Our discussion was on the morning of the General Election, after a campaign full of sound-bites, and a legacy of lies. James O’Brien: “How they Broke Britain”; Michael Roberts: “Broken Britain”; Jeffrey Scheuer: “The Sound-bite Society”; Digby Anderson: “Faking it”; Nick Davies: “Flat-Earth News” and a Cardiff University Paper: “Immediacy, Convenience or Engagement? An Analysis of 24-hour News Channels in the UK” all deal with this phenomenon (see the web-links below). Whereas serious politicians use arguments, demagogues rely on sound-bites, often far more powerful in moving public opinion, such as blaming housing shortages on immigration (eg Nigel Farage), rather than recognising that “short supply” is needed to maintain prices and profit levels, so incentives to build. Politicians “get away with it” unless people can check the facts.
In France Marine Le Pen’s National Rally also attacks immigration, but with more “left-wing” economic policies (raising public spending, a minimum wage, house-building, restoring the pension age) to counter the failure of Macron’s “centrist” economic policies to solve the problems faced by working people. With taxation a taboo subject, and bond markets limiting borrowing (see, for example, Martijn Konings: “The Bailout State”) the same dilemma faces the US Democrats, and could confront Kier Starmer by 2029. The vacuum left by a lack of serious policies to tackle the concentration of wealth and power in western economies will always be filled by simplistic, authoritarian “solutions” (and see Anne Applebaum: “Autocracy, Inc.- the Dictators who Want to Run the World”).
At first sight the Parable of the Vineyard Tenants (Luke chapter 20) is a story of a workers’ rent revolt against a grasping, tyrannical landlord, who will use the proceeds for his own luxuries and power- but the “scribes and chief priests” (verse 19) see it as clearly told against them. They, as leaders of the people, are the ones who have refused to share the “produce” with an “owner” who wants to see all people supplied (as the Jubilee laws demanded), and sent his “beloved son” to see that was done. Many governments today stand condemned by the same standard.
Given the lack of economic and political education in today’s electorates, what are the options within the constraints of today’s very limited “democratic mandates”? One is the attempt by the present UK Labour administration to achieve greater co-ordination between government departments, to end the “silo” mentality of competition between them, and to plan more “wholistically”. Why, for example, is the demand on health spending made greater by a lack of sensible policies on prevention, with complaints about a “nanny state” blocking action on smoking or a sugar tax on junk food to cut down on diabetes? Why is there so much scepticism about “Green Energy” (costing consumers more?) when many investors see opportunities, even within the criteria of profitability (compare Mark Carney at Davos in January).
In many poorer countries health care is forced to find cheaper ways to achieve its goals: for example campaigning for generic drugs in the place of expensive patented versions (as with HIV drugs to combat AIDS; using treatments for childhood cancer costing £200 at Cameroon Baptist hospitals, rather than £45,000 at Great Ormond Street, and training nurses to better recognise symptoms and side effects.
Governments need the constant vigilance and pressure of public opinion to adopt just and anti-poverty policies. That puts a great responsibility on the shoulders of churches, schools and also individuals. “Democracy” has to mean something more than a vote in general elections.
https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-They-Broke-Britain-Bestseller/dp/0753560364 https://www.cadtm.org/Broken-Britain
https://jeffreyscheuer.com/thesoundbitesocietybook https://jeffreyscheuer.com/thebigpicture https://www.amazon.co.uk/Faking-Sentamentalisation-Modern-Society-Sentimentalization/dp/0140280731
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Flat-Earth-News-Award-winning-Distortion/dp/0099512688 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14616700500250362 (abstract only) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bailout-State-Governments-Rescue-People/dp/1509564322 https://www.anneapplebaum.com/book/autocracy/
https://financialpost.com/fp-finance/mark-carney-massive-disconnect-green-finance-rhetoric https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20240530-pharma-firm-urged-to-share-new-game-changer-hiv-drug