I took part in a discussion on defence spending during the Nicky Campbell Show on BBC Radio 5 this morning, and contrary to most of my media experience of late, this went really well.
You can listen here - start at 90 minutes in.
Nicky gave me the chance to develop an idea, and Anthony (Tony) King of Exeter University the chance to respond. The three callers all added value. One was well-versed in modern monetary theory, but all were good, and then Tony and I were allowed to conclude. The Taxing Wealth Report 2024 also got a good plug.
For once, I can recommend this: I enjoyed it, and the producer was effusive afterwards.
There will be more on this tomorrow.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
There are links to this blog's glossary in the above post that explain technical terms used in it. Follow them for more explanations.
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Buy me a coffee!
Well done. I listened to your contribution. Absolutely first class.
Thanks
Great listen. Refreshing energy in the discussion. And yes you were very lucid. I personally wish to goodness you’d lead an ‘actual’ reform party though I know it’s not on your agenda.
I literally couldn’t do it. I am quite introverted. Doing politics in that way would leave my drained of life in days at most.
I’d do it on your behalf if you could arrange a brain transplant.
Yes, as an introvert it would be a horribly exhausting affair.
I thought that you were brilliant Richard. Your contributions were thoughtful and articulate with clear examples
Thanks
I thought it was terrific, Richard. Well done you. Such a joy to hear an informed, intelligent conversation between knowledge people with no party political sniping.
“Who are we defending?” is absolutely the right question. It is profoundly different from the usual question “What are we defending?”. The first duty of any Government is to defend its citizens. Not an idea, or one political ideology, or a wispy concept, or 1% of its citizens. All its citizens.
A country – any country – is not static in its nature. Countries may be delineated parcels of land, but the Governments of those parcels of land frequently change (unless you’re in Russia) and so does their focus.
Successive UK Governments have failed in their primary duty, by defending the 1% – to the massive detriment of the 99%.
So you’re spot on in your question.
As for Governments being agile in their responses to a sudden huge shift of geopolitical tectonic plates, I don’t think our current Government fits the bill. It’s rather difficult to be agile in a straitjacket of ironclad fiscal rules – even if you donned it yourself.
[…] editing were blown apart when Nicky Campbell asked me to be on Radio Five in the morning, which, as I have noted elsewhere, was well worthwhile […]
Well done Richard, that felt a bit like a breakthrough moment! You’ve certainly whetted NC’s appetite for a wider, less conventional overview. The “who (or What) are we defending?” question was a brilliant refocussing point, and created a mind map, or more accurately a layered 3D illustration of how we should understand the issues of what does the big picture really look like?
Understanding how government works (or doesn’t) then over mapping people’s expectations of livelihood, wellbeing and welfare, and further overlaying the aims of commerce/big business/wealth creation, across the foundation layer of the money supply, where it comes from and where we want it to be distributed to for the greater good of society. It be comes easier to see how complex these stratifications become, and how challenging it is to disentangle them using the outdated neo-liberal formula.
But this also answers in part the question of “how do we sell it?”
Reform (with a small r) will only come about when more and more people (in fact the majority) understand the neo-liberal stratification, and how radical re-drawing of the big picture is now an imperative if we are to move forward in creating the sort of society that you, your progressive colleagues like Steve K, Tony, Rachel Donald et al, and I and many like me envision and hope for.
The last para is key
I just keep plugging away at it