My wife declared herself politicked out this morning. I suspect she is far from alone.
There is almost universal annoyance amongst people I know (by no means all politically active) with the Tories for still being in office when it is readily apparent that they ran out of any good reasons to stay long ago.
We all know we face a general election campaign with an almost forgone conclusion. The debate can only be over the detail.
We also know that Labour is refusing to debate the detail, at least as yet, but possibly at all.
The consequence is that this does not even feel like a period of anticipation. It feels much more like a period of dulled silence whilst we await the arrival of yet another government whose only aim is to disappoint, shackled as it is by its dedication to everything that has failed for at least forty years.
Being politicked out is one possible reaction to that.
I continue to dream of something better. I suspect my wife does too. But she was not reading politics this morning. I suspect she is far from alone with her disillusionment.
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We feel like that too, but it’s not just disappointment in Labour. The world seems to so badly managed, with little prospect of improvement: mishandling of Covid (and no consideration of what Long Covid could do to humanity if Brain Fog continues to reduce the population’s IQ), now slow response to Bird Flu, foot-dragging on climate, Ukraine, and Gaza, the enshittification of the Internet… the list goes on and on. Hope just seems to be in short supply.
There are three reasons I believe that the Tories should not be in government today.
1. Their policy suck, as evidenced by so many indicators: highest interest rates in 32 years, highest inflation rate in 40 years, highest tax burden in 70 years, lowest Sterling/Dollar rate in 50 years, allowing organisations to give away £billions in dividends while allowing the same organisation to pollute our rivers, highest energy costs in Europe, highest rail fares in Europ. The list is endless.
2. Sunak claims that people do not want a General Election. This is so utterly misleading to be contemptible. Worse, there is no mechanism to enable the people to force and election.
3. Destroying public services in order to privatise and profit from them, claiming that privatisation is good, while all the evidence points to the opposite.
I fear the reason they are hanging on is precisely because they are not done with destroying public services in order to privatise and profit from them.
I agree. Despite all the excitement and hype about a possible early election, I see no advantage to the Tories in getting their noses out of the ToffTrough before they absolutely have to. They know they’re screwed whenever they call the election, so why hasten the ‘evil’ day?
On the other hand, maybe Sunak is just fed up with the job and wants to give up as soon as he can? Unlike most of the rest of the Tory MPs who will lose their seats, he’ll probably make a fortune on the speaking circuit.
I don’t live in the UK, but here (in France) too there is a bit of a feeling of ‘the phoney war’ (between the Czech and polish invasions in 1939, when the French were geared up for war but weren’t sure it was coming, and moreover felt helpless to do anything about it). So I don’t think it’s just a UK experience. In part, it’s about war again – waiting for the next horror in Gaza, near stalemate in Ukraine – but there also seems to be a sense of stasis and helplessness in ‘western’ politics generally – of knowing things have to change, and in many areas how they should do so, but ‘the establishment’ in many countries remaining immovable, unable to think or act beyond the status-quo, even when they have no coherent reasons for inaction.
Like many radio listeners, I have switched off from BBC R4 ‘Today’ and gone over to BBC R3 and received balm for the soul from Petroc Trelawney, et al.
I wonder whether part of the problem is with being ‘News’d out’? The addictive watching or listening to a constant regurgitation of news has to be bad for wellbeing. Add to that (at least from much of the BBC’s news broadcasting) a poor grasp of economic theory without questioning fundamental assumptions, and the sometimes anodyne, unquestioning style of interviewing of those who hold or wish to hold power all topped off with a bland, closing commentary.
The abysmal editorial standard for addressing the deep issues for the 2016 Referendum lives on. Add to that ministers being ‘unavailable’ if it looks like they deserve to be kebabbed and the dreadful example of Boris Johnson’s absence from much needed analysis and interview before the 2019 General Election. There are some but few valiant exceptions, but listening out for them amongst the cloud of mediocrity is just too much!
I think you make a good point
A continuous news agenda with no substance is tedious
Sophie Ridge on Sky is an exception for me.
Might we be experiencing a phase of history when the serious shortcomings of an ideology, in this case Neoliberalism, are becoming so obvious they cannot be hidden, despite the efforts of the rentiers and their associates, and a replacement ideology has not yet been effectively created and/or imposed?
1995 to early 1997 was tense period that felt exactly like this. That is why there was such a great explosion of joy when Portillo lost his seat.
A moment that encapsulated the sheer relief that we had finally managed to get rid of, to borrow from the Daily Mail, the real “Enemies of the People”
I remember it well
In the 1960s, the psychologist Martin Seligman identified the concept of “learned helplessness”. The concept has been refined over time, but essentially refers to the passivity (or apathy, in US torture circles) that people develop when regularly exposed to adverse events over which they have no control. In the face of repeated “knock backs” individuals come to believe that there is no point in attempting to change their situation, because nothing they do makes any difference. So they do nothing, even when a way of effecting change is present.
Those who see events as outside their control suffer from mental and physical harms. Stress, emotional disruption, and difficulties with cognitive tasks. They are also less likely to take care of themselves, and more likely to experience poverty.
Learned helplessness can even extend to regularly voting for a candidate or Party who is not elected.
My feeling is that much of the country is suffering from learned helplessness. The reasons are perfectly obvious so I won’t rehearse them here.
One of the ways of helping people to escape from learned helplessness is to provide concrete evidence that genuine change is achievable.
Sadly, it is not possible in this country. Labour under Keir Starmer simply offers more of the same; and whatever rhetoric he spouts, people know instinctively that nothing will change. They see him for what he is, not what he says he is.
Years of being told one thing but experiencing the opposite has made individuals exquisitely sensitive to the preaching of false Gods.
Expect no change.
Yes, and as Gramsci pointed out, ingrained hegemony is hard to displace and we have no coherent counter neoliberalist / laissez faire movement with new messages. The best option is sustainability, as there is no choice really on a finite planet and GDP growth is such a stupid metric, but these debates take time..
A very fine post & we seem to be converging in terms of Tory & LINO. LINO is part of the neo-liberal project and thus one would expect them to follow that ideology – which is what they do. Gaining power for LINO is conditional on them following the neo-lib party line – otherwise, they will get monstered (by the mostly neo-lib press). Amusingly, even readers of the Daily Torygraph now want water re-nationalisation (judging by below the line comments on water). However, the views of even tory serfs don’t count. Increasingly, effecting changes looks like a revolution rather than evolution.
I can understand that people feel it is all hopeless & what can they do. From the PoV of a neo-liberal true believer – this is a good result. People too tired or apathetic to do anything. In Innes masterwork (Late Soviet Britain) page 108, the point is made (referencing Thomas Kuhn) that knowledge of how things were/used to be & how to organise that “used to be” become progressively lost. Innes notes:
“Selective amnesia is a common tool of ideological myth-making, but organised forgetting is an essential feature of closed system materialist ontologies that are secular theologies to all intents & purposes” (she is of course referring to neo-liberalism).
Orwell’s 1984 is interesting – not because of the story but because of the appendicies and the notes on Newspeak – a language which renders the concepts contained in the first few lines of the US constiution meaningless. In the same way, the end point of neo-liberals is to make it impossible to imagine that society could be organised differently. & indeed, in language, one can see shortcuts (e.g. woke) that render the underlying points (justice, fairness freedom are not words, they are persepctives) invisible – the first step towards unimaginable.
Unable to express core concepts, unable to imagine a better country – welcome to neo-liberalism land – brought to you by Tories and LINO I & II.
It does seem that neoliberalism has now run its full course of the newer ending profit-seeking that emasculates all but the rich and powerful. There does seem a paucity of thought in the ruling class which contrasts with the situation after Wordf War 2 in 1945 when there was a genuine desire to change things for the better after two disastrous world wars and world wide eonomic depression after the 1929 crash. Waiting for something better does seem an inncredibly dangerous thing when climate disaster is about to really bite and social and economic inequality is increasing everywhere (China may be an exception but their average GDP per person is much lower than the West at the moment).
Badenoch et all care nothing for evidence or truth. It is irrelevant to their battering ram of arrogant aggressive blather which is designed to produce exhaustion, frustration and ultimately resignation better to enable their fascist agenda. Sticking to a strictly limited selection of sources that aim to untangle truths from the blather is better for our health.
Mrs Murphy is a very sensible lady. The sense of disillusionment is palpable across the World. Despite this being a year with an absurd number of plebiscites across the globe, there is a huge sense of apathy. William Whitelaw would approve but the feeling is not unique to the UK! Given the hegemony of multinational corporations, hedge funds, bankers, venture capitalists and central banks it all feels so pointless. Why should anyone with any sense engage in political discourse or even read about politics in the news? However, I strongly believe that we all need to be less defeatist.
The role of websites like this and ‘journalists’ is to actually educate the population and to counteract this apathy and disillusionment. You academics and leaders on here need to be talking to politicians directly and conversing with political journalists. You need to be on Podcasts and on the Radio as much as possible. If possible, you need to be seen on TV, asking questions in the audience at Question Time or appearing on News Night. The Modern World is too complex and intricate. Very few people have a basic handle of how things really work. There needs to be a revolution is how information is disseminated to the general public and a huge investment in teaching. As they use to say – It is all about “Education, Education, Education”
Labour and the Labour Party are a product of society, they are part of the problem but not the direct cause or our disenchantment. His Majesty’s Opposition are not responsible for our current woes.
Feel a constant tension between wanting to know what’s happening, in UK and across the globe, and finding most news unbearably dreadful. The anger I feel towards those in power who don’t care for anything but amassing money and power for themselves and their ilk is overwhelming.