I am bored by being patronised by those telling me ‘don’t you know Remain is dead?, closely followed by ‘Move on.’ I can tell you, I have. That’s why I want to Return. To Europe, for sure. But to something much more than that.
I want to also Return to a positive politics. That’s the form rooted in compassion, care and genuine concern. But it’s also one that’s also learned that economics has moved on from what was taught by that subject in the 1980s, as has our understanding of the environment.
I want a politics that is not based in materialism. Or jingoism. Or nationalism. Or populism. Instead, I want a Return to the principles of mutual respect, tolerance, acceptance and co-existence, with each other and the rest of this world, human and otherwise.
I want a Return to a bias to the least well off. That’s because we all know the best off can already look after themselves. It’s those who have trouble doing so, for whatever the reason, that I want to be the priority in politics. I wonder, who wouldn’t, and why?
I want a Return to long term vision based on principles.
I want a Return to the belief that society matters.
I want a Return to the days when most believed they could live without the fear that misfortune might bring.
I want a Return to the belief that making matters. I define making widely. It’s not just the things we need. It’s also the services we need just as much. And the arts, learning and decent societies too. What is not ‘making’ is rentierism and dealing purely for the sake of profit.
I want a Return to the time when monopoly was rightly mistrusted, because it always exploits.
I want a Return to the time when professions had ethics.
I want a Return to a National Health Service.
But National Health also requires a National Wealth Service. That means a Return to the common wealth that delivers physical and financial security for those living in our society, guaranteeing homes, energy, communications and transport for all, plus safe savings.
I want a Return to the belief that all people’s opinions matter, and a voting system that reflects that, which now means an end to first past the post.
I want a Return to local decision making, but not in a tax system that can use this to reinforce regional inequality.
I want a Return to respect for time off.
I want a Return to the awareness that we might once have desired many of these things, but that we didn’t always find how to deliver them. So I want a Return to the endeavour to do so.
I want to return to the idea that what matters is much more than a pile of cash, whether measured as GDP, profit or notional wealth.
I want a Return to the idea that we are all in this together, too long forgotten by almost all of politics, with its focus on tribalism.
I want a Return, in other words, to the common good.
Is that too much to hope for?
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The more I read it the more I am perplexed by the Brexit deal.
It is an OK deal for trade in goods. Except for a mountain of very expensive and burdensome red tape, that is. And red tape and burdens on business are the thing the Tories always supposedly hated.
And the priority on the trade in goods also makes no sense for a service economy, which we are since the Tories abandoned manufacturing.
I am bemused by those who demand that we repay the UK government’s debt. It makes me wonder, do they know what it is? And how do they think it can be repaid? And do they appreciate the consequences? A thread is coming on......bear with me, because I think you need to know this.
First, what is the UK government’s debt? I’ve immersed myself in this issue and can confidently say the Office for National Statistics’s figures are wrong, most especially because they claim that the UK government is in debt by owing money to itself. That’s not possible.
Whatever the Office for National Statistics like to claim, money you owe yourself is not debt, and so quantitative easing cancels about £800 billion of UK national debt right now. There are other mistakes in their numbers, but I’ll just stick with this one for the moment.
I keep hearing people complain that the ‘mainstream media’ does not understand economics and that we’re talked down to as if everything must be explained as if the economy is a household. In this thread I explain all you (and they) need to know. Economics in one thread then....
Very few people seem to understand how money is created. Mainly that’s because when they’re told it seems so simple that they can’t believe something that’s so important that we’re willing to pay a lot to get it is created so easily. This thread explains how money is created.
What this thread also explains is that if we understand money we can completely reimagine how the economy really works, which is the pathway to rebuilding from the mess we are in. Which makes this a pretty big deal. I make no apology for its length as a result.
As those I know best could confirm, I have long feared a No Deal Brexit. I could not see how Gove and Johnson could or would agree to anything else. But now it’s apparent that it is going to happen I am still shocked.
I am shocked even though in one way this does not impact me. I have had an Irish passport for decades. I am one of the lucky ones. So are my close family. We can all still enjoy freedom of movement. But I am still bereft. England has been my home.
I am ashamed of England tonight. I am pleased that Scotland and Northern Ireland held out against Brexit. I could never blame the Welsh. Brexit is an English initiative. The exceptionalism that underpins it is England’s alone. And that is why it is of a England that I am ashamed.
As some will have noted, there were a lot of reports yesterday on the fact that £50 billion of banks notes are missing in the UK economy. This got me thinking. And as a result I have to suggest that finding that £50 billion of cash would not be hard. Here’s how to do it.
As the Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons has noted, around £50 billion of banknotes in issue have no explained use. In other words, they do not appear to be used for regular cash transactions. What their alternative use might be is not known.
Some could be in the possession of tourists, who have not bothered to exchange them on leaving the country. But the amounts involved would be small.
I’ve tweeted more about quantitative easing than I really thought to be decent of late. However the questions still keep coming, so here is another QE thread, on the use of QE funds and (especially) the link to the Green New Deal.....
The question I have been asked is does it matter what QE money is spent on, and the honest answer is ‘it’s complicated’. But, maybe not so so complicated if it’s understand that QE came in three stages, each of which is quite different.
Stage 1 QE lasted from 2009 until 2016, when the last round of this stage took place in the UK. The aim at this stage was simple. As always, new money was created by the Bank of England, and mainly government bonds (gilts) were bought. That’s what QE does, in essence.