Robert Peston posted this on Twitter yesterday:
I despaired.
Peston is meant to be a political commentator.
One has to presume that he has some intelligence.
And yet he thinks that ideology can be deduced from actions. And that because Johnson and Sunak have been dragged, kicking and screaming, and with a reluctance that is all too readily apparent, to support the people of this country in a way that will, to a degree (and a patchy degree at that) from some of the worst economic consequences of coronavirus they are now socialist.
No, they are not.
These are blue in tooth and claw arch-neoliberals who are hating every penny that they spend and who cannot wait for the day when they can, or at least will try to, shrink the state again.
All they're doing now is using the undoubted power of the state - which with every breath they try to dent exists - to buy off an electorate who would otherwise riot, and who might do so anyone, so people and so unfair is the distribution of that buy off.
Of course the buy off sets precedents. Never again can it be said that the state cannot act. Never again can the claim that there is no magic money tree be sustained. Never again will the decision not to feed children be seen as anything but callous politics.
But to suggest that this means these people are socialist has to be one of the most stupid of all the many stupid comments made during this crisis.
Socialism is about a state of mind. It is about a priority for people over capital. It is about the intention to deliver full employment. It is about recognising that markets work within state-created rules and within boundaries set by democratic processes. It is about accountability. It is about fairness. It is about justice. And these things are all alien to Johnson and Sunak.
And despite not knowing this Peston is employed as a political commentator.
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If you are so certain of your understanding of everything, why do you honestly care so much what other commentators, who you believe lack your level of insight and intellectual rigor, say ? Why do you feel the need to kick them ?
Or perhaps, continuing the slightly uncomfortable underlying threat from of a number of your threads recently, those whose opinion differs to your own should be denied their right of free expression ?
Is that the real reason for your intolerance of others viewpoints and actions ? Come the revolution eh ?
Dear Eddie
Why do I feel the urge to point out that you are a bear of little brain, here as part of a trolling factory exercise? Three reasons.
One to warn other readers what to expect.
Two, to point out how crass the opposition is. For example, I deny no one feeedom of speech. I just exercise editorial judgement. And if you are not aware of it (and you clearly are not, hence my bear of little brain comment) editorial freedom is critical to freedom of speech.
Three, because this site is not about spreading misinformation, which is what your ilk seek to promulgate.
Happy now?
Richard
Would you be surprised to know that many people thing like this man?
He is just representative of society’s ‘received wisdom’ about these matters – it has crept into working class, middle class and upper class thinking – from cafe’s to Universities. There is a long way to go before this deceit is over thrown.
As for the Government – they lie when they do bad things, and lie when they do better things.
What do we make of that? They are trying to look tough for the MMT deniers and austerity sadists and nice and reasonable to the voters – it’s all about managing perceptions – whatever they do or say.
It reflects the poor state of our polity that we cannot be honest about the latent power of democratic Governments. In 2008 that honesty was avoided by printing money straight into private finance.
In this pandemic, there is nowhere for this money creating power to hide. All the Tories can do is decry and threaten greater austerity as they use this power – issue help with menaces.
A cruise ship full of Britons, denied access to US ports, was given sanctuary in Cuba – but is of no interest to Peston or any other UK journalists beyond reporting the incident on the day: no curiosity about Cuba’s development of vaccines, training doctors & nurses..
Yes, Cuba sells its medical expertise, which is a significant part of its Common Wealth, to countries around the world including Italy.
Meanwhile, the UK government distributes our Common Wealth to a variety of privateers. Cuba’s test, track & trace system is probably (we don’t know because none of our MSM are interested, or are told to steer clear) efficient, effective & efficacious….unlike SERCO.
Not only crass stupidity, worthy of a Trump, but a complete abdication of journalistic integrity and an incapacity to dig beneath the veneer and critique what is actually happening.
“an economy in which every job can be preserved” WTF. Is he now part of the Cummings/Johnson propaganda unit?
Yes…
One point that is worth mentioning. While I think that Peston is totally wrong in his comparison it is worth noting that fascism or national socialism in all its forms does exist. There is a great deal that has been written about this and the Tories have moved further to the right in the last 4 years. This blog has rightly pointed out that shift and the threat of fascism. Peston chooses to see socialism as an ideology of the left in his comparison and ignores comparisons with fascism. Fascism is a form of collectivism that can either be pro capitalist – propping up the free market – or using it in different forms, i.e. corporatism. Fascism is certainly a form of collectivism.
The Nazi’s had a 25 point program.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Socialist_Program
I would say that Johnson is a mix, the socially good parts of socialism of the left variety are totally alien to him, he hates that, but the potentially controlling parts of the right often used by fascists, he likes. I see the Tory Party as a chameleon Party, it looks at which way the wind is blowing and will often change its colours to suit the time, hence the shift to the right since the Brexit vote. It will use the state to further its own ends when it needs to, but no absolutely not socialist.
Mr. Peston has been at this ‘government policy = socialism’ theme since at least early September,https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-boris-thinks-no-deal-might-be-worth-the-pain, last sentence. I don’t think stupidity is the right word, but complicity might be.
Robert Peston still has a cold war mentality. His contempt for Cuba would not disgrace Reagan or McCarthy for that matter. I donts suppose he knows that Cuban doctors are being submitted for consideration for the Nobel prize in medicine this year for their work with Covid.
The point of such exercises in Britain is to move the “centre” of British politics to the right; the further right the better, from an ideological, neoliberal, Conservative-Unionist perspective. At the same time such exercises are not noticed, or supposed to be noticed in ‘mainstream’ Britian; another reason the Union is in deep trouble. People in Scotland do notice, and they have an enduring sense, indeed conviction of civil society as a community effort; the same applies to other devolved nations, and is beginning to reassert itself even in parts of the old Whig-liberal North of England.
He may think he is being slightly tongue in cheek?
He and most of the BBC crew happily go along unquestioningly with the Johnson/Cummings perspective – that this a political campaign, not a health crisis. Starmer’s support for the scientists’ circuit break to fix track and trace, is only examined as to whether it might be politically awkard for Johnson etc – not whether it might actually be the best way out.
They rarely if ever ask the politicians whether we could do a S Korea/China/NZealdn etc ..who have now reopened their economy and societies .and if not why not. They just keep banging on ”what about Sweden”…all because Johnson like’s it…. They seem to see it as a game – and they love playing it.
We still live in a capitalist state. We can see property owners can continue to demand the ‘unearned income’ of rent and it is hardly ever a point of discussion.
Real wealth is goods and services.
After the pandemic we will need these goods and services. On present trends if many of these businesses are to re-open they will be working for the banks.
If businesses and their workers ‘go under’ , as the reporters state it, the rentier class won’t have an income. We won’t have an economy.
Peston narrated a misleading video about money creation, made for the BBC’s educational website.
This article describes the BBC’s response to a complaint about it and their reluctance to correct their misinformation.
positivemoney.org/2013/04/bbc-removed-misleading-video/
Later Peston described the complainant as “a nutter” in a press interview.
Later, in an interview, Peston described the complainant as “a nutter”.
Officially Robert Peston is not a political commentator but ITN’s political editor, someone who everyday is supposed to use his insight and contacts to explain the the adoring masses just WTF is going on politically that day
Yes…..