I have suffered from a very strong feeling of late, which is that it is becoming very hard to escape the theatre of political distraction right now.
The lights are bright, the noise is relentless, and the cast is depressingly familiar. Whether it be Donald Trump and his shenanigans, Nigel Farage with his latest grievance, or the latest seemingly inevitable distraction created by the royal family, there has seemed to be one thing after another to fill front pages and soak up airtime with issues that divert attention from what is important in the world.
While attention is given to these issues, something else is happening - or rather, not happening - in the real world. The attention of the government, the media, and far too many concerned people is being taken from the issues that actually matter in this country at present.
So, too little attention is being given to the fact that far too many children are still living in poverty. In Britain, which remains one of the richest countries in the world, free school meals are still unavailable to many who really need them, and food banks now serve millions. The fact is that the quiet crisis of child poverty rarely makes the headlines because it cannot be made to glitter. Yet it is one of the most accurate measures of national failure that we have.
Then there is the issue of poor housing, which has become a daily misery for far too many. The government continues to treat the housing market as a market for financial speculation, and not a human necessity. Rents rise, mortgage costs soar, and housebuilding targets are presented as progress without ever seeming to recognise that much of what is built is unaffordable. The result is a generation priced out, trapped, or homeless, creating a slow, grinding disaster that barely cuts through the celebrity noise.
Meanwhile, too many of our care services have all but collapsed. The NHS is failing, and people are still dying in corridors. Social care is rationed, and those who provide care, whether professionally or within families, are exhausted, underpaid, and unseen. The politics of spectacle demands heroes and villains. The politics of care demands patience, compassion, and commitment, which are qualities in short supply among our political showmen.
And in the background, the energy transition on which the future depends has stalled. While the world burns and floods, Britain dithers. Investment is withheld. Infrastructure decays. Policy is delayed. And ministers still pose at podiums, claiming global leadership on climate issues whilst simultaneously approving new oil fields. The contradiction is obscene, but effective. It maintains the illusion of activity while ensuring that nothing changes.
All this is happening because we have allowed our public and political spheres to be captured by media-focused performance. Those who profit from power without responsibility thrive on this distraction. The fact is that the populist, the demagogue, and the courtier all share the same instinct to keep the spotlight on themselves, hoping the public will not notice what they are losing in the process.
That consequence is profound. When attention is monopolised by the politics of noise, democracy itself is weakened. Accountability fades. Real policy disappears. Public services disintegrate quietly, defeated by deliberate neglect.
So, what is to be done?
First, we must look away from the media spectacle. Every minute spent debating the latest Trump headline or royal family-related issue is a minute not spent asking why people in Britain cannot afford food, shelter, or warmth.
Second, we must rebuild the politics of care, which is the politics that begins with the question what do people need to live well, safely, and with dignity? That requires public investment, and not austerity; taxation of wealth, and not punishment of poverty; and an economy designed around well-being, and not spectacle.
Third, we must reclaim attention itself as a democratic resource. What we choose to notice determines what gets done. The media, for all its complicity, responds to demand. If citizens insist that the stories of poverty, care, and ecological survival matter, then the cameras will eventually have to follow, and this could happen because we know that there is massive fatigue with the news as it is being portrayed at present: viewing figures prove it.
The alternative is the continuation of the pantomime and the endless reruns of outrage and distraction while real life deteriorates in the background.
We can no longer afford that. The world is burning, the country is breaking, and those who suffer most are invisible precisely because attention is the currency of power.
It is time we stopped funding the circus and started funding the future.
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Have you the spare capacity to make a video on this? It’s a good call to action for letters to MPs and news outlets.
Now there’s an idea…….
I agree with every word of this and will be sharing it.
Thanks
The UK political groups believe that the UK cannot afford it, so tinkers, pandering to the financial elites.
Constant media pressure such as “benefits budget is spiralling out of control” and so on.
Meanwhile the majority get poorer, sicker, less job opportunities.
Where is the vision? The desire to treat real world problems. Look at no steer, spends most of the time out of the country “basking” in foreign policy.
The UK is definitely producing ” leaders” who are narrow minded donkeys.
Apologies to the donkeys for linking them with the UK idiot elites.
Very much agreed.
However, Zack Polanski is very much injecting hope into the conversation talking about the broken system created by neoliberalism and billionaire wealth, and offering a recognisable social democratic green alternative. He is speaking boldly and loudly, and making the right squirm (with right wing TV resorting to attacking his appearance – like Corbyn – all very tired and sad).
This has resulted in the latest Find Out Now poll putting the Greens ahead of Labour and the Tories and only behind Reform (who have plateaued).
And the latest YouGov poll, analysed by age ranges, puts the Green Party top on 25% in the combined 18-49 age groups – Labour is second on 21%, then Reform on 19% and the Tories on just 11% (Reform are of course top in this poll too when older people are added).
Could not agree more. Incidentally, Peter Watkins has just died. The deliberate use of pop culture to distract from real issues was one of his themes. The media has mostly ignored this news, except for the Guardian, which hasn’t however allowed any comments. We can comment on boyfriends, holidays and, er, making ginger biscuits, but not one of the best documentary makers of the second half of the twentieth century, whose films are still relevant today.
Much to agree with
As Juvenal observed of Rome…. it’s Bread and Circus – except today there is no bread.
🙂
Thank you all for a most percipient and timely article!
Might the recent book, “Why Civil Resistance Works” by Erica Chenoweth and Maria J. Stephan be of help in this (organised) tsunami of diversion and distraction?
It is deeply researched and offers realistic hope through the development and use of critical thinking and critical asking by the members of an alert and cohesive society, or some thereof.
Might it be of assistance if state education enabled and encouraged students/future citizens to be less compliant and more informedly questioning and groundedly assertive?
“Civil protest is an essential, if under recognised, part of a valid democracy.”
Much to agree with
On the basis that we all use them might I suggest looking at the roads – ironically when I went to Kent this summer they were some of the worst I have seen.
Overgrown and dirty signs
Worn out road markings
Potholes and other damage to the road surface
Reckless and illegal behaviour by road users
I suspect that if I was a Civil Engineer I could add a few more
Its a very visible indicator of the state of the country
“Politics is showbiz for the less talented.”
(From “Have I Got News for You!”)
Fantastic piece, as ever.
A lot of people I know have turned away from corporate media (BBC, newspapers)
Speaking of which, had anyone noticed that the ITV drama ‘The Hack’ has been completley ignored by just about everyone. No coincidence?
My only suprise at the moment is just how passive people are – will we reach a point where anger translates into action?
The disparity between our lives lived to the utter lies and narratives we are expected to swallow is beyond.
Totally agree. People are desperately looking for hope. Until last year’s election many hoped a change of government would provide this, but it hasn’t and as anyone working in the public sector can tell you if anything it’s now worse.
Zack Polanski has essentially been communicating a very similar message to what you have said here, admittedly in much simpler sound bites and it’s hugely popular as the current Green surge shows. I think most people realise it will take a long time to resolve the problems of child poverty, poor housing and the NHS and ignoring climate change will not make it go away, but they want acknowledgement of the issues and a fairer society.
I particularly like your idea of a politics of care. Current political thinking is so fixated on the economy whilst ignoring human suffering. I live in a village where we care for each other, and often really little actions can show love and bring joy. We need to find ways to translate this to big towns and cities. We are told we are a rich country, but for many it just feels very unfair and unequal.
I am working on that idea, amongst others.
It is a myth that people do not care for each other in cities. I live in one and feel well supported by neighbours. Mine is a multi-racial city, one that is regularly denigrated as some sort of immigrant blighted dystopia by the right wing press, but let me share with you the recent experience of an 80 year old ( white female) friend of mine who fell over and bloodied her face whilst walking into the city centre. A crowd ( of varying ethnicities) gathered. She simply wanted to be helped up and allowed to stagger off back home. That was not to be allowed. A young black man produced a toilet roll to help with the blood. It transpired that he had just come from the food bank and shared with my friend his limited supplies. No ambulance could be procured so an (Asian) taxi driver took her to A&E and refused payment. My point is that there is enormous goodwill in this country still with people desperately keen to do the right thing when they can. The aim of people like Farage is to frighten and divide us. He must not be allowed to succeed.
Thank you for sharing.