A commentator here suggested it with listening to this programme. I am grateful for the suggestion.
The programme is available here.
John Gray makes a point familiar to many who comment here that we are now being presented with two major political parties in the UK, both of whom are dedicated to enabling markets rather than protecting people, the state and essential services from abuse by the market.
He makes the point that this cult of the market is only 40 years old. It is not the natural order.
He believes that we need a strong state. He thinks that without it our further decline is inevitable. We need a government that protects us from abuse by the market, not one that enables it.
And without proportional representation he sees no way to be rid of this cult which he strongly suspects does not represent the beliefs of most people.
These opinions closely accord with findings in a poll here yesterday.
The argument is well written and presented. It is well worth nine minutes of your time.
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The MSM certainly depicts our system as a duopoly. That’s because they’re owned by the same vested interests that have taken control of both Labour & the Tory parties.
We don’t live in a duopoly though & FPTP could be our greatest weapon to defeat them.
16.9m voted remain, that’s far more than voted for any single party in a GE. Surely those could & can be mobilised?
As a summary of how we got here, what is currently happening to us and future threats I haven’t seen a better summary than Obama’s speech in Australia as reported in the Guardian yesterday.
Light on solutions, but as we all know if you are going to solve any problem the essential first step, and one that it is all too human to get wrong, is always an understanding of the real problem.
I will look it out…
I note her blames a guy named Rupert…
Listened to it – very very good points – much to agree with – particualrly that the population as a whole is far more radical than the politicos or indeed the meeja – & I include the Guardian in that. We have a clique running the country supported by a meeja clique in which the likes of Marina Hyde are seen as both amusing and radical – they are neither
( https://brokenbottleboy.substack.com/p/an-exotic-display-for-the-court-making )
There is a profound lack of seriousness in politics and a total failure to engage with serious subjects in a serious manner – instead – market mantras are wheeled out – differing not one whit in their conection to real world problems and solving them as papal infallability does to the the egregious failings of the Catholic church – the pope can’t be wrong, markets can’t be wrong.
And for the avoidance of doubt – if you think its bad in the Uk with market fundies – it is even worse in Brussels – packed full of Tetzlers selling (market) indulgences.
And so continues Gray’s renunciation of Thatcherism/Reaganism.
If only more of our ‘experts’ would do the same and smell the coffee.
I read Gray’s ‘False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism’ in the 1990’s. It’s a book that has proven to be most prescient.
When the facts change, you can change your mind – Gray is the epitome of what is lacking in our societies in the West.
Yes – very much in agreement on the voting system – but slightly wary of John Gray – seem to remember him being pretty iconoclastically right wing over the decades and swinging back and forth – with huge sweeping generalisations about the future of man etc