Various bankers & journalists have recently been very upbeat about the prospects for Britain's economic recovery:
"The British economy will be booming. It is not yet widely appreciated just how big this boom will be" - Andrew Neil.
My advice: don't believe the hype.
Last week the Bank of England said: "Economic growth in Britain this year should not be confused with a normal boom... economy shrank almost 10% last year, biggest slump in 300 years".
While the opinion polls show a 'vaccine bounce' for the Tories, again: don't believe the hype.
A fascinating new opinion poll by the respected Pew Research Center, discussed in the Financial Times, tells a fascinating story about how a clear majority in the US & Western Europe support large scale, systemic change.
"You might have thought that the development of vaccines and thus the prospect of an exit from fresh lockdowns would have sparked an upbeat mood... But it isn’t so."
Roughly two-thirds of respondents in France and exactly half of those in the US, UK & Germany said they wanted either a “major overhaul” or “complete reform” of economic structures.
Only a tiny minority – as low as 3% in France – said they backed the status quo.
Remember fewer than three in ten of the UK electorate voted for the @Conservatives in #GE2019, & despite what the right-wing press & broadcast channels keep telling us, people are far more concerned about inequality & the economy than 'the woke' - whatever it's supposed to mean.
The survey suggests that the British are even more eager than continental Europeans to see higher levels of government control & redistribution.
In fact, 67% of British people strongly support MORE regulation of business, whereas it is 53% in Germany & just 46% in the US.
British people desire a much more expansive role of the state: 62% deem it “very important” for the government to build more public housing, & 53% for it to increase benefits to the poor - higher than other countries. 50% want a universal basic income, much higher than elsewhere.
The fact that British voters are expressing higher levels of support for government regulation & redistribution than the French & Germans, might reflect the fact that in free-market-obsessed Britain, we have had much less of this than our peers on the continent in recent decades.
The survey implies we cannot assume that any economic rebound & return to “normal” will automatically lead to voters embracing the status quo: the poll is showing a bigger zeitgeist shift, partly driven by the pandemic but with deeper roots, which could reshape policy attitudes.
The FT's Gillian Tett speculates that the reason there is high demand for government intervention is that #COVID19 has not only exposed grotesque levels of #inequality, but has reminded people just how uncertain the future is.
Maybe "there is a search under way for protection".
Hilary Cottam, UCL: “The [post-pandemic] flourishing we want can’t be brought about by postwar institutions.”
Jenna Bednar, Michigan Uni: the social fabric has decayed so far that a complete overhaul of our institutions is needed to create a more collaborative, inclusive system.
The scramble to develop & distribute the vaccine has not only shown people that governments can – sometimes – do good things, including collaborating with the private sector, but that companies can sometimes work together too, instead of just competing.
If/when we eventually emerge from #COVID19, do not just look to the economic data; look to see if a subtler shift in the zeitgeist is also under way.
Returning to “normal” does not necessarily mean re-embracing the old systems.
Political & corporate elites should take note.
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In England, 18% of adults aged 16-65 - 6.6 million people - can be described as having "very poor literacy skills" AKA 'functionally illiterate'.
This leaves people vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation, and poses significant challenges for society and democracy.
Being 'functionally illiterate' means that a person can understand short straightforward texts on familiar topics accurately & independently, & obtain information from everyday sources, but reading information from unfamiliar sources or on unfamiliar topics can cause problems.
Adult functional illiteracy—lacking the reading, writing, and comprehension skills needed for everyday tasks—poses significant challenges for a country, society, and democracy.
The first asks "Is it OK to smoke while I'm praying?"
The Pope replies "No! You should be focused on God!"
The second Priest asks "Is it OK to pray while I'm smoking?"
The Pope replies "Of course, there's never a bad time to pray"
Nigel Farage’s rhetorical technique of framing controversial or inflammatory statements as questions, often defended as “just asking questions,” is a well-documented strategy - sometimes called “JAQing off” in online discourse - that has drawn significant criticism.
This approach involves posing questions to imply a controversial viewpoint without explicitly endorsing it, thereby maintaining plausible deniability. Farage often uses this strategy to raise issues around immigration, national identity, and 'wokeness' or 'political correctness'.
The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) was a response to the atrocities of WWII and the Holocaust, designed to prevent such horrors reoccurring.
Withdrawing risks weakening human rights, international isolation, destabilised peace agreements, and authoritarian drift.
Adopted in 1950 by the Council of Europe, the ECHR was a collective response to the Holocaust, during which about 11 million people, including 6 million Jews, were systematically exterminated, exposing the urgent need for a legal framework to prevent such horrors from recurring.
The Council of Europe, established in 1949 to promote democracy, rule of law, and human rights, made the ECHR a cornerstone of its mission.
Influenced by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), the ECHR ensured states uphold fundamental rights.
Comparing political rhetoric across eras is a sensitive task, as context, intent, and historical outcomes differ vastly.
In 1990, Ivana Trump said her husband Donald owned a copy of “My New Order” – a printed collection of Hitler's speeches – which he kept by the bedside...
Some of Trump’s statements have been noted by historians, critics, and media for echoing themes or phrasing used by Adolf Hitler, particularly in their dehumanizing language, scapegoating of groups, and authoritarian undertones.
Below, with @grok's help, I’ll provide examples of Trump’s quotes that have been cited as resembling Hitler’s rhetoric, alongside Hitler’s statements for comparison, drawing from credible sources, focusing on specific language & themes, ensuring accuracy, & avoiding exaggeration.
Most people know very little about Trump's new best friend, El Salvador’s strongman leader, Nayib Bukele, who's been sat in the White House being adored by Trump and his team of fawning, dangerously unhinged sociopathic bootlickers...
Read this excellent article by Professor of International Politics at Lancaster University, Amalendu Misra, the author of seven critically acclaimed monographs on conflict and peace, whose primary research concerns violence in the political process.
Trump has unleashed a string of controversial policies since returning to the White House that have put his administration at odds with most of the world. He's also forged an alliance with one country that is willing to do his bidding abroad: El Salvador.
The techno-dystopia many have warned about looks a lot closer today, after @WIRED revealed that Peter Thiel's #Palantir (which has a £500 million contract with #NHS England to manage our patient data across NHS trusts) is involved in Elon Musk’s DOGE.
If you're unaware of who unhinged billionaire tech-bro Peter Thiel is, and why he should have nothing to do with the UK or our #NHS, or how he groomed and installed his protégé JD Vance in the White House, or how he's not keen on democracy, read this:
The BMA are concerned about patient data privacy & Palantir’s ties to US intelligence.
DOGE, Palantir, & IRS representatives have been collaborating to build a single API layer above all IRS databases at an event previously characterized as a “hackathon.” publictechnology.net/2023/11/22/hea…