The priorities of our government in the UK are now clear.
They can spend more buying PPE that is not needed, and in some cases is useless, through companies owned by their friends and and associates than they can budget to spend on tackling climate change.
And now we know they can plan significant cuts in the aid budget because that is supposedly unaffordable whilst increasing the military spending budget by £16 billion over the next four years, which makes no sense when climate change is likely to create the biggest military threat that we face.
This is also a government that can worry more about the celebration of Christmas, which has limited religious significance for most, but ignores the fact that it has disrupted the festivals of many other faiths.
And it places greater priority on satisfying the demand for excessive consumption at Christmas than it does on the health of the country.
Meanwhile, teachers can be sacrificed when they have contact with Covid infected children and must keep working, but politicians must not.
The inappropriateness of the decision making, the corruption within it, the callousness, the disregard for the vulnerable and the lack of respect are all apparent.
I am all too well aware that right now many are disaffected with Labour. I have evidenced it myself. It too is hardly overwhelming us with clarity of vision or evidence of competence, and respect is being tested in many fronts. But even so it us not Tory lite, as some claim. Misgovernment on the scale now being seen from the current government is quite different to anything that Labour might manage.
Saying which, I am continually angered by the now very obvious failure of the UK political system to deliver three things.
One is government that reflects the actual wishes of electors in the UK. Electoral reform would solve that.
Another is competent politicians. Electoral reform plus the requirement to negotiate coalitions, and to establish priorities and policies as a consequence, would solve that. In Europe only Belarus shares our absurd commitment to absolutism that so debases political competence.
A third is economic competence. I would love a commonplace comprehension of modern monetary theory, but even some awareness that macroeconomics is not microeconomics grossed up would help. The trouble is, most who call themselves macroeconomists don't get that last point and so fail to appreciate that macro us usually the opposite of micro, to which it provides the double entry in a great many cases.
But we don't have those things.
As a result we do not have the counterbalance to corruption in all its forms, including that driven by pure dogma.
Daily we see the evidence of that.
And it is going to be very much worse in 2021. We might get a Covid vaccine next year, but Brexit is going to make 2020 look like a walk in the park.
Will that be enough to finally crystallise the demand for the change that we so obviously need? I hope so.
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“Competent politicians,” it’s fair to say Scotland has a couple of electoral systems Westminster’s FPTP might reform toward. Sadly, you have experienced our Jackie Bailey – apologies, thanks for trying. We mustn’t forget the quality of opposition, those not forming coalitions or having to prove themselves. I say “we,” but I’m really thinking of those outwith Scotland who’ve not seen a proportional system at work for twenty years and might focus on the winners.
You also have some good Greens
The mainstream of politics has completely failed Scotland, across the board
Richard, we would have more than one (the brilliant Caroline Lucas) good green if it wasn’t for FPTP.
And FPTP has failed all of the UK, not just Scotland! Sorry to be a pedant.
Ok!
Your appeal to consider Labour is realistic and understandable. After all – who else is there?
However, the Corbyn issue is heavily imbued with Left and Right in Labour falling out again whist the country cries out for better political leadership and suffers. It’s a really toxic situation. It’s self-indulgent in a way that only members of the Establishment can be (as well as MPs on £80K per year).
Labour sickens me at the moment – in many ways more than the Tories simply because I was always taught to expect more from them in a moral sense.
I live in an area with a strong Tory majority. I have the luxury of just not voting at all. If my area was marginal, I’d vote Labour albeit reluctantly.
I am saying it is a better option
Not a good one
Yes, that about sums it up Richard. Watching Starmer’s performance in P.M.Qs yesterday when he was almost begging the P.M not to give any more of our money to his, Johnson’s, pals, was pathetic. That attitude, coupled with a civil war now raging within the Labour Party, doesn’t give me any hope that in the near future they will be able to hold, as you have previously described, the most corrupt U.K Government in our history.
I know – all I’m doing is saying how I respond to them at the moment until I see marked improvement. If I were in a marginal seat, I would vote for them. But I am not.
Sadly, I agree with you on all of this. The corruption of this current government is beyond anything I have experienced in my lifetime, and I’m getting on a bit. I was affected by the Thatcher induced recession and lived in Liverpool, a city decimated by her Tory government. But what we have now is not only more corrupt, but also dangerously laissez faire when it comes to the public good. Decades of neoliberalism has also cemented the idea that politicians ‘manage’ they do not ‘govern’. And the Parliamentary Labour Party is very much wedded to this ideology. This effectively relieves all politicians (and others in the leadership class, corporate execs, directors of public bodies, VCs) of responsibility for outcomes. It’s the market, or it’s the individual, or it’s some uncontrollable external factor. None of this bodes well for the future.
BTW, I’ve always thought the “Think Global, Act Local” mantra of the 90s, was another total distraction. So you could drive a SUV and fly to Australia (or Madrid) as long as you recycled your wine bottles (or don’t send an extra email).
Agreed
London Assembly elections are run on PR and Greens get seats.
Wasles has just committed to SRTV for all local elections
Economically nothing much is going to change until the fear of government debt is deat with.
In the Mail this morning;
There are growing fears over the state of the public finances after the Government borrowed tens of billions of pounds to prop up UK plc during the coronavirus crisis.
We could simply ask who have we borrowed from.
On the topic of defence spending I can appreciate the reservations, but if the money is spent wisely and supports UK manufacturing it could boost the economy with real skilled jobs and investment. Surely the feedback could be considerable? Lockheed Martin did their own study on the benefits of large scale defence projects to the wider economy, admittedly from their own standpoint.
On a wider note the foreign aid budget surely typifies British politics both in terms of politicians and the electorate. I keep hearing angry voices complaining about the money we give ‘them’ via the foreign aid budget. There might be instances where it could be better targeted and spent but the majority of the complaints I hear are simply to do with giving ‘them’ money. There is a very definite current of hate, for the want of a better word, when it comes to foreign issues. The are people out there that would rather incinerate unsold food that give it away to the homeless for instance. It’s almost like the bastard child of the ‘self made’ disciples.
If it turns out HMG is raiding.the aid budget to fund defence I will be very disappointed.
Defence spending ahs very low multiplier effects – because nothing is produced as such
Health has very high multiplier effects because massive value is produced
And Aid is being raided for defence
They used to do it subversively
Now they are doing it explicitly
Sigh. It’s looking so grim Richard – yes Labour better than the Tories, but oh what a choice, like that between Biden and Trump.
Agree too, with PSR’s comments
Personally I restate my belief that we really haven’t got long – five years maybe – before the food riots, though perhaps it might be sooner, like early next year.
Crumbs
Try early next year, when this moronic government’s disastrous Brexit lunacy hits home. George Monbiot in the Guardian yesterday was very good on this.
I will be visiting Costco on Saturday to start my stockpile for the disastrous 2021 that’s coming our way. I’ll be getting as much of the staples of my cookery that come in from the EU as possible. Tinned Tomatoes, garlic paste, frozen onions, Parmesan, olive oil, etc. You get the picture.
I don’t see why I should suffer because our useless English politics has given Johnson (or the fat blond *hithead as I call him) a majority of 80.
Corruption? Independent adviser confirms Priti Patel is a bully, but the Prime Minister says that is ok. What a nice way to end Anti-Bullying Week. Really, you could not make this up – https://www.anti-bullyingalliance.org.uk/anti-bullying-week
And inevitably the Conservatives are lining up to defend the indefensible yet again, just like Cummings and Barnard Castle. I should not get shocked, because we know the Prime Minister has no moral compass, but this demonstrates once more how rotten our government is.