As the Guardian reports this morning:
The government has privately admitted the UK faces an increased likelihood of “systemic economic crisis” as it completes its exit from the European Union in the middle of a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
A confidential Cabinet Office briefing seen by the Guardian also warns of a “notable risk” that in coming months the country could face a perfect storm of simultaneous disasters, including the prospect of a bad flu season on top of the medical strains caused by Covid.
“Winter 2020 could see a combination of severe flooding, pandemic influenza, a novel emerging infectious disease and coordinated industrial action, against a backdrop of the end of the [Brexit] transition period,” it warns.
The rest has to be read. I will not be quoting at length. Instead, let's consider what this means.
It means that the government knows Brexit will be a disaster and is letting it happen.
And it knows the wellbeing of the most vulnerable in our society will be harmed, and it is indifferent to that.
It even knows that the NHS is not fit for purpose now, and its only answer is to outsource.
What is more, it even knows people may die of medicine shortages, not have water to drink (this is a real risk: we don't have the necessary chemicals after Brexit) and there will be food shortages.
And still it will carry on.
All for the sake of its own dogma.
That, and of course, for the sake of pandering to racists, which is what it has done on this issue.
Tens of thousands of people will die.
The health of millions may be impacted.
Some will starve - and I literally mean that.
Hundreds of thousands of businesses will fail.
Millions will be unemployed.
Local authorities will go bankrupt.
The collective mental health of the nation will be imperilled.
And they are happy with all that.
Because being a sovereign nation again lets them do just that, in their opinion.
This is megalomania.
If it was seen in a developing country we'd say it was a banana republic.
But that's what we're becoming.
And through all this, millions will pay the price for this callousness.
Never forget, and never forgive will have to be the message.
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“Never forget, and never forgive will have to be the message.”
The Tories will dump Johnson, be given a ‘fresh start’ by the media, Starmer will be mocked for buying his mum a field to look after some donkeys and the Conservatives scrape an election win in 2024.
Call me cynical, but I feel this is a likely scenario.
Not if people work on an alternative
Morning Richard,
Our two children are reaching the age where they are becoming aware of politics – probably from their parents grumbling about it – and we frequently have discussions with them. As parents we try to impress upon them the importance of personal choice, that is as they get older they must make their own choices based upon their own, hopefully, critical thinking. And we underscore this with the importance of fairness and equality in society. However we will certainly be reminding them as they get older that this current administration willfully trashed our country, it’s international standing, it’s legislature and it’s citizens’ mental, physical and financial health for the sake of money and the pacification of racists.
Karl
I have tried to do that with my two
I have two very aware young men as a result
Who argue back….!
Good.
That sharpens you up.
Argue back. I bet you did too.
“…there will be food shortages.”
“Some will starve – and I literally mean that.”
You made the same predictions at the start of lockdown in March. There were no food shortages. No one starved.
Care to make a prediction of how many people will starve to death in the UK between now and the end of 2021? No, thought not. Just the latest in a never ending series of apocalyptic warnings of doom.
“The collective mental health of the nation will be imperilled.” Well, I can see signs of that reading your blogs.
You do know that I was right?
But for food banks this would have happened
And they have seen record use
Why not stop laying silly games and deal with the issues?
My question is simply this: what will Her Majesty’s Opposition do about this?
Brexit is a fight between Industrial Capitalism & Financial Capitalism.
Hence Boris Johnson “**** business”.
What he really means is “**** industry”.
Industrial Capitalism want the state to pay for their workers healthcare & education. It wants the state to build & pay for its infrastructure.
Financial Capitalism wants to own education, healthcare & infrastructure and then bleed the real economy dry using economic rent.
Oh, sure, it’ll work, but not for very long.
The people involved are too greedy to keep the real economy alive. Its a tragedy of the commons, where the commons are us.
They’ll run us into the ground while all the time, the BOE will pump billions into the stock market so that the 0.1% remain not only immune to the chaos they cause, but actually gain from it as the relative wealth of the 99.9% falls back.
“Never forget, and never forgive will have to be the message.”
I do not expect to agree with everything you write, Richard and I am not an ideologist, so I do not search every statement you make for blanket ideological consistency with some abstract ideal (sadly too often the norm in political debate, for no good or defensible reason I can see). Nevertheless I cannot agree with that statement, sufficiently that I feel moved to comment rather than pass it by. It is, like so much of this kind, too all-encompassing, to loose in its denotation, too ominous in its vague insinuation of guilt. Who are the culprits? Not just, who can we blame, but who ‘carries the can’?
I have no sympathy for the motley collection of coarse-minded bullies and louche chancers who sit like Macbeth’s witches at the heart of this Government, and I trust in time they receive short shrift from the electorate (when the penny finally drops), in being driven from office and public life; but I see no purpose in taking the same attitude to the large number of people who voted for both Brexit and this government. You are going to have to live with them anyway. They are part of the fabric, not a temporary consumable item. Reaching out will in time be more effective than hitting out, becuase in the end it is the only way out.
Sorry – my target was this government – not those who have been conned by them
Point taken; but while many no doubt have been ‘conned’ by this government, it is also the case that many were not. They voted for this government quite deliberately. I do not believe there is any point in glossing this.
Isaiah Berlin’s perhaps most important intuition was his observation that often differences in value between people are fundamentally incommensurable. It is worth reflecting on this in the context of the predicament in which we find ourselves. Politics lives within the treacherous currents of actual or potential incommensurabilities. This is where we are.
I will really reflect on that
John,
Is it not the case, though, despite many very deliberately voting for this government, it’s actually in reaction to the longer term cons. For Brexit, I’d say ‘British Empire’ and ‘we won the war’ are the two being utilised to stir up popularity for the cause.
In reality, the establishment keep many myths active throughout the population – various historical facts glossed over (e.g. Itty bitty things like genocide, or maybe that war isn’t glorious), very limited history taught in schools and such like – certainly we didn’t get Scottish history in Scotland! – and you know they are on the propaganda trail when the BBC start broadcasting out of context old WW2 footage etc. It’s like the control of the population is attained by rolling out the appropriate myths at the time they need. Pavlov.
So, even though you say many haven’t been conned by this government, they have been brought up ‘primed’ to believe the establishment is always right. It still means that they have supported this government with their eyes open, true, and those are their values. But what if the values instilled in many people are based on a less-than-honest education and indoctrination? We just need to look at the myths perpetuated by the establishment on the economy, and their insistence on just repeating themselves louder if anyone disagrees, and the number of people that accept that without question – it’s ingrained in the majority of the population to never question the establishment. We have been taught obedience for generations?
I find it hard to blame people for having values they have been indoctrinated into having, and I would say they have been conned. All our governments are ‘establishment’, so if it was this one or the last, or a hundred years ago, I don’t think it makes much difference – for the long con. That the current government decided to utilise a couple of the long cons, those that stop people from thinking rationally – it’s all blood and soil and heartfelt patriotism, not ‘is this the best thing for our nation and how well will he economy work?’, it’s about feelings, not thought. The current government should be condemned for using the strongest propaganda triggers in their arsenal (make Britain great again!) – yes, we need to accept that’s how many in the population think, and it’s not going to go away, but it doesn’t make it right.
Although, maybe a lesson from Scotland is that people CAN be cajoled out of the trap to some extent? Maybe there is some hope – but you need to break the hold of the establishment. There is a reason many Scots don’t watch the BBC any more, however useful a service it is.
“I find it hard to blame people for having values they have been indoctrinated into having, and I would say they have been conned.”
I did not wish to comment on this matter again, as I have said enough already; but I must protest that if you read carefully, I was not ascribing blame, save to the government; indeed I was advocating ‘reaching out’ to those who voted for Brexit and brought this government in. I feel you have misrepresented me.
The problem with your argument is that it seems to me you are trading on two meanings of the word ‘con’; the ‘short term’ sense in which people are persuaded in elections by the techniques of political ‘spin’, deception, ‘fake news’ or misinformation; which at some point may be countered or undone: and the second sense in which you conflate ‘con’ with a more complex concept of ‘long term’ cultural indoctrination; which is far more unyielding to being overturned. I shall not debate the merits of your latter idea, although I am perhaps inclined to be a little more circumspect or wary, speculating about the origins of belief systems, but would merely point out that you have already supplied my reply to you, yourself: “It still means that they have supported this government with their eyes open, true, and those are their values.”
This is where we are; that is all I said. Furthermore, I predict this isn’t going to change any time soon, and even if your proposition of origins is correct, there is no prospect you are going to change generations already committed to what they currently believe (and there is no sign, in England at least, that this is foreseeably likely to be transformed).
As for Scotland’s future, it is now in its own hands: a circumstance produced, not least because of the hand-wringingly hopeless prospect of changing anything within Britain that your own description of the culture readily and too wearily encapsulates; the growing realisation that this reactionary, mean-spirited, Brexit little-England offers Scotland only stultification; and will never fulfil the growing desire of those who live in Scotland, to have real ambition for Scotland, to recover the liberty of freedom of movement within Europe, and the increasing desire that widening opportunities should be available to all, within Scotland.
All noted and understood
Apologies for the misunderstanding
John,
Oh I am sorry you feel misrepresented, I didn’t actually mean my comment to be any kind of argument against what you had said at all, or say you were claiming anything you weren’t. I just found what you said thought-provoking enough that it took me down a more philosophical path – more in the lines of a type of, say, nature vs nurture debate,,, one that can never be resolved and could (and has done) go on forever.
BUT I suppose I just said: have you taken into consideration background indoctrination? And your reply is: no, on purpose. (Yes yes I’ve just misrepresented you again!)
It is what it is, and that’s true, and we are better off not making anything more complicated than it needs to be.
My opinion on the nature vs nurture debate is that you can’t separate the two, that you *have* to conflate the two because they are so interrelated. And will argue here that we should always take the background indoctrination into consideration when looking at current behaviours – I believe that the two *have* to be conflated, they are not two separate issues that can be prised apart into neat packages. But,,,
At the same time, I take your point that we need to leave aside that long-term cultural indoctrination when debating and considering current issues – or we start going down a rabbit hole into a maze where none of us can ever be blamed for anything we do,,, which isn’t true! – I was just going down that rabbit hole of philosophical thought where nothing can be resolved, and I agree it’s not actually helpful for these current issues or even in answer to your comment!
I also believe that long-term cultural indoctrination is the reason Scotland doesn’t have 90% population in favour of independence – and that that bond needs to be broken before people start thinking for themselves and realise the sense in being, and wanting to be, independent. I think it is a very real, and current issue, and breaking that bond can be a traumatic life event for many people – and needs to be done differently for different people and it needs us to be aware of it if we are to change minds. Enough minds have been changed now, with the caveat that another trigger could be used to swing opinion in a different direction – we ain’t free from it yet.
I’m just going off-topic as they say, thinking laterally on to side issues, going off at a tangent, allowing my mind to wander – there will be a subconcious reason for that wandering (with so many more interesting issues to debate and I have so little time, why would I chose this topic, as pointless as it is), and it is likely just to remind myself of a core consideration and a reason to keep commenting in the public domain – that is my audience, that’s who I (nearly) always write for; those that feel the need to break from the indoctrination, those that want the reasons to do so, and are open to thinking for themselves (or want to not slip back into the hell-pit). I’m not an influential voice in that I don’t reach the many – but you never know who might read and be influenced, and it takes different voices to help different kinds of people.
Yes, yes, I should have kept my thoughts to myself, but I might have done enough sooking up to Richard to get away with it,,, but at the same time I don’t want to distract him from his RESEARCH that he keeps hinting at and is keeping us in suspense about – so DONT BOTHER MODERATING THIS IF IT DISTRACTS YOU!!
You’ll just have to wait
I am frustrated as well
I have too much on…..
And I still need some more answers from the ONS
A little sign of things to come as reported by the Guardian.
“Trial of Brexit border checks causes five-mile lorry queues in Kent. M20 backlog caused by French authorities testing post-Brexit checks at the Eurotunnel” (No, it was actually caused by the UK voting to leave the EU and Govt policy ever since – the Guardian should know better).
The Government’s plan apart from blame the French? Portaloos down the motorway. I always thought that Brexit was BS but this is taking the wee-wee. Portaloos, an ideal breeding ground for passing on the covid I would have thought?
Oh, and this trial only lasted 9 hours.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/nov/24/trial-of-brexit-border-checks-causes-five-mile-lorry-queues-in-kent
It is going to be grim..
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/nov/24/brexit-capitalism
To one sort of capitalist, the insecurity and chaos that Brexit will bring is horrifying. To the other, it is highly profitable
Finance Capitalism.
The aim is to extract interest and financial fees by indebting labor, industry, real estate and government by expanding the debt overhead until it siphons off all net discretionary personal income and business profits.
Which wouldn’t be possible inside the EU framework (which is a product of INDUSTRIAL capitalism).
Finance Capitalism was the true force behind Brexit and is the backer & partner of this Tory government.
I tend to agree with that
The utter madness to continue with Brexit under any circumstance, it can never work, and espcialy with a raging world pandemic is beyond any sense.!