I spent the weekend doing relatively little, for me that is. I know I blogged, but much time was spent thinking and in discussion, because that's the way of my household, and its friends. I ended the weekend feeling less depressed that I was at its start as a result (I use the word depressed wisely, to mean ‘without hope'). But I cannot say that I am filled with optimism.
Reactions to climate change is one clause for that depression: I get no sense of any urgency amongst even those I assumed would be concerned about this issue. I wonder what planet many think they are on.
The second cause for despair is Brexit. Talks between the government and Labour trundle on, but we all know they won't go anywhere. Both parties are committed to Brexit, denying many Remainers any real political choice at all now; but what we know is neither party will want to be seen to help the other on this issue. Impasse will continue.
Meanwhile, the Tories are making matters worse. They will not agree May's deal. As a result they will spend the next three months fighting over a new leader. Nothing will happen on Brexit during that period. The new leader will be a Brexiteer because that is what the party wants: the members are hard right and Tory MPs appear to now all incline that way to catch the Brexit vote, even if it is a decided minority view in the country. So come July hard Brexit will be the Tory policy and a new leader will manage discipline for a while. The result will be parliament not be able to stop a No Deal Brexit in October. I am now back to rating that as a more than 90% possibility again, because this time May will not stop it, and nor will the EU.
So we face economic and social oblivion, followed by a break down in the Union just as we need to concentrate on a Green New Deal. It's quite easy to be depressed.
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I thought the ‘remainers’ had the same democratic choice as the ‘leavers’ at the referendum? How can they now expect further political choice?
Democracy always involves further political choice
That’s how it works
It assumes nothing is fixed
I’m a remainer now. I wasn’t at the time of the referendum. I was a ‘don’t know-er’. Now I’m better informed, I want a say. Why shouldn’t I have one?
… as Churchill famously said… “democracy is the worse form of government… except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time”… but he undermined the sentiment with… “the best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter”… whilst FD Roosevelt was perhaps nearer the mark with… “Democracy cannot succeed unless those who express their choice do so wisely. The real safeguard of democracy therefore is education”…
I agree Richard, it’s virtually impossible for anyone with an ounce of intelligence, or knowledge of, or interest in the world to have any optimism about the future.
As R4’s book of the week ‘Losing Earth’ points out, the science of climate change was known about many years ago, and could have been acted upon then but wasn’t, so that our planet now faces disaster. And still there’s too little action by politicians, and the response of too many of the public to our unaturally hot weather over Easter is ‘ooh what lovely sunshine’.
And as for Brexit, I agree, I can’t see Labour and the Tories agreeing anything. The Tories are increasingly a wholly irrational bunch of right wing nationalists, while Labour’s feebleness in opposing Brexit is a disgrace.
If Labour were a proper party of opposition, they’d be calling for A50 to be revoked, or for another referendum, on the grounds that the 2016 referendum was narrowly won by a Leave campaign that lied and broke electoral law. That alone should be enough for a proper opposition. But Labour isn’t that party with the current hard left leadership.
And the above are both reasons why I’ll be voting Green for the first time ever in the European parliamentary elections in May. Tbh, I should have voted for them before, and not wasted time trying tactical voting because of our wretched FPTP system. Oh yes, and Labour’s utter failure over reforming that is another reason they don’t deserve anybody’s support.
Being depressed is about being prepared for the worst.
Maybe?
Roger Stokes. I dispute that Education alone can save democracy. What is needed is wisdom. That comes from learning from life’s experience although education ought to be a help in that. Taleb has coined the term “intellectual yet idiot” and that seems to be what we are faced with.
Gandhi was a wise man. He advised “be the change you want to see in the world”. We can all change our own lives for the better, if we choose.
You can be a cosmopolitan society without being a signatory to bad treaties that favour investors’ interests over the powers of national governments to set rules that promote public purposes such as full employment, fair wages, and high quality public services and infrastructure. You can be an inclusive society without granting the European Court of Justice the opportunity to overturn progressive policies such as renationalizing rail and water assets.
Remainers fret far too much about the symbolic aspects of EU membership. They neglect the pro-austerity bias that is woven into the EU treaties. They hand wave that issue away.
There will be one-off adjustment costs to leaving the EU. These should not be trivialized. They need to be planned for. Fiscal policy must be used to ease the transition. But the doom and gloom narrative from Remainers is driven by emotion and sour grapes, not facts.
You can’t be an inclusive society and ignore your international agreements and commitments
And you can’t be a cooperative society if the rest of the world won’t cooperate with you
And nor can you be a harmonious neighbour by ignoring other people’s standards
Sorry, but you’re a fantasist
And your fantasy will destroy employment, well being, opportunity and in the short term will kill people
Let’s deal in facts
Electing a democratic socialist government in the UK is a long shot. But it is much more realistic than the Remain and Reform campaign.
It is extremely onerous to amend an EU treaty. People who claim that those treaties will be reformed along progressive, non-neoliberal lines are naive.
Remainers had ample opportunities to make their case in 2016. They had all of the major political parties on their side. They had nearly all of the mainstream media on their side.
Remainers took a leaf out of the Hillary Clinton playbook: they thought it would be enough to demonize the other side and try to frighten people with apocalyptic Brexit scenarios.
It wasn’t enough. When most voters are suffering, when most voters are sickened by the status quo, it isn’t enough to invoke fear of change. You need to make an affirmative case for your own side. The Remainers didn’t do that, and that is because the neoliberal EU treaties are not really defensible.
The investor-state dispute settlement provisions in the EU treaties are terrible. So are the rules on state aid and competition policy. The EU’s obsession with arbitrary deficit to GDP and public debt to GDP ratios has killed people. People are right to be fed up with the EU’s anti-democratic ways, and its economically illiterate prescriptions.
Remainers stay a million miles away from actually defending the content of the EU’s treaties. Far too many of them see the other side as “deplorables” with no legitimate concerns about how national and EU elites are behaving. Symbolic gestures and emotional attachment to a defunct European ideal do not amount to a cogent pitch to the voters.
I am sorry, but electing a socilaist government dedicated to material growth solves nothing unless it is dedicated to a Green New Deal, and right now there is no evidence that Labour is
I have no illusions about the EU
But I do know that what you propose will destroy jobs, well-being and break international treaties
If you think that’s socialist, I don’t