The idea that the economic downturn that we are nw facing might be prolonged and ghastly is, I think, slowly beginning to permeate the collective consciousness.
That it was unavoidable because, government action or not, people were going to change their behaviour in response to Covid-19, does also seem to be increasingly understood. So let's get over the blame game. The primary fault for what's happened and is going to happen lies with a virus.
But that's not to say that mistakes have not been made. They very clearly have been. Governments, like that of the UK, have made massive errors of judgement. They have acted too late. They have failed to take collective interests into account. Some of their responses look as though they border on cronyism. And by comparison, other governments have done vastly better, whether we look to Germany, New Zealand, and many countries in Asia.
There is not an absolute rule to follow to suggest why some did better than others. But I suggest that in the UK at least part of the problem is that we have a system that imposes government on us. And with a large majority, the attitude that action can be imposed imbues this government with a mantle of authority that it is abusing, time after time.
This mantle of authority is misplaced. And we have to change our electoral system to make sure it can never be imposed in such abusive fashion again. I explain how in this video:
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I have to say Richard that the holistic perspective you are present in across the breadth of your blogs and videos is to be congratulated.
I am currently one of the campaigners in Scotland for our own currency after independence but I have also realised that the future Constitution is also important, and actually more important even than currency since a successful currency depends upon the legitimacy and trust in the state, to provide the conditions essential for the social contract which sustains trust in our money and grants legitimacy for our government to levy taxation.
Thanks for your continuing wisdom.
Thanks
But wisdom? That may overstate it!
I’ve long been a supporter of electoral reform, the dangers of the UK’s FPTP “2 party” system were always self evident to me given the geographical split of where the votes for Tory and Labour tended to be.
This nightmare has now played out, brought on by Brexit and the Tory Party’s shameless move to occupying the English nationalist ground on the far right. Labour still live in a fantasy world that the 2-party system actually works despite the fact that in Scotland, where they need to win seats and the Tories don’t, they are now wiped out. Labour struggle to win England, in many seats it’s clear that the Lib Dems have a better chance. Labour only won when Blair stole the Tories clothes, that’s the lesson of the last 40 years. Starmer knows it which is why he won’t commit to anything and this might actually work for him!
However, I think there is a strong possibility that Farage will resurrect the Brexit Party as the Reform Party with shouts of betrayal and split the English Tory vote down south – thanks Nige! This could let Labour in next time, but it doesn’t make it right. In fact, it should tell you everything that is wrong with FPTP.
The bottom line is that FPTP has been corrupted. UK Tory and Labour Governments are returned on around 25-30% of the total vote . Around 25-30% and rising choose not to vote because what’s the point? In the seat where I live there is no point in voting unless you are a Tory as Tories always win it. I’ve been disenfranchised! I no longer vote. I will vote again if we ever get PR (even if that does result in conman Farage getting seats). I will only vote Labour if they commit to PR which I know they are unlikely to do anytime soon. UK democracy is a fraud.
My situation exactly; there is no point in me voting in my constituency either. my vote for the Greens is swamped by unthinking Tory voters who can’t even see the contradiction between them clapping for the NHS and key workers, and voting in right wing governments that are responsible for underpaid key workers and a desperately overstretched NHS.
Essentially, I am disenfranchised. Under FPTP I have no representation, and there is therefore no point in me voting. To see the wretch Johnson elected with a majority of 80 was the last straw. The problem with the UK is English politics; and that includes Labour’s refusal in 1997 to change to PR when they had a golden opportunity to do so. As you point out:
“Labour still live in a fantasy world that the 2-party system actually works despite the fact that in Scotland, where they need to win seats and the Tories don’t, they are now wiped out. Labour struggle to win England, in many seats it’s clear that the Lib Dems have a better chance.”
I’ll only vote under this rotten system if Labour gets together with the Greens, LibDems and SNP (assuming Scotland isn’t independent by then) to form a progressive alliance where only one candidate for a progressive party stands in every constituency in the UK, so there is a chance of winning under under FPTP. And that alliance would have a cast iron commitment to replace FPTP with PR if it won.
Any sign of that happening? Of course not. Labour will just go crawling after the votes of the Leave voting Tory voting idiots in the so-called ‘red wall’ areas. And you and I will be told to like and lump it.
PR is crucial to any form of structural change.
That’s why it hasn’t happened!!!!!
If you only have to please 25%-30% of the population to obtain total power it makes politics simplistic and full of sound bites.
Proportional Representation would force a degree of political awareness/education on the public. No bad thing.
Let’s have real debates about the issues rather than identify politics and slogans.
Oven Ready,
Shovel Ready (Boris’ latest), Get Brexit Done,
Take Back Control,
Better Together,
Remain and Reform,
Vinnie says: “Proportional Representation would force a degree of political awareness/education on the public.” It would also result in the politics of consensus and, as a result, better quality of parliamentary debate instead of the baying, confrontational norm of Westminster. In short a more grown-up approach to governance and politics.
As if BREXIT wasn’t bad enough, along comes Coronavirus to ram home to us that we live in a bent political system.
I read John Bew’s biography of Clem Attlee and Attlee perhaps only lost the follow-on election as result of boundary changes even though Labour got more of the popular vote.
Instructive?
Absolutely.
Thinking about the U.S. elections – I’m really worried about their own equivalent of boundary changes – the Electoral College.