I am pretty sure no one is going to read this, but I am fine with that. I just feel the need to write this down somewhere, perhaps for posterity, but just putting it down somewhere rather than having it swirling around in my mind. And my laptop is already dominated by my ruminations.
What has prompted this is a conversation I have just had. It was a catch-up call with someone, and we got onto the subject of politics. It isn’t unusual, and we often don’t agree with each other. Certainly not anymore when the whole political issue appears to be both toxic and divisive no matter where you look in the world. But, we were having the usual chat about the dire straits the country appears to be in morally and financially. The fact that the celebratory bus parade for our magnificent Lionesses is being held today, on the one year anniversary of a terrible incident in the north of England where young children were murdered at a dance class. And I know from my time working in government that it’s likely the date was chosen, if not explicitly, then with a thought in the back of the collective mind that government would prefer to see images of the celebrations on the newspapers than headlines about the anniversary of what happened a year ago. Because what happened caused riots in this country, and frankly we are political tinderbox at the moment with the slightest thing likely to set off certain sections of the community into violence.
We then got to talking about the preponderance of career politicians, people who have either worked for the political party they support before entering politics or who held ‘holding’ jobs before landing a safe political seat. And that this is starting to tell in politics (of all persuasions) because we are lacking any kind of leadership across the spectrum. Not to mention that the current government tore up their manifesto as soon as they were elected – and an already jaded public were now highly unlikely to believe any promise uttered by any of the government. My own view is that this government is highly unlikely to last the full term but my concern is who replaces them. We simply do not have politicians worthy of high office sitting in Parliament currently, across all the benches. The person I was speaking to made the case for Reform UK, who I utterly deplore. As far as I am concerned, they are just as bad as the others with their snouts in the trough and basically will also say whatever they want to get into power. Which will backfire on them spectacularly but which will likely destroy this country even further.
And it got me thinking…what is going on in a world where politics is toxic and divisive? Where the polarisation in democracies is extreme. There doesn’t appear to be any middle ground anymore, people are either accused of being far left or far right – nothing in the middle. Where if you disagree with someone, there is no longer nuance in debates and discussions. It’s either agree with me or you are wrong. And that is not what society, community, democracy is about. Which then took me to the fundamental question…what is the purpose of politics? It’s to form a government that the majority of people wish to represent their interests and provide the structures around society. To make and enforce the policies and laws that are deemed necessary to stop society falling into anarchy. It is infrastructure, in essence, to keep things like education, transport, health, defence, and care for the vulnerable in place and functioning. Increasingly, it is failing at doing any of those things.
In order to fund this activity, it is a necessity for government to tax the population. When it comes to tax, there is little choice about paying the vast majority of taxes and unless you are very wealthy, there are no real loopholes to exploit. You are even taxed after you die. And your levels of taxation are dependent upon the amount earned with, in theory, the wealthiest bearing the brunt of the burden. Except those pesky loopholes again. It’s only people are employed on a high salary are the wealthy notionally bearing the brunt of the burden (newsflash – they aren’t the truly wealthy). So, the taxation burden mostly falls on those people in the middle who conform to the 9-5 lifestyle. Too much aspiration, really, is frowned upon because it is taxed to the hilt and they are, basically, sitting ducks for successive governments with little to no say over it all even at the ballot box. Because the other fundamental truth about taxation is…those who pay it have no say how it is expended even at the ballot box. You think you’ve voted for your taxes to be spent on one thing…then the manifesto is torn up and it is spent in ways you really didn’t want it to be. And there’s nothing you can do about it until the next set of elections when even then there is Hobson’s Choice around who to elect. We wonder why people are so fed up with politics and politicians!
Democracy is increasingly looking fragile – just look what’s happening in the US – and yet it is never more needed because…just look at China, Iran, Russia, North Korea…the list goes on with human rights abuses and the complete lack of transparency going on unchecked. So, what do we do? How do we ensure that we as a collective don’t fall into some dark age of politics across the globe while we wait for what is clearly a transition to track through? We know enough of history to know that these transitions happen and that they are tumultuous, even deadly in many ways, so we must know enough to try and find ways in which we can make the transition smoother.
One thought I had was to create a government of national unity. Where it isn’t about political ideologies (frankly, they are either end of the extremes now or they are so similar as to be indistinguishable) but about the good of the country and its population. Governments that genuinely care about educating our children, and adults if they want to pivot and change careers which many do. The days of the job for life have been over for decades. Governments that also genuinely care about the health of its population, that look at prevention rather than cure as being not only the most effective in health but also the most cost-effective. Governments that care about the most vulnerable in society so the priority is looking after them, not those who can reasonably look after themselves. And on these matters, governments that aren’t riven by ideologies most of which the majority of people are not remotely exercised by. They just want to live secure, peaceful lives and feel that they are not being ripped off through ridiculously high levels of taxation.
The reality is, no one likes taxation really but it is a social contract that we all ‘sign’ when we use the services it provides. But I suspect that if everyone paid their fair share of taxation (yes, that includes you Amazon et al) then there would not the levels of outrage when the taxes are increased. And if everyone pulled their weight in society who were able to, there would be more acceptance of paying it. Ironically, if these things were to happen then perhaps taxation would not need to be so ruinously high. And how can we ensure that at least some of that happens? Education. Good, decent education for all is how people who can have the opportunity to lead lives of economic activity. And creating a society-wide sense that no, no one else owes you a living because the welfare state is only there as a cushion in times of genuine need. Not forever.
Corporates could help here too. The ballooning welfare state bill is in part because of the mental health epidemic that Covid brought into stark relief. That epidemic highlighted the underlying epidemic of loneliness which kills more people more effectively than smoking 15 cigarettes a day (and I do not advocate smoking). And which has broken people’s mental health. Rather than paying lip-service to wellbeing (here’s a website you can go to, anyone?) but genuinely put in place wellbeing services, and rather than relying on the NHS to medicalise poor mental health with anti-depressants which don’t treat the root cause of the problem, why don’t corporates wake up and see that the road to increased profits is in increased productivity – which is in part found through increased wellbeing amongst staff. And a larger tax-take for the government thereby reducing the need to tax the population (because, of course, in a connected society the corporate doesn’t dodge tax for all it’s worth).
What I am arguing for, I guess, is connection as always. That people feel connected to their communities so that loneliness can become a thing of the past. Where corporates accept and understand that they are connected to their communities – whether it’s their workforce, their customers or the place in which they exist – and act responsibly towards supporting those communities. Where government fosters connection in communities rather than breaking it through excessive interventions and encouraging the abrogation of personal responsibility to the state. In effect, I am arguing for a system that recognises we are all one, including with nature, and respects and fosters that oneness which in turn helps erode societal cancers like racism, homophobia, misogyny and all the other bigotry that is ballooning currently. A system that, say, enables other countries to grow economically in whatever way that suits them – with a population that doesn’t bleat about ‘charity begins at home’ then complains about economic migration as though the two issues aren’t related, but recognises that oneness extends beyond artificial geographic borders. From there, a different type of democracy might emerge that is about that connection.
None of this is rocket science. It isn’t even particularly woo woo. But in a world where we are increasingly polarised to the point where people are prepared to murder (more shootings, stabbings and murders in the media today) those they disagree with, surely we have got to look at all of this differently. The system is broken, it does need fixing. We don’t need to go through a violent cataclysm to get there. But we do need to stop complaining about it and not coming up with solutions or ideas. We can make change happen peacefully, and in connection with each other. If we come together and start the conversation, start being solution-focused rather than problem-focused.
Not doing so has me very worried for our collective future.
Louisa Simpson 