My friend and fellow tax justice campaigner Dan Hind has a new book out. It's called The Magic Kingdom.
Normally I would not comment on a book until I had read it all - and I only bought this last night and have only got 25% through it but the haste is for three reasons.
The first is that as the opening salvoes of what promises to be a long and dispiriting election campaign are fired it's good to read some real political thinking about the context in which this is being staged - and Dan offers that.
Second, whilst you may not agree with what Dan says - and it is radical stuff - just seeing things from a new perspective is always powerful. He has already got me ruminating. That's unsurprising: this is original thinking.
Third, as an ebook this is 99p this week. And yes that means it's a Kindle price. The devil is being dealt with. Let's live with that reality. I'd recommend it strongly at that price.
This is the blurb as I have not got time to write my own this morning, although I would add that I think this undersells it. What I've read is riddled with good quotes.
Anyone who knows anything about Britain knows that it is a democracy and a constitutional monarchy. The trouble is, it is neither. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is one of the most exotic nations on earth. In the republican form of government a defined public exercise sovereign power. Most modern states describe themselves as democratic republics. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is an anomaly, in that formal sovereignty is still denied to its people. In The Magic Kingdom Dan Hind explores what the republican tradition has to offer the British at a time of deep political, social and economic dislocation. He considers what innovations are necessary if liberty is to be secured in current conditions. His argument will surprise many who consider themselves republicans. It will upset those who benefit from the current arrangements. It offers a way forward for those who can no longer tolerate steepening inequality and its associated ills. Existing republican institutions have not been able to deliver public control of the state. If substantive democracy is to be possible in large and complex societies, the systems of communication, subsidy and credit must be made subject to popular oversight and control. In a disarmingly calm manner, Hind shows how this can be done, by minor adjustments to the existing institutions. Perhaps, unlikely as it sounds, Britain will provide the venue for the world's first truly republican society.
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I agree with some of the quotes – all parliament did during our civil war was to appropriate the royal prerogative. It did not do much else with it!! We are all meant to vote for the MPs to use this prerogative for the nation’s benefit – but now our parliament is more likely to listen to the 24/7 lobbyists who haunt the halls of Westminster promoting the needs of the rich.
It now seems that the royals have crept back in with their supporters in parliament encouraging the likes of Prince Charles to get involved. Since this country of ours is still a class-based society (but now with more emphasis on money as power), it is unsurprising that things have turned out as they have and why such ideas as Dan’s have come forth.
As for republicanism – well, the USA was meant to be different but look how things have turned out there. They have ended up with the Kings and Queens of finance running the show. What is more, it seems clear to me that Goldman Sachs is the new royalty in America. The USA also has its equivalents of the royal family – the Kennedys, the Bush clan and the Clintons amongst others.
The American constitution (such that it is) is now effectively redundant for increasing amounts of its people. The American Dream may be over.
What dos this tell us about the concepts kingship, leadership and power amongst human beings? In other words, no matter what political checks and balances are created, there always seems to be individuals who are able to subvert them or use them for their own aims.
Mark
Too cynical
Too pessimistic
Too forlorn of hope, for my liking
I remain, ever the optimist
Richard
Well, I consider myself told off which is fair enough.
A cynic as I understand it Richard is someone who dismisses something without giving it chance. I see myself as sceptical – I’ll give anything that is an alternative to the twisted neo-lib orthodoxy a chance. But I believe that you also have to recognise the real risks that are ever present. That is why I thought that I ended my piece with a warning.
Hopefully we can agree that the many anti-state narratives exist because the people who create them are very clever at redefining them or giving them a new angle that appeals to the electorate. Or they find ways around things that are put in place by more decent people. History shows that they do this.
It is all very well setting up anything to rebalance a society – but these things can all too easily be usurped by other interests. Is this not what has been happening since 2010? Or 1979?
The major battle ground is not about ‘setting up things’ or ‘minor adjustments’. It’s about having an on-going dialogue with the tax payer about the value of tax and the role of the state and the public sector. It’s about telling them what is at stake and making them aware of what they stand to lose. It’s about selling these things to them so that they believe in them and want to retain them. Even Labour is tongue-tied about this.
I thought my post might sharpen the counter narrative rather than dull it, so please accept my apologies.
You did no harm
We can differ in emphasis
And style
Dan’s book looks great – I’m downloading it today. Thanks for the heads-up Richard. And Happy New Year!
And to you!
Hind is absolutely right to remind us that the game with so-called free markets was up when the banks had to crawl to the treasury. Suddenly the State had a BIG role to play.
Let’s remember that on the day RBS folded, Goodwin had to phone the Treasury in panic. He had slept and dined at the Ritz that morning and subsequently had to be forced to offer a muted apology to shareholders after hiding behind a wall of silence.
The grotesqueries of should have been enough but we are, as a nation, not yet ready to surrender what Hind aptly calls ‘magical thinking’.
The galling thing is he is probably still dining at the Ritz,while the rest of us pay off his banks gambling debts.
Richard,
What I fail to understand is why the Labour party are not raising the issue of unpaid taxes and staff cuts a the Inland Revenue. You mentioned in a recent blog unpaid tax amounting to £120 billion pounds due to lack of resources.
Today labour are accused of having £20 billion pounds of uncosted expenditure. In their defence they waffle on about different ways of cutting expenditure. They do not suggest that the whole debt problem is a misrepresentation of the facts. Why not? Have you got it wrong, or are they afraid to be labelled a party of spend and tax? They must know the facts as well as any one. Why are they concealing them.
I run a small business. If I had a lot of customers who hadn’t paid their bills, I wouldn’t be laying off my accounts staff, I’d be taking on a couple of men with baseball bats to collect the money.
They know work, I assure you
I can’t answer your questions in that case
Bob- you are right-the debt problem is a misrepresentation of the facts. here’s Frank Newman’s four cardinal points about US Treasuries/securities:
1) They NEVER have to be paid off in total by tax payers.
2) They cannot create the problem of Eurozone nations (if you have a sovereign currency)
3) They are safer than Money
4) The represent savings for millions of investors
Conclusion: national debt does NOT need to be feared.
Labour should be screaming this from the roof tops but have cowardly given into the austerity narrative and the idea that Government ‘debt’ is like a family debt.
People always forget one person’s debt is another person’s asset
Thanks Richard it’s dowmloaded, I’ve got a long flight on Thursday the book will help pass the hours.
All the very best to you and your family for a happy and healthy 2015.