliver social reform. The sort of politics that says the power of the state should be used to deliver hope when there is only despair, and to make sure that the promise is delivered upon in very tangible ways. What's tangible? Homes, schools and health care are. So too are care for the elderly and jobs for the young. Green energy is another obvious deliverable. But at the same time so is a level playing field for tax on which all honest businesses can compete. And companies that value everyone within them by paying fair rewards from top to bottom are another sign of the potential for hope. These are the tangible signs that the state can deliver for everyone that mainstream politicians will not even dream of, let alone talk about in ways that convince anyone.
And so UKIP offers a message that builds on the fear, instead of the hope.
That is the price we pay for cowardly politicians. The sort who want power but do not have the courage to use it. People are, rightly, fed up with that politics, which they see on offer from too many and they have resoundingly rejected it - most of all by not voting for people who do not believe in the process of government they are seeking to control. But they have also delivered the purveyors of fear a message of support. And that is very worrying.
Is there any chance that a courageous politician will step forward before the general election? I wish that might happen. I live in fear that it will not. And that's what really worries me.
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We have no courageous politicians.
Political courage is synonymous with political stupidity, in the political world.
It´s all soundbite-politics and policies now.
And let us not forget, the EU elections have a poor turn out, and are not FPTP.
UKIP, in a general election, will bomb; again.
Politics, 21st century, is not much about politicians. Who are usually so bland that rancid milk is preferable. Politics is about who owns the politicians. And it isn´t us.
Where the US leads, the UK follows:
http://www.acting-man.com/?p=30632
Maybe one of those Labour or Conservative politicians that have been earnestly telling us on the telly that they need to listen to the concerns of the voters they are losing to UKIP might just read this blog.
Not many
But 4,000 or more others may today
Which country around the world do you think comes closest to the ideas you set out in your book?
Many
Before 1980
Now, maybe Norway
I couldn’t agree more with your blog, Richard. That’s why I too, not that I’d claim to be informed, just engaged, voted Green yesterday. Their message makes sense to me and, in Caroline Lucas, they have the courageous politician for whom many of us yearn.
I have the pleasure of knowing Caroline – and agree with you
Well pur, Richard and thank you for these words which help to sustain us as the hurricane of neo-liberalism almost blows out the candle of hope completely. Sadly, the ukip result with push the Tories further into fascism as they try to outdo their rivals. Labour will simply follow wherever the perceived vox populi pushes them having ditched all values that pertain to real social purpose. It is understandable but infinitely sad that the tired, burnt-out populace turns to easy rhetoric, gutter emotions and grossly simplified explanations- but they have been fed a diet of malnutrious slop by politicians for far too long and no-one has had the guts to educate then about the real issues which are corporate capture and the money supply controlled by banks. cameron will go soon to be replaced by an even more neo-lib thug-not much to look forward to there!
Your analysis of UKIP’s appeal is, I think, convincing. You do your bit to challenge the various orthodoxies that sustain the political/economic/social status quo and you promote alternatives. I hope 4000 is an underestimate of your readership but even if its accurate, there’s the ‘multiplier’ effect to consider – 4000 who may raise the issues you raise elsewhere. An issue for me is partly one of how I can do so more effectively. Its hard to know where to start.
Talk
Write
Do it again
Then again
That’s what I do
And I suspect 4,000 is about right
That’s good for a blog
UKIP crows, Tories hand-wring, Labour (as usual) turn on themselves, and the Lib Dems rearrange the deckchairs. What is ignored amongst all the commentaries is that only 36% of voters turned out in this election. It is difficult to see how any Party could feel triumphant on that basis.
Ironically, there is hope, though, in such a dismal statistic.
Hope, first of all, in that, were this country as ideologically xenophobic as certain people on the Right would have us believe, wouldn’t the polling stations have been bursting with electors flocking to UKIP to rid us of ‘the foreign scourge’? If the turnout suggests anything, it is that immigration is not the most burning issue in the minds of the electorate.
Hope secondly, in that the non-engagement of 64% of the voting public means that there is ample room for an alternative voice in British Politics, a voice that resonates with the electorate.
There has been a deliberate attempt on the part of the Political Machine to blur and obfuscate the dividing line between voter apathy and voter alienation. In doing so they excuse the failings, and increasing isolation, of the Political Establishment.
In truth what the electorate want most is to be governed by their own kind. And yes, they want courageous politicians.
Is it too late, with now less than a year to go for those courageous men and women to step up? Perhaps, but I would suggest that the evidence of the ‘Arab Spring’ would indicate otherwise.
It would of course require a great deal of hard work and commitment. But the palpable failure of free-market, neo-liberal economics means that most of the arguments are already won in the minds of the voters. In Energy, in Education, in Health and Social Care, in the Rail Industry, the Private Sector has tried, the Private Sector has failed. Show people a Courageous state, freed from mealy-mouthed subservience to the free market and they will vote for it.
Make no mistake, overcoming the power of neo-liberalism in British society would require great fortitude. But one would expect no less of Courageous Politicians.
Personally, I believe in Britain, at least I believe in the Britain that can be. I do not believe in the Britain that will be, if none of us even try.
Many of us, at some point in the future, will have to hand over the legacy we are building to our children and grand-children. When we look them in the eye and hand them a debt-slave economy, a scorched and ruined environment, and a lapsed democracy, what will we tell them?
In my case I will tell them I fought for something else
So will I, Richard, and, I pray, many more like us…
Oops… I think I just inadvertently decided to run for election in 2015!
Go on then….
I wonder if you would allow me the liberty to draw on your extensive work to inform my own, Richard (with due accreditation, of course)?
Of course!
Feel free