I'm already a little riot weary.<\/p>\n
I'm bored of having to say I condemn rioters: doesn't everyone?<\/p>\n
I'm bored also with those who say that there is a political divide on this issue: that the left are wrong to blame cuts and the right are wrong to say that's not true.<\/p>\n
The reality is that in a small number of\u00a0communities, and for a small number of people (I suspect we're talking 5,000 or so rioters at most) the veneer that holds people\u00a0within\u00a0social constraints of\u00a0compliance\u00a0spectacularly\u00a0failed at the weekend. That's the one fact we have: there was a break down in law and order. After that there is\u00a0speculation. And there should be reasoning about how we go forward, and less of the blame game.<\/p>\n
There's certainly very good reason for saying blame should not be part of today's\u00a0exchanges\u00a0in\u00a0parliament. That's\u00a0because\u00a0it would be hard to put a fag paper between the Tories and New Labour if blame were to be levelled. That's because, if we look for areas of agreement\u00a0amongst\u00a0the\u00a0speculation, most seem to see this\u00a0rioting\u00a0as an exercise in mass looting; of\u00a0materialism\u00a0out of control, and most seem to recognise that there was in the\u00a0police\u00a0response\u00a0an initial lack of conviction, reflected in no small part by the immediate lack of appreciation of the situation by many in our\u00a0political\u00a0leadership.<\/p>\n
The reason for the materialism is not hard to find: for\u00a0thirty\u00a0years excessive consumption has been promoted as the definition of well being by\u00a0governments\u00a0of both left and right. This is the\u00a0consequence: that people want without entitlement. That may be wrong, but when day in day out\u00a0people\u00a0are\u00a0bombarded\u00a0with advertising messages whose sole purpose is to make them feel\u00a0dissatisfied\u00a0with their current possessions and which say that if only they had what, for many, is unattainable then they would become the human being they aspired to be, that some feel alienated is surely not something we should be\u00a0surprised\u00a0by? Isn't the whole of society stressed by this messaging, and wouldn't we all (think about it for a moment) be so much better off without it?<\/p>\n
Second, the reason for the inadequate response is not hard to find either. For the same\u00a0thirty\u00a0years or so we have endured neoliberalism - a social construct that says that whatever\u00a0politicians\u00a0do they make people worse off because markets can always do things better, and that they should as a result leave well alone. So they did and we have seen the result. They left the\u00a0police\u00a0alone\u00a0to get on with things - but the police have after years of such uncertainty also lost their confidence. And only with great\u00a0reluctance\u00a0where the politicians dragged back into the arena of leadership where they belong, and in which they feel so uncomfortable.<\/p>\n
I agree with\u00a0those\u00a0who say society has failed. On\u00a0ethics. On\u00a0parenting. On schooling. And also on\u00a0leadership. But that's\u00a0because\u00a0for too long we have really\u00a0believed\u00a0there is no such thing as society., And that greed is good. And this is where it, inevitably, leads.<\/p>\n
These are big themes in my forthcoming book - the\u00a0Courageous\u00a0State.\u00a0Both\u00a0are core to the\u00a0arguments\u00a0I make in it. As is my blaming neoliberalism as a whole (adopted by left and right alike: let's not make this\u00a0personal\u00a0or\u00a0particular) for this malaise. Because I think we have the right to do that.<\/p>\n
And we have a right to look for\u00a0something\u00a0different\u00a0- for leadership, for courage, for\u00a0politicians\u00a0who act on conviction. For\u00a0politicians\u00a0who will stand up to the market and say it can get things\u00a0seriously\u00a0wrong and it is the job of the state to not just correct for that but to\u00a0actually\u00a0stop it doing such things. \u00a0And for action to bring the excesses of some in society under control so that the\u00a0differentials\u00a0which fuel the resentment of those who have no prospect of ever fulfilling the dream that they are told (so\u00a0inappropriately, and so\u00a0incorrectly\u00a0and so unethically) they must have are reduced to levels that are acceptable,\u00a0because\u00a0it inequality, not\u00a0just\u00a0of outcome but of hope\u00a0that fuel so much that is wrong in society.<\/p>\n
And we have a right to expect the end of looting too: the looting of the feral\u00a0speculative\u00a0economy of the real economy in which most of us live and work.\u00a0Because\u00a0when we look at looting then the looting of the bankers has to be addressed. As does the looting of the state's tax revenues by so many who have now captured services the state should supply for private gain and so obviously enrich themselves unjustly at cost to all\u00a0others\u00a0in the process. Yes, those are issues I address too.<\/p>\n
I'll never condone rioting, looting or criminality. Ever.<\/p>\n
But please don't ask me to condone neoliberalism either. Because we all deserve\u00a0something\u00a0so much better than that. And today if\u00a0parliament\u00a0is to do anything useful it should agree that the political\u00a0consensus\u00a0in this\u00a0country\u00a0has to change; that we now have to agree that we really do need a strong, confident state, and that we do need to tame market excess, but\u00a0that in the poorcess we can deliver something much more\u00a0powerful, much more important and much more\u00a0compelling. That is people who can achieve their potential, communities that are strong, identification with society and a sesne of\u00a0purpose.<\/p>\n
Yes, the\u00a0Courageous\u00a0State is\u00a0about\u00a0all\u00a0those\u00a0things too.<\/p>\n
Now I'd better go and finish\u00a0writing\u00a0it. It's\u00a0due\u00a0out in late September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"