Election 24: “We Need To Talk About Policy“

CIVIC BISCUIT: Politics But Sideways

By Danny Marten and Dermot Rathbone

Ya boo sucks! We don’t want your policy wonkery here! After all, engaging in politics through ‘memes’ and 3-word slogans is much easier than participating in intellectual debate. 

Most of the electorate become bored with politics very quickly.

You only have to look at dire turnout in local elections, with the plebiscite handbook offering excuses such as ‘they’re all the same’, ‘they don’t do nowt” and “they’re all the same. Nothing will change”

This lack of inquiry will lets the politicians off the hook.

Scrutiny begets truth.

That’s why Boris Johnson’s administration was doomed from the start.

By December 2019, the UK had undergone four national votes in five years. The last thing we wanted from Santa was a Christmas election. We were sick of it.

At the same time, Corbyn’s Labour Party had become reductive. There was no credible position on Brexit, and the brilliant 2017 manifesto was discarded.

Instead the Labour Party put in place an ‘anything you like‘ approach to policy, including such gems as free universal broadband.

Conversely the Tories had simple, electorate-friendly slogans; they had an ‘oven ready deal‘ and wanted to ‘get BREXIT done.’ 

The lack of politics in the election allowed Johnson to invent garbage about our leaving the European Union, and everyone let him get away with it. 

The political class have mislead the electorate so often that voters can hardly be blamed for making poor choices at the ballot box.

The UK has been under the heel of neo liberal/Thatcherite policies since 1979.

One the few counter forces to this was our membership of the European Union.

For all its faults, it was a system that generally protected quality of life and peace across the continent.

But a range of disasters including Austerity and NHS cuts, blinded the electorate to these neo-liberal policies as a cause of their discontent. A political vacuum in progressive politics allowed a sirens call to prevail

We were out of Europe. Because un serious politicians filled the gaping policy hole.

Remember it was only a year after the electorate had rewarded David Cameron’s destruction of public services through austerity with a majority.

It wasn’t just austerity; there were student fees, the catastrophic Health and Social Care Act, the Bedroom Tax and the growth of zero-hours contracts. 

The Institute of Health Inequality noted: “148,000 deaths have occurred since the Coalition took power which are directly attributable to Austerity policies up to January 2020″.  

Sir Michael Marmot was known for his 2010 Review on Health Inequality.

Ten years on Sir Michael said: “These figures are dismal”. But the truth of the matter is spelt out thus. “They represent political failure.”

The last 14 years have seen this country destroyed by abysmal government policy choices.

As soon as Rich-Rishi sounded the horn for a general election, everyone with an ounce of common sense must surely realise that the time has come for the Tories to stand in the corner and think about what they’ve done.

The Wash-Up in Parliament saw all the semi-respectable bills slashed and burned; the zero smoking policy and the ban on no fault evictions were gone.

Frankly embarrassing Tory election pledges so far include a tax break of 57p a week for pensioners and a commitment to send young people to do national service.

This being the party that lifted the cap on bankers’ bonuses and that wasted £450m on Rwanda.

The country deserves better. The Tories are once again going for simple slogans and cheap political rhetoric.

They aren’t even addressing the housing crisis, interest rates, low pay, the cost of living, energy security, the cost of filling the car, non-existent northern transport links, the failure of privatisation, the social care crisis, the structural failures in health provision (note, not just the NHS), I could go on. 

For change to take place under the Tories would for them to admit they failed and that their neo-liberal policy agenda is the cause of many of the long-term policy problems we face. Forget the invasion of Ukraine and Covid 19; we have been the quagmire for a while.