We have almost become used to politics being surreal. Yesterday it moved on from that. It become pure, but deeply dangerous farce instead.
On Thursday Theresa May published a long awaited White Paper that supposedly set out the basis on which the UK would leave the EU. It was poorly received. It was never going to win acceptance from the EU itself. Much of what it claimed possible was either politically naive or technically unproven, if not actually impossible. But it was still the supposed position of the government. And much of May's remaining stock of political capital had been expended on achieving that status.
And then yesterday the Rees-Mogg faction tabled four amendments to the proposal that destroyed any chance that May's solution to the critical question of the future functioning of the Custom's Union might work and May accepted them rather than fight the extremists in her own party. At that moment whatever power she had left vanished.
The Rees-Mogg faction won the votes on what had now become government policy, when it had not been at lunchtime.
Whatever anyone had previously thought of May's ability to deliver anything, it had now vanished.
The possibility of any back-stop position on Ireland having any meaning at all seemed to have disappeared in an instant.
And yet the Commons voted for it.
And with that the chance of the UK having any meaningful economic agreements with any country in the world come March 2019 seemed to have disappeared.
And all because a tiny number of MPs with that rare commodity that most cannot comprehend, called conviction (even if badly misplaced in this case), had taken charge of the government's agenda.
But what is the result? Seemingly it is a hard Brecit.
That. though, is the least of it. What we have is a Rudderless State. I once thought the opposite to my vision of the Courageous State was the Cowardly State, where politicians ran from all issues to let the market decide what should be done. But now I realise that things can be worse than that. Now I see that politicians, so out of touch with reality that only dogma and the security of their own wealth matters, will destroy the state and so the underpinnings of the very market they profess to favour in pursuit of their wish to inflict harm on rhe process of government itself.
This is the point we have reached. It has now fashionable to ask whether liberal democracy can survive in the world we now live in. What we now know is that the answer is that it may well not do so. And what we also know is that those who knowingly and wilfully broke the law to secure Brexit will also knowingly and wilfully create chaos to destroy the very structure of the state we live in on which all depend in their desire to destroy the democratic process that they have so deliberately subverted in pursuit of their goal of the destruction of accountable government.
What we also now know though is that they have not a clue as to what comes next. These revolutionaries are aimless. Their only desire is harm.
And as a result we are now rudderless, with parliament being suspended early in a desperate attempt to curtail the damage to which this government, hopeless as it is, also has no answer.
We are, quite literally, a country adrift. We have no effective government. No effective Parliament. No effective allies. No effective vision. No undertsanding of what our state is any more. Or our country, come to that. No idea where it is going. No popukar philosophy telling us that there is an alternative. No effective opposition to promote another option. We have nothing at all.
I never expected to live in a Rudderless State. But that is where I now am. And it does not appeal.
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And this on the day that Trump has truly become the Manchuran Candidate.
Not that this will shake the Hard Brexiters faith in him.
There are those who suggest that Trump finds Putin a whole lot less corrupt than the American military industrial complex and is aligning himself with him rather than them with a view to ending them. This would involve peace breaking out everywhere America’s at war and the military industrial complex being retired en masse. Perhaps not surprisingly, they aren’t keen on early retirement so instead of being praised as a peacemaker he’s loudly reviled as a traitor. Perhaps too then, beneath his bumbling exterior, there is method to Trump’s madness.
I think that wildly and naively optimistic
You think Putin a peacemonger? I don’t
@ Bill Kruse
What I found touching is why the “corrupt deep state” argument doesn’t get used even-handedly by individuals like you so that you apply it to both the United States and Russia!
Hooey, Field, Stringer and the disgraced Hopkins voted with the Tories thereby securing the 305-302 victory for the government. They may be convinced Leavers, but they are also Labour MPs (except Hopkins who is suspended). Many of us would argue that their primary concern should be the defeat of the most incompetent and malicious regime in living memory.
I entirely agree with you
Cable and Farron did not vote
Public announcement:
Would Scottish passengers please make their way to the lifeboats now?
🙂
Er no
This is why I voted Leave, without ever expecting that to win. The tories are making a complete hash of it. There will have to be general election soon. The LP can then decide how to tailor their message to win at that time. Getting rid of this shower is the most important thing. I believe that that has always been the LP strategy. Fixing their position on Brexit too early would be fatal.
The Tories would have to vote for an election
They won’t
@ Carol Wilcox
I’m not convinced that a “No Clue Brexit” or “Clueless Brexit” won’t continue with a Labour administration.
You can’t even call these views “convictions”, any more than a barrister has convictions about a case he is deeply arguing for. It’s a profitable act. Aeron Davis put it more starkly, when he wrote in his book: “Too many leaders today, regardless of intent, are ignorant, precarious, rootless and self-serving. Although richer, they have lost coherence, influence and control. Increasingly, they are just reckless opportunists, getting what they can amid the chaos they have created. Their failings are not only damaging wider society, they are undermining the very foundations of the Establishment itself.”
True
It is my thesis that what we are beginning to see now is a Scramble For Europe as the greater and lesser powers of the wider world begin to carve up, occupy, control and dismember Europe one way or another. It is ironic that in the 19th Century and early 20th Scramble for Africa the worst example was the Belgian Congo and it is now Belgium and Brussels which is at the epicentre for the surrender of Europe to others.
The surrender of Europe?
Really?
The UK, yes
Europe? Why?
The amendment that was won by 3 votes looks like an attempt to constrain government, which is the very heart of neoliberalism. The required alternative is a government which is not reined in by people we’ve voted for, but I can’t see any way for the progressive approach which doesn’t involve some form of civil unrest and armed police on the streets. We are rudderless as you say, let’s just hope there are some good currants about.
Each year I make 3 or 4 excursions into England – Yorkshire Dales, Lake District, Portsmouth for the ferry – and every time I am astonished at the amount of traffic on motorways, trunk roads and towns. (yes, I am traffic too) And I wonder, where are they all going? And then we hit congestion and there are miles of queues – people going to work, an accident etc.
But my point is this: for many that is normal and they have become normalised to this state of affairs and don’t expect, perhaps can’t conceive of it being any different. Maybe it’s the same with politics and if so, normalisation is a danger. We begin to accept that chaos, or lying or corruption is normal and we don’t notice. Not all of us, of course, but some, perhaps many of us do, and in a way maybe it’s comforting knowing that what’s going on is just “normal”.
I am moving my pension fund into cash. Dollars and Euros. “Rudderless” ? I suspect the ship is now so full of holes, the lack of a rudder will prove inconsequential.
Interesting. I assume you mean a SIPP.
I have a SIPP which is invested in a mixture of UK/US equities/property etc which has performed well, so I’m interested in what you think may happen to these markets that would make you move into cash.
When you say cash do you mean Dollar/Euro denominated deposit accounts or bonds etc?
Thanks
Have you been reading this blog?
Farce indeed as I’ve been telling people since before the referendum.
You are right in pointing out it is getting dangerous now, whilst most people seem to be oblivious!
Here, for you amusement, is something I penned after the vote to trigger article 50.
(I had to invent two words:
Farce-erendum obviously farce and referendum;
trans-lunacy as the madness was across and transcending the parties)
{ using The Charge of the Light Brigade (Alfred Lord Tennyson) meter as i thought everyone knew it and was the natural poem to think of when you think of an elite clusterf* ! }.
Refer to the Farce-erendum
Half a lie, half a truth
Half-hearted sophistry
Call it democracy!
Into the voting booth
Powered the electorate
Lies to the left of them
Lies to the right of them
Lies behind them
Into the voting booth
Obliged the electorate
Not trusted with plain facts
Just hyperbole from hacks
Unarmed with the sword of truth
Thirty seven percent
Thirty four percent
Twenty eight percent
A free vote without weight
Advised the electorate
Forward to parliament
They are unencumbered
For all the members knew
Someone had blundered
Theirs is to make reply
Theirs is to reason why
They’re not to spin the lie:
Democracy is served
Refer to the Farce-erendum
Their numbers swell
Close to division bell
The emperor’s new clothes
The fabric of Westminster
Parliaments’ trans-lunacy
Here’s the division bell
Into the mouth of hell
Both sides prefer to be dumb
Refer to the Farce-erendum.
Following their pitiful debate
How can they ever be made great?
All reason wondered.
Scorn the Farce-erendum
Scorn the parliament
Ignoble four hundred and ninety eight!
Very good
Not for the first time I have to say that I think you’re being overly harsh on Corbyn. One of your criticisms appears to be that he is not as radical as you in that he believes in balanced budgets. He may not. He may have similar feelings as you but at this stage he cannot say or do anything about it because if he did he would be crucified by the right wing media. He has to fight on the battlefield as it is and in the last election he did well by attacking the Tories’ uncosted manifesto. We know he abhors tax evasion and avoidance. We know he wants the utilities back under public control. We know he wants a properly funded NHS where the N stands for national rather than neoliberal. We know he wants a National Investment Bank which is effectively PQE. OK so he’s not fully onside on MMT but he has to get elected before he can do anything about it. When it comes to Brexit we all agree it’s a shambles but the EU is full of contradictions and will implode on the EURO some time in the future. The end of neoliberalism will happen and it will be painful but with the proper people in charge it will be manageable. We know what happens when the left is divided against a uniform right by what happened in Germany in the 1930s. Get behind the only man on the left who appears to have any backbone and principle because the alternative is unthinkable. The fact that he doesn’t publicly come out and say Richard Murphy has all the answers does not make him useless. As far as charismatic leaders are concerned I’ve had my fill. Like charismatic footballers who achieved nothing for England after 1996, we achieved more with a bunch of keen enthusiastic lads.
Oh for heaven’s sake stop bullshitting
If he has no answer to the existential crisis of the state wanting to nationalise utilities is just pie in the sky fantasy stuff
Get real: the crisis is now. If corbyn has no effective answer – and I am getting no hint that he has – you are just making lame excuses for failure.
But you definitely appear to want something that no one is offering and you might end up getting something that you don’t want. By the way, I don’t bullshit and I really don’t think Corbyn does but he is the leader of a Labour Party that seems to be mostly neoliberal. Clement Attlee would not come over as radical and if he were alive today you would probably have it in for him too. I think you should not write the man off just yet. You may be proved right but what else is there on offer? Cable, who couldn’t ever bother to vote yesterday? The country is in a difficult position created by a Tory Party with problems. We are going to leave the EU because of a referendum. Another referendum would just confirm to the voters how undemocratic the elite are. We have to navigate through this and we can’t do it if everyone cries we’re doomed. It begins to sound like that character in Dad’s Army. As I keep saying, I voted Remain but I don’t think it’s the end of the world if we leave. You hate neoliberalism but you actually give the impression of preferring it to democracy. And please don’t throw a hissy fit because someone disagrees with you: there is more than one way to skin a cat.
Oh come on
Attlee knew exactly what he was about
I am asking fir clarity of thought and I am simply nit getting it from Labour
But it has offered such thinking in its time so I am nit being hypocritical at all
@ Rod White
“Not for the first time I have to say that I think you’re being overly harsh on Corbyn. One of your criticisms appears to be that he is not as radical as you in that he believes in balanced budgets.”
I found your comment touching! Does it not occur to you that for a self-confessed socialist Corbyn ought to know his socialism history and that after the Russian Revolution the Soviet government closed down all the private banks and used state banks to create the medium of exchange for nigh on seventy years? Why therefore should Corbyn and McDonnell believe the UK government must balance its books like a household? Couldn’t be because they’re Neoliberals pretending to be socialists could it?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gosbank
I don’t think Corbyn and McDonnell have any idea on macroeconomics
“I don’t think Corbyn and McDonnell have any idea on macroeconomics”
I suspect they are using the Campbell, Mandelson, Blair handbook of pragmatics as their guide.
It inspires no confidence at all in this quarter. And it will do them no good, nor us either.
If they get into power on a false prospectus they will be impotent against the media shitstorm. They will have no mandate for radical change. (Even if they are actually capable of envisioning it.)
And they wonder why so many in Scotland want out. We’re still recovering from the damage of ‘New Labour’ here, and still paying the bills.
When the term ‘neoliberal’ is used to describe everyone from Rees Mogg to Corbyn/McDonnell, then I’m wondering whether people have lost the plot on what it really means. It’s becoming a playground insult – rather like ‘elite’. Are anything other than say Soviet style policies to be dismissed as ‘neoliberal’? (Those policies were not exactly a raging success)
Nationalising utilities or scrapping PFI are not ‘neoliberal’ policies. Nor were strong funding for the NHS or the environment under New Labour. PFI and ‘leaving it to the market’ certainly were and are straight from the neoliberal playbook.
So a plea for a bit more precision. When we say ‘elites’, who do we mean? Anyone who lives in London? Woolly liberals who read the Guardian (the Mails idea of an elite)? Country landowners? Hedge fund managers and those parts of the City – which would include many of the funders of Brexit? And which policies do we mean that are neoliberal? It’s quite possible to support forms of capitalism and be deeply hostile to neoliberalism.
If policies are to be developed that are really going to tackle the huge problems we face then I’d respectfully suggest we need to move beyond the simplistic labels beloved by both Right and Left.
http://leapeconomics.blogspot.com/ https://thecommune.wordpress.com/2008/09/26/social-ownership-for-the-21st-century/. The 2010 pamphlet ‘Another World Is Possible’ says you are wrong.
would have been nice if vince cable etc had turned up to vote !!!
Indeed
Be even nicer not to have messrs Hoey, Field, Mann and Stringer voting to keep this government in power as they did last night. Their walking through the lobbies with May and co made the difference.
As it happens, Cable and Farron’s absence would not have changed the vote – cock-up rather than conspiracy.
Richard, perhaps not only Rudderless but Terminally Holed? Never has the Titanic metaphor been more apt – except that the ‘Captain’ and the entire senior officers seem to consider that, when they finally notice the oncoming iceberg, they have found the perfect time to take early shore leave…. and the majority of the passengers then proceed vote for it.
The dismal disarray of Labour, the official Opposition (!) – and even the feeble LibDems – is little more than a farcical footnote to the historic totality of this disaster. And what was (for it seems the whole Brexit saga is passing into a settled historic tense) the alternative for MPs – especially a real Opposition? To have called “Foul!” at the start; to have condemned the bogus claim of “the voice of the people” in a palpably bent advisory referendum; to have rubbished the lies and the bent funding of the ‘Brexiteers’ and their transparently dodgy backers – and now to be
a) in the satisfying position of having been in the right – as the lies and the illegality, not to mention the economic mayhem, become public – and
b) in the position to demand the scrapping of the whole rotten charade and a return to EU membership.
Instead, the entire political ‘class’ with the sole exceptions of the Scottish and Welsh national parties and the Greens – have betrayed their role. When the demise of the UK as a democratic state is finally written in histories, these spineless people will have earned themselves a place of matching dishonour with the Italian Liberals whose collapse led an anti-war Italy into the Great War. How extra-ironic that the party of Burke should have so comprehenively betrayed their supposed principles.
To take Nigel’s Titanic metaphor a bit further, half of the senior officers have mutinied, many of the other half appear to be scared of the mutineers and won’t speak out about the danger the ship is in. Meanwhile the so-called captain has lost all authority, appears in a quandary about everything and is being countermanded by the mutineers. While all this is going on, nobody is giving coherent orders and apparently nobody is actually steering the ship.
What could possibly go wrong?
I wont disagree with a single syllable. A country adrift. Well, yes and one that is being let down by the poorest group of politicians in my lifetime, unable to deal with the gravest issue facing us in decades.
We are in a deep hole and i’m not at all confident we have the people in place to pull us out of it.
You get the awful feeling that we haven’t reached the bottom yet. The next few months could get even worse.
Could?
Will, I think
Steve H says:
” the poorest group of politicians in my lifetime, …..”
Someone commenting here or elsewhere maintains that Theresa May (and her governemnt) is the worst premier since …whenever.
Short memories people have. I’d say she’s definitely the worst since David Cameron (and his government) 🙂
It is interesting how our first past the post electoral system produces a binary politics which is no longer able to cope with the Brexit-induced fragmentation of opinion. Hence there seems to be no adjustment or subtly available within the system to help a Government steer the ship in amongst complex opposing viewpoints. We do indeed appear to be rudderless.
We are not the only country charging with determination towards the abyss.
https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/fintan-o-toole-trial-runs-for-fascism-are-in-full-flow-1.3543375
The parallels are not exact, but after the 1920s came the 1930s. (And they did not have climate change to contend with.)
Does it help if we call it out?
Fintan is spot on
The Irish Backstop amendment had me awake all last night. Some further Analysis Here: http://www.progressivepulse.org/brexit/the-important-wrecking-amendment
We re in dangerous waters. No Backstop, no transion period. 3rd country on the 29th March.
Sean
Thanks
I may plug on the blog in the morning
Richard
‘Have you been reading this blog?’
Yes (obviously) – I’m aware of your thoughts on cash/bonds etc as the best investment for pension funds.
I’m just asking what David Kelly’s reasoning etc is.
It’s not an extra week’s holiday the buggers need !
They need to be taking an early bath like their football team.
Short of a Nissan factory closure there is nothing that will stop “no deal” Brexit now.
Democracy has been usurped. There is absolutely no mandate for such an outcome.
Batten down the hatches (although I’ve been doing that since May 2010). This is going to get hairy!
Ben Murphy says:
“Short of a Nissan factory closure …….”
HJmmm…. That just got more likely with the new EU/Japan deal.
A no deal, crash out Brexit has of course been the explicit objective of the right wing, ERG Group of the Tories all along. Together with a section of the Labour Party. May has repeatedly allowed herself to be bullied into accepting their demands.
What the public are not getting is a brutally direct explanation of the consequences for them (and for N Ireland) of crashing out, let alone having it pointed out that this is the objective. That is to be expected of the Mail et al who are paid up members of the hard Brexit cabal. However the utter failure of the BBC to analyse and challenge has been particularly depressing.
Robin Stafford says:
“A no deal, crash out Brexit has of course been the explicit objective of the right wing, ….”
Fine except that ‘No Deal’ is not possible. There has to be agreement of some sort about our future UK/EU relationship.
Call it what they will; that’s a ‘deal.’
‘No Deal’ is vacuous rhetoric. It sounded good to say ‘no deal would be better than a bad deal’ and if we were in the position of deciding on whether to date we could choose not to; but this is a marriage and we are on the cusp of an acrimonious divorce. There are goods and chattels and the children to consider. The baggage of forty years doesn’t just vanish.
See https://twitter.com/Peston/status/1019594403525136384 – its for real
Call it No Deal, Hard Brexit, Clean Brexit or what ever – its whats the Brexiters driving May want. No relationship whatsoever with the EU or any of its related institutions. They could not give a monkeys for the goods chattels or children. They still want to walk away without paying the bill. Is it remotely sensible, desirable or realistic? Of course not. So then we have the idea that they will be able to cherry-pick the bits they like. The EU (which is representing 27 countries vs 1) has made clear that cherry picking the UKs preferred bits of cake is not on the menu (to mix a few metaphors).
Having declared Article 50 and with no agreement, means that by default the UK falls out of those institutions and agreements. The EU27 are now starting to prepare for it, and so it would appear is the UK government (see Robert Preston). The wider public is largely unaware or in denial of the consequences. Yet. Is there a chance that somehow the EU27 will let the UK postpone or drag things out a bit longer. A slim one – they are pretty fed up with the uncertainty too as they have repeatedly made plain. They have plenty of other issues to tackle which Brexit is distracting from
The only thing I can see that would change the direction of travel and destination is a change of government and/or some kind of negotiated postponement – though that introduces a whole new bunch of uncertainties.
Meanwhile business, jobs, investment, people and skills steadily leak away. And the hedgies rub their hands with glee at the propects
Putting it a little more crudely it’s a perfect example of ‘boiled frog’. Brexit has turned up the heat and the water is rapidly coming to the boil. Unfortunately the frog that is most of the UK population will not realise until it’s too late. Damage has already been done and much worse is to come
To the comment that Corbyn and McDonnell know nothing about macroeconomics you could add that nor do the other 648 members of parliament. That is the problem and if C & Mc start talking about alternatives at this stage the eyes of the entire parliament will glaze over and there will be a deafening groan of Yeah, yeah, yeah but how are you going to pay for it. The crisis may be now but the people who could do something aren’t listening. So in the midst of this crisis who gets the blame? Why, Corbyn of course. The Guardian have been successful with this line but I’m sorry that you feel the need to resort to it when the initiators of the crisis seem to be laughing all the way to the bank. Corbyn ain’t perfect but he is a decent man and he’s been on the right side of many arguments in the commons over the years. I know, let’s blame him for the Iraq War.
So we perpetuate the nonsense that has driven us to the cliff edge rather than change course as it looms before us?
What bizarre logic
And the antithesis of leadership
Could I remind you, Richard, that Corbyn is leader of the LP, not the country. Tell me what powers he has to change the course of Brexit.
He could present his plan fir what he would do
That is the essential role of a leader of an Opposition
Instead there is a deafening wall of silence, 7nless he is upsetting the Jewish community
It is dire leadership from Labour
Carol Wilcox says:
“Could I remind you, Richard, that Corbyn is leader of the LP, not the country. Tell me what powers he has to change the course of Brexit.”
If he (they) had a coherent policy on future EU relations it might garner support. If he had the support he could have brought down this government by now. And if the support were not to be had maybe he should be wondering what is supportable.
On several occasions including having kept them out of office in the first place.
Both sides of the house are playing political softball at present; it’s nauseating.
Rod White says:
“To the comment that Corbyn and McDonnell know nothing about macroeconomics you could add that nor do the other 648 members of parliament. That is the problem and if C & Mc start talking about alternatives at this stage……”
But Rod, if the opposition isn’t talking about alternatives who are we going to have to wait for. Who is going to be first to admit that TINA is dead and her corpse is stinking.
[…] argued yesterday that the UK is now rudderless  because of May’s willingness to change policy on a whim in an attempt to retain power. Her […]
I think that Ben Murphy calls it right – it is going to have to get far too serious before we realise what ‘we’ have done. It’s a real shame but mankind is like that. President after president in the United States knew that the Vietnam War was unwinnable but kept up a pretence that everything was OK when it was not. It was all about the worry of ‘losing face’. Is the same malady at work here?
And I also have some sympathy for Rod White’s view too – BREXIT is one of the most toxic issues ever in my life to raise its head in our democracy and it has certainly exposed the weaknesses in the political system – the main one being that the old monolithic party structures cannot cope with the variance of opinion or ideology. We need something more like PR going forward. But also it shows you what politics has become in this country – a playground for ‘affluent effluent’.
As for Corbyn – well – I’ve said before that the Corbyn Refuseniks (who hobble him and the party ) with their New Labour orthodoxy concerning economics and telling white man to eff off instead of listening to him (which made UKIP possible) – would have a field day undermining their leader if he put forth a different vision.
It is not Corbyn who has failed here; it is the Labour Party per se plus the faulty architecture of our state which is becoming more and more divorced from real life.
Having said that I do not think our Richard is having a ‘hissy fit’. He is a thoroughly rational man who can see what will happen and he is fucking angry about it. And he is right to be angry and so do we. But let’s direct our anger at the source of it all – not ourselves.
I know a song that sums up how I feel about this. When things do go to shit we will remember who caused it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8ilZUx1LlY
And here’s the lyrics:
Come on, come on
You think you drive me crazy, well
Come on, come on
You and whose army?
You and your cronies
Come on, come on
Holy Roman Empire
Come on if you think
Come on if you think
You can take us all
You can take us all
You and whose army?
You and your cronies
You forget so easily
We ride tonight
We ride tonight
Ghost horses
Ghost horses
Ghost horses
We ride tonight
We ride tonight
Ghost horses
Ghost horses
Ghost horses..
The original white paper as presented from Chequers was a (largely) meaningless, fudged piece of luke-warm, unprincipled froth. It made vague statements about hopes and intentions and left so much open to interpretation as to be utterly useless as a mission statement.
The Rees Mogg lobby tabled some amendments which made it even more unpalatable.
Members were left with the choice to reject the amendments and vote for something unworkable and vague to the point of being offensive, or accept the amendments and just go for the unworkable/offensive bit.
Hobsons Choice for the right thinking democrat indeed. Do you want to be punched in the face or punched in the gut?
Honestly, I’m not surprised Cable didn’t show up to vote.
Why would you want s bigger state with more political control when you mistrust politicians so much. As the role of the State grows then so does the opportunity for political abuse and self gain.
Because I believe politics can be recaptured for the public good
“Because I believe politics can be recaptured for the public good
But you have no faith in the Conservative Party not the opposition. I still don’t understand why you think it sensible to give one or the other via the democratic process more authority? .. how can Politics be recaptured for the public good??
We get rid of the corruption of neoliberalism
Whereas in the private sector, opportunities for abuse and self gain are conspicuously absent?
Nathan
If you want to know what could be done and why, please read Aeron Davis’s book ‘Reckless Opportunists’ , pp 135-142. It’s a very short book, concisely written that analyses how the State is more an organ of corporations these days (Global and national) than the people who vote for it. And Richard’s ‘Courageous State’ (a book that goes beyond what we have now and shows the way forward) could well be the result of Davis’ analysis and suggestions.
Just read Nathan – and you will understand.
The state that created the NHS was one that took its responsibilities to its citizens seriously. Since 1979 (if not before) states have been more about letting markets and their main actors (big business) dictate all sorts of policy in the pursuit of profit extraction. As of 2008 that model is now broken.
But the people who should know what to do (our politicians) are still wedded to the public bad/private good ethos. And that is because too many of our politicians are not really politicians. They got into politics so that they could effect policy to the benefit of their former hinterland (big business and more usually big finance and the well heeled).
Thanks for your reply..it seems the political evolution required would surely take generations?
I am in my 40s and have never really trusted politicians. They will say anything to me in power regardless of which party they belong to. I grew up around the time of the miners strike in Cumbria, as it turned out Scargill was as self serving as anyone.
There has always been such a problem with politics
But not as it is now
Pilgrim Very Slight Return says:
” And that is because too many of our politicians are not really politicians. They got into politics …..”
….because it beats WORKING for a living.
Or alternatively working for a LIVING.
Choose your own preferred emphasis.
We probably ought to dispense with the whole notion of professional politicians. I’m not at all convinced the idea of a professional politician is compatible with the principle of democracy.