Change and a renewed betterment for ordinary people does not come through the management, good or bad, of accepted certainties but through those certainties being challenged and questioned.
"While MPs are rushing round their constituencies attending the opening of a crisp packet the issues that dominate parliamentary debate (and, often, wider political debate) are often second order issues. Labour MPs are more interested in playing gotcha over a slogan on the Prime Minister’s podium than they are in the proposals he set out from that podium. Similarly Conservative MPs focus on a joke letter left by a departing Labour economy minister in 2010 not the substance of economic policy. Meanwhile MPs across politics leap onto every headline - banning vapes, ultra-processed food, Saudi Arabians buying football teams, the historical antics of a shock jock - a thousand petty and unimportant issues all used to give the MP or minister a positive media profile."
Spot on. The people in charge of £1tn of spending, and they're doing a photo op about a campaign to raise a couple of grand for a charity, or keeping a barely used bus route running. But, oh no, they don't have time to analyse whether £50bn for HS2 is a good idea or not.
I have a general observation that people in politics just aren't very serious any more. Politics used to attract top people across the board. Go and dig up old debate shows with Barbara Castle or Margaret Thatcher. Whether you agree with the conclusion or not, these people had thought about things. It wasn't just some daft PR exercise.
I think the problem is that a lot of the population have become disengaged from government. There are two ways to address the failings of government. One is to get involved in politics, the other is to work around it. You get fed up with how crap the trains are, do you join a party to improve them, or do you buy a Toyota? Can't afford a house where you live? Do you join a political party to try and change policy, or figure out a way to live in a cheaper part of the UK?
I used to think that politics was the answer, but having spent some time in a local party, I don't think that any more. I'd rather give up my time to help a guy learn to program or give a charity some free advice than to work with political parties that just want me to push leaflets through doors and care almost nothing about economics or philosophy.
In the dire case of the UK, any revival of democratic pluralism could only occur after a massive (and almost inevitably ugly) shake down of its entrenched civil service and parasitic legal cultures....I'm not holding my breath.
"Unsurprisingly, neither governmental bureaucracies and quangos nor other civil institutions keep statistics on the political leanings of their employees. But there are clues. Unherd columnist Peter Franklin reflecting on his own experience of working in two UK government departments comments: “How many of the civil servants that most closely serve this Conservative government are actually Leftwing? Well....I would say approximately all of them”.
The people must be saved from themselves, as the priests insist. That's what the P in PMC now represents.
People I know genuinely hate the 'masses' in the same kind of way Sunni hate Shia. I can't shake this feeling that fear of evil and love of religious zeal are primordial in the secular modern west.
"While MPs are rushing round their constituencies attending the opening of a crisp packet the issues that dominate parliamentary debate (and, often, wider political debate) are often second order issues. Labour MPs are more interested in playing gotcha over a slogan on the Prime Minister’s podium than they are in the proposals he set out from that podium. Similarly Conservative MPs focus on a joke letter left by a departing Labour economy minister in 2010 not the substance of economic policy. Meanwhile MPs across politics leap onto every headline - banning vapes, ultra-processed food, Saudi Arabians buying football teams, the historical antics of a shock jock - a thousand petty and unimportant issues all used to give the MP or minister a positive media profile."
Spot on. The people in charge of £1tn of spending, and they're doing a photo op about a campaign to raise a couple of grand for a charity, or keeping a barely used bus route running. But, oh no, they don't have time to analyse whether £50bn for HS2 is a good idea or not.
I have a general observation that people in politics just aren't very serious any more. Politics used to attract top people across the board. Go and dig up old debate shows with Barbara Castle or Margaret Thatcher. Whether you agree with the conclusion or not, these people had thought about things. It wasn't just some daft PR exercise.
I think the problem is that a lot of the population have become disengaged from government. There are two ways to address the failings of government. One is to get involved in politics, the other is to work around it. You get fed up with how crap the trains are, do you join a party to improve them, or do you buy a Toyota? Can't afford a house where you live? Do you join a political party to try and change policy, or figure out a way to live in a cheaper part of the UK?
I used to think that politics was the answer, but having spent some time in a local party, I don't think that any more. I'd rather give up my time to help a guy learn to program or give a charity some free advice than to work with political parties that just want me to push leaflets through doors and care almost nothing about economics or philosophy.
This strike by UAW seems to undermine the idea that the working class are sensible. But the PMC is also bonkers. https://open.substack.com/pub/theindustry/p/strike?r=b5zww&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=post
In the dire case of the UK, any revival of democratic pluralism could only occur after a massive (and almost inevitably ugly) shake down of its entrenched civil service and parasitic legal cultures....I'm not holding my breath.
"Unsurprisingly, neither governmental bureaucracies and quangos nor other civil institutions keep statistics on the political leanings of their employees. But there are clues. Unherd columnist Peter Franklin reflecting on his own experience of working in two UK government departments comments: “How many of the civil servants that most closely serve this Conservative government are actually Leftwing? Well....I would say approximately all of them”.
https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/carry-on-governing
A great article. Absolutely spot on. It’s clear that the UK needs a new, populist party. One as I say here, that might Nan could have voted for. https://open.substack.com/pub/lowstatus/p/in-praise-of-populism?r=evzeq&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
The people must be saved from themselves, as the priests insist. That's what the P in PMC now represents.
People I know genuinely hate the 'masses' in the same kind of way Sunni hate Shia. I can't shake this feeling that fear of evil and love of religious zeal are primordial in the secular modern west.