Funding the Future

The private finance initiative was one of the worst legacies of the last Labour government. It was a massively expensive attempt to avoid incurring government debt. We’re still paying the price. And it’s looking like Rachel Reeves might be planning to do something similar.

England’s football team might get by on last-minute equalisers after 90 clueless minutes, but that’s not the way to run a country.

Centre right parties – like Labour is now – have always facilitated fascism by promoting neoliberalism that deliberately ignores the needs of most people. The result has been a political vacuum that the centre-right created, which the far-right and fascism is now trying to fill.
 
 

Trump might win the US presidency again. It might be the biggest shock to the world order in the lifetime of most people now on the planet.

No one wants to talk about fascism, but unless we do, and realise what is required to beat it then we are all in the deepest of trouble.
 
Jason Stanley  
 
1. The mythical past—used to invoke a nostalgia for a fictional time when the nation was great as it was not yet sullied by the “Other.”
2. Propaganda—to attack enemies, to justify violence, to justify laws against “Them” and to support the authoritarian leader.
3. Anti-intellectualism—to attack the media, universities, and scientists when they contradict the strong man’s authority.
4. Unreality—supporting conspiracy theories that tarnish the “Other” along with an outright denial of facts when convenient.
5. Hierarchy—espousing a “natural order” where the “Us” are hardworking, moral, law-abiding and productive members of society, while the “Other” is not.
6. Victimhood—casting “Us” as victims of “Them”, who are taking resources from “Us” and demanding special rights.
7. Law and order—using laws to justify violence, oppression, and expulsion of the “Other”.
8. Sexual anxiety—as the “Other” embraces non-traditional approaches to sexuality,
9. Appeals to the heartland—as rural communities are often more homogeneous and conservative (more “Us”) while urban cities are often more diverse, cosmopolitan (more “Them”).
10. Dismantling of public welfare and unity—by casting aside safety net programs as unfair giveaways to “Them”, who are not working, as opposed to “Us”, who are.

The Tories are likely to cease to be after this election, becoming so irrelevant that no-one will ever vote for them again. But could Labour, dedicated as it now is to Tory policies, go the same way by 2029? And what happens to our politics then? 

There is no magic to any government finding the money to do the things that we are capable of doing, because it can always create it by simply spending on these things we need – and then taxing that money back, if need be.

We might have had fourteen years of left-wing government in the UK, but except for 2015 it’s been unknown for most people of this country to vote for right-wing parties in a general election. And they won’t this time either, unless you include Labour in that number, which most people don’t, as yet. So, when will it be that people will actually get the government they want? Here’s looking forward to 2029….

It seems as if Wes Streeting’s dream for the NHS is that it be a low-cost, semi-automated, significantly privatised provider of healthcare to consumers – which is what he thinks we all are. That dream is going to be shattered by a sugar and ultra-processed food healthcare crisis and the wave of litigation that is going to hit the NHS as a result of Streeting’s plan to use under-trained staff.

Far-right commentators – the sort to be found in the Tufton Street think tanks – are suggesting that I am on the far-left of the political spectrum. Really? Since when did a belief in democracy, the need for a strong government capable of delivering decent public services for a very mixed economy, plus an absolute determination that no child should live in poverty, make a person far left? Could it be that those suggesting that I am are in danger of falling off the edge of the far-right?