This was me on LBC yesterday:
'We have that peculiar thing which our politicians will not discuss...Brexit.'
Other European countries have lower inflation rates than the UK, political economist @RichardJMurphy points out, explaining to @ShelaghFogarty why food prices here have soared. pic.twitter.com/DXs71u0gVk
— LBC (@LBC) April 19, 2023
I am not sure there is much to add except to note that whilst politicians live in denial of reality that reality will continue to hurt them, and us.
That, in summary, is the current state of UK politics.
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Brexit has joined that long list of subjects that the the handful of Billionaires that still control the UK media have ruled must never be discussed in Public,
The deliberate corruption of Democracy, the Renationalisation of Public services and beneficent Socialism for the rich while the rest of the country is devastated by rapacious monopoly Capitalism are just a few of the other subjects that you are unlikely to see discussed, read or hear about.
That the UKs main opposition party is also cowed into silence indicates how far down the road to Fascism we have already travelled
No, no, no – can’t blame Brexit. Brexit is blameless. It’s something else, it’s the wokerati, the anti-growth coalition, it’s the unknown group that we haven’t even thought of yet, it’s the weather. Anything but Brexit. We just need to have the proper Brexit, the beautiful Brexit. The Brexit full of sunlit uplands and milk and honey. Then it will be better.
OK, I can’t do that anymore. My tongue was firmly planted in my cheek whilst typing that.
It’s ridiculous. The evidence is mounting up yet the two main parties refuse to acknowledge the elephant in the room. When will the tipping point happen?
Craig
I wish I knew
For the tories to admit this Craig, they would need to have the leavers amongst them to show self-awareness and humility; basically, an iota of decency which the brazen liars they are are highly unlikely to acquire.
For the non leaver tories, they’ll need to get acquire courage and a desire to put the country they claim to love so much above their party. Can you see that happening?
As for labour; to stop their obsessive pursuit of the votes of their sodding ‘red wall’ constituencies at the expense of the interests of other labour supporters who had more sense than to be misled by the lies of the leave campaign.
And to stop taking the votes of these people for granted on the stupid and arrogant basis of ‘they’ve got nowhere else to go’ Have you seen that happening yet?
But Craig, there is one more group of people the leave wretches could blame. Can you guess who they are? It’s a group that’s been used as convenient scapegoats by rotten leaders and politicians for centuries. Jews, of course. ‘Cultural Marxism’, ‘rootless cosmopolitans’, ‘citizens of nowhere’. You wait, I’ll bet they’ll be at it soon.
To me the answer as to why there is so much silence about BREXIT is that Parliament as an institution knows that it has been a disaster for the country.
So, like all groups of people (like ‘boards’ and committees who fuck up), the ‘groupthink’ now is that BREXIT is a possible stain on the reputation of our highest office of state and that its reputation and public trust is in danger of being lost. So now ALL Parliamentarians (Tories, Labour etc) – like they do – have agreed to try to not mention it too much. It’s what binds them all together now – they will all suffer from reputational damage, even though it is the Tory party who are ultimately responsible with their Thatcherite ‘win at all costs’ attitude.
Silence is a recognised way for power/the establishment to manage collateral damage.
But it is also an acknowledgement – and a painful one – that Parliament has been very silly indeed to have allowed this to happen. In fact, as the Europeans have suggested – what has happened and how it happened (still to be investigated thoroughly) is frankly an EMBARESSMENT. And this embarrassment will endure in history.
That’s my conclusion.
In the real world, those in Parliament who helped to make this happen would be dismissed. They know and many of us know it that we need to rip it up and start again. It’s been a huge blunder and we are diminished as a ‘serious player’ on the world stage.
In conclusion what we might also be seeing is a sense of shame as well.
I hope so.
This is the Parliament – and specifically the Conservative MPs within it – that were elected on the ticket of “getting Brexit done” so we can hardly expect them to blame themselves for the bad result. Brexit was sold on the basis of many lies and now it turns out that the warnings from the Remainers were by and large correct. But any problems – even the ones that were foreseen in advance – must be the fault of the EU, or the voters, or the Russians, or Coronavirus, or the climate – someone, anyone, other than the politicians themselves.
There are some smaller parties – and some MPs within the main parties – who have campaigned consistently for closer relationships with the EU – not that is did them much good in 2019 – but they are small minorities. Neither the Conservatives nor Labour see many votes in campaigning on largely fictitious “Brexit benefits”, nor of blaming the other side for the problems in case it comes back against themselves.
The 52-48 vote was taken as approval for making substantial but deleterious and hard to fix changes to our long-term relationships with our nearest neighbours. That is democracy, we are told, and it is not possible for voters to change their mind. Just watch. I expect enough turnover of MPs in the next election that the new Parliament may finally be able to start dealing with the problems in our ongoing relationship with the EU rather than pretending that Brexit will magically become a success, One day – perhaps in 5 or 10 years time – we might be able to talk about rejoining some of the EU frameworks that make trade and travel easier.
I think it may not be the next parliament but the one after that comes to terms with this
But it will have to do it
Genuine question – surely with Brexit we are better placed for an MMT economy? Would MMT be allowed (or even workable) if we were still part of the EU (or impossible if we joined the Euro)?
MMT is how money works now
It was the same before Brexit
And it is the same but with different management consequences 8n the eurozone
I suggest you need to end what MMT is again
There is some truth to that since MMT’s main theme is to draw the distinction between the financial constraints faced by currency issuers and currency users. In general MMT economists are anti/sceptical about the euro for the simple reason that it involved EU states giving up monetary sovereignty and hence transitioning from being currency issuers to being currency users themselves.
That does not mean that Brexit was a good idea. It wasn’t. We had the benefits of being members while also benefits – as outlined by MMT – of being a currency issuer with monetary sovereignty.
There is no doubt using MMT thinking would be harder with the euro
But it would not be impossible
And for for the UK and other states outside the euro it was almost irrelevant
Disagree and agree.
Disagree because artificial and flawed fiscal rules were incorporated into the euro by design. This runs against MMT thinking as does the lack of monetary sovereignty. Most MMT economists make the point of highlighting where MMT is relevant (eg US, U.K., Japan etc) and where it is not (eg, the Euro Area),
Agree that this was irrelevant for the U.K., since we avoided the folly of the euro. Sadly we didn’t avoid the folly of Brexit.
I agree MMT in the euro would be harder
But silly fiscal rules are not MMT
An they can, and are, changeable
“But silly fiscal rules are not MMT”
100% agree Richard but they were fundamental to the design of the euro and the subsequent rules (even if they were deliberately flouted by core Euro members). Having been suspended during the pandemic, they are about to make a come back. I cannot think of one MMT economist who thinks that this is a good idea.
Plus as Keen notes often, policy and rule makers in the euro area typically ignore private sector debt while viewing public sector debt as a problem. Listen to what comes out of the French state auditor….
I agree with that concern of Steve’s
I look forward to your debate with Steve Keen. I think you both are sympathetic to the underlying concepts of MMT but doubt that either label yourselves as MMT economists.
Keen shares much of your political ideas for the U.K. (and hopefully will remember your name this time as he forget it during one of podcasts with Phil Dobbie) and was a supporter of Corbyn. Therein lies the subtle irony because he was also pro Brexit and has also argued that the euro is destined to fail. I look forward to your exchange of views. When is it by the way?
29/4, 5pm live
The debate with Steve is on which channel – must have missed that bit of info.
His channel
I will give more blurb later this week
The 52% to 48% was considered a sufficient vote to pass Brexit but the over 90% to less than 10% of junior doctors wanting a fair pay settlement are considered irrelevant and have no say in their future according to the Tories and Labour for that matter who have shown no support for the doctors, nurses, and other vital public service workers.
“Other European countries have lower inflation rates than the UK,”
Working on the basis that this is true – then I’m glad I’m not in the UK.
Prices rises for things such as pasta and pizza are jaw dropping here in Belgium. Pizzas that were 4 – 5 euros now 9euros. Pasta was 3.5 now 5.5Euros/packet. Oddly booze has not gone up so one can drown ones sorrows. Prices in restaurants also up (food not booze). I have no doubt that breixt has had an impact on Uk prices – but since the Uk like others probably buys grain on world markets – then in or out of the EU – there would still be price rises.
BE overall 6.6%,. For energy and non-processed food 8.5% and for food only ……….17% (bloody ouch).
Fortunately I have a flex food buying policy: apart from unprocessed food, if it ain’t 40% off I don’t buy it (more than 50% of what I do buy is 40% off). The Uk could try growing more of its own food – but lacks the people to pick it.
“but lacks the people to pick it.” And why’s that? Brexit of course!! Why aren’t all those leavers who moaned about too many EU wrokers being here out there now picking the crops the EU workers did?
Richard, thank you for what you do. Your words above are clear and easy to understand.
For non-economists like myself you make it easier to understand what’s going on AND provide a sensible answer.
Keep going.
Thanks