Boris Johnson is to be prime minister. And there are rumours that Iain Duncan-Smith and Priti Patel are to return to Cabinet. It is easy to think that nothing good can come from this.
At one level that is true. I suspect, very strongly that nothing good will come from this, directly.
And yet, there has always to be a turning point when people realise that all that was can be no more and that change is essential. Too often things have had to reach a dire state for that to happen. Whilst I would never have chosen the situation in which we find ourselves, maybe this government that will be without talent, vision or concern is what is required to precipitate that change.
That does, however, require more than hope. Change requires that all opposition parties have courage and go for what they want now.
Labour must offer a true vision of reform, and solve its internal divisions, whatever their cause.
Nationalists can no longer dither.
Greens must be unambiguous about what is required to save life on earth.
And in the face of populism Liberals must reiterate their values.
I make no pretence that I will like all that is said by any of them. But that's not the point. The point is that the time for dithering, for deliberate ambiguity and ‘wait and see' is over. What is now required is positive proposals for change.
But I would also suggest a common constraint be recognised. Johnson will go for economic growth. He and his team will not accept that the environment imposes any limit on their actions. Everyone else must. This, above all else, is now the basic test for political credibility.
If that happens what Johnson might represent in the UK is the end of the neoliberal era and the ushering in of the new political consensus that will be built around the Green New Deal, whatever people call it.
There will, of course, be differences of emphasis between parties in this new consensus. But a consensus it will be, nonetheless. If Johnson's failure - for failure it will be - ushers this in then maybe this is a moment to live through.
I live in hope.
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* I exclude the so-called Brexit Party as it is not as such a party, but a personal campaign vehicle for Farage
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Mr Johnson fancies himself as Churchill re-incarnate. He even walks with that shoulder hunched stance evident in the statue outside Parliament at Westminster. He does not have the same rhetorical and oratorical gifts as that very flawed hero, as was very evident in his speech to the Tory rabble yesterday when he acknowledged their choosing him as our PM. Perhaps a bit of modified Churchillian oratory may be apposite as an ironical comment on the “election” by them of who is to control the destiny of this unfortunate country: –
Never, in the history of human endeavour, has so much been foisted upon so many by so few.
Or: –
But when we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will watch us sink into the abyss of a new dark age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted idiocy. Let us therefore brace ourselves to face this reality, and so bear ourselves, to recognise that the United Kingdom shall not endure, and tomorrow, and in a thousand years, men will still say, “This was their most wretched hour.”
Very good
I hope your short break was enjoyably reinvigourating because the political future of the country is looking bleaker than I can ever recall. An environmental emergency threatening life itself; another undemocratically elected neo-liberal Tory Prime Minister; the Brexit omnishambles; an empowered Farage; IDS (ffs!!) & Priti Patel; austerity economics; rising inequality; homelessness; a crisis in education and the NHS, a predominantly right-wing MSM, etc. etc. The list is scarily long. And if all this wasn’t bad enough in itself, the main opposition party is having a nervous breakdown.
As you rightly point out the first pragmatic step towards restoring the nation’s mental and physical health has to be some form of accord between the opposition parties. But I really can’t see this happening unless they uniformly and openly agree to embrace the principles of MMT as the basis for a GND. And we know that’s probably a step too far, at least until the plight of the country has further deteriorated to the point when enough voters vociferously demand radical change.
Until then, and assuming Johnson manages to survive any immediate threat to his premiership, the Tories will be shoring up public support with whatever bread & circuses they deem necessary – wrapped up in a skillfully contrived rhetoric that will include Green Capitalism. Neither Johnson and Trump should be underestimated. The apparent buffoonery is a well-honed persona they know resonates positively with large sectors of voters. But behind it lie the dark influences of Steve Bannon, Lynton Crosby and a treasure chest of inestimable largesse.
This may well be the last gasp of neo-liberal politics but while it’s being played out the protagonists are capable of inflicting what could be irreparable damage to society and the planet. I know we must continue to embrace hope and positivism but, from a rational stand-point, it’s really difficult to be optimistic. My advanced years probably render me more cynical than is good for me. But whatever faith I have left is with the rising generation of (mainly) savvy & feisty young women across the globe who are challenging the corrupt status quo.
The break is ongoing
If it wasn’t I would have noted that NEF has now effectively embraced MMT
I will do so when I am inclined to write more
Hi Richard,
I agree wholeheartedly.
Two quotes that I read recently that summed up the lack of reflection and self-knowledge within the Conservative party – I may have paraphrased a little…
Theresa May on her time as PM – “we have made the lives of many many people better”.
Boris Johnson in his acceptance speech “we [Conservatives] have the best instincts in relation to sharing and providing for the neediest”.
As ever I am torn between thinking that the people concerned really believe the things they say and are therefore ignorant of their impact on wider society or thinking that they are a cynical cover for things that they actually know are harmful.
I am at the cynical end of the scale
They are talking “narratives” – the fact that the narrative bears no resemblence to reality (& they know it doesn’t) is irrelevant – you need only look at the resugrence of the Lib-dems – Cam-morons little helpers in austerity (& 130,000 deaths) to see how short memories are & by extension the gullability of the population – who love a good narrative & Johnson is good at providing them – welcome to the soon to be dis-united Fairy Kingdom – where reality & fantasy blend & become nightmare. You get the politicos you deserve – & the UK fully deserves Johnson and his attendant idiots (this last comment is not directed at those on this blog – but rather at the population who, for the most part have more interest in tat (Love island etc) than engagement.)
We went to the John Ruskin museum in Coniston today. It was very thought provoking.
Ruskin seems to to have been ahead of his time in terms of thinking about social problems. But also he came from an age where if one enriched one’s life there seemed to be a genuine ethos of trying to enrich the rest of the country or society.
We might look at even be critical of our forefathers by modern standards and find some of them pompous, sexist or even racist. But they also seemed to put a duty to the country at the heart of their life’s work too. Somehow many could and did benefit from their endeavours even if looking back there was a dubious morality at work.
These days however public figures seem to be all about themselves. They are all too ready to sell the family silver for a cut.
BTW, the task of facing down Johnson is not down to politicians alone. It is for us ALL to voice our disapproval, the great and good and the ordinary standing side by side.
Very much agree with the last point
Those forunners of capitalism weren’t daft. They knew paternalism would work in their favour in the long run…and it did.
Look at Johnson’s followers today, they’ve inherited the blindness of those who were silenced by this paternalistic protection.
There goes the cynic in me again.
Marie
What is it with ‘paternalism’? I don’t see any problem with a capitalism that looks after those who produce the value (the worker) by sharing the output more fairly. Why must it be called ‘paternalism’?
Can’t it just be called ‘common sense’? Or ‘justice? Or how about ‘fairness’?
And what really brought these attitudes down once and for all was perhaps the end of communism as we knew it – the end of the Iron Curtain? When this happened I think that the inhibiting effect the threat of revolution had on capitalism’s propensity for greed was lost forever.
I suggest you read Engels’ “The Condition of the Working Class in England” if you believe that the 19th century was some sort of philanthropic paradise.
I think nothing of the sort. I thought my post was clear, but perhaps not. I have read Engels’s writing, and also Marx’s. They both report on paternalistic types of management as being useful ways of keeping the workers content and quiet. Not all bosses used that method, I’m aware of that too.
We now learn that Dominic Cummings will be the real PM. Contempt of and for Parliament. What price a prorogation come October?
Priti Patel, only the abandonment of all reason could explain someone promoted so far beyond their capabilities.
I suppose we are going to have to pretend to be fair minded and ‘give the bloke a chance’; a sort of honeymoon period, but personally I expect to be ‘orribly disappointed.
We seem to now have a cabinet which will be to the right of Lord Halifax et al. I can’t see that ending well. (Except perhaps by speeding-up the rate of implosion.)
If this is to be the beginnings of a radical party realignment (no space to the right for Faragists) Lib Dems are going to have to be plausible enough to accept the moderate end of the Tory party. Lib Dem track record to date doesn’t make that seem a very likely shift. And the Labour party is going to have to decide which side of the fence it wishes to occupy and stop failing in its desire to be all things to all men which was always a fool’s errand at best. A neoliberal left wing party is an oxymoron.
Re OSR’s point about a sense of duty to the country, I am continually astonished to recall that most of the members of our current ruling class are the descendants of a previous ruling class that – *within living memory* – fought and died alongside members of the majority class of this country to preserve us from fascism and tyranny and to win the peace. Venal pygmies on the shoulders of giants. A figure of speech with no disrespect intended to members of the real human pygmy community.