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.
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Why doesn't Emma Watson offer a balanced view of Zero Hour contracts?
Because she's a free-market fundamentalist - a Common Sense Society Director, co-founder of Save Our Statues, also of the neoliberal Henry Jackson Society & #TuftonSt's CIVITAS & New Culture Forum...
The main argument in support of Zero Hour contracts is flexibility: if you're asked to work & it's not worth your while, you could turn it down. But employers don’t have to offer you future shifts, & if you turn down work, you may find you’re offered fewer opportunities or none.
While some companies *might* reward hard-working zero-hour contract workers with permanent or fixed contracts, many employers imply this in order to make you work hard & exploit you, and won't offer you a decent contract.
There are many disadvantages of zero-hour contracts...
There have been attacks on the @nationaltrust since at least 2017. Since 2020, The Spectator has published at least 25.
In 2020, a former Bullingdon Clubber asked "When will the Trust get it into its thick skull that it’s supposed to look after buildings & landscapes?"
Four days later, the Eton-educated trustee of the climate-sceptic GWPF, former Chair of the right-wing Policy Exchange, & former editor of The Daily & Sunday Telegraph & The Spectator, Charles Moore, followed up with this infantile attack on the "woke" NT: desmog.com/charles-moore/
On 9th November 2020, a letter in The Telegraph, signed by 28 Tory (Common Sense Group) MPs accused the NT of being "coloured by cultural Marxist dogma, colloquially known as the 'woke agenda'". 'Cultural Marxism is the antisemitic conspiracy theory that inspired Anders Breivik.
Andrew Neil criticises others for making 'Nazi analogies', but here he is, referring to an article in the Mail, amplified by Toby Young, suggesting a proposed boycott by a 'Pro-Palestine group' of venues showing #eurovision24 is "straight out of the early Nazi playbook".
The 'early Nazi playbook' involves propaganda, which like contemporary political & media propaganda works primarily not by lies, but rather by selective representation of information, distortion, fearmongering, demonisation of minority groups & misleading partisan misinformation.
The Mail's claim, amplified by Young & compared to "the early Nazi playbook" by Neil is 'Venues across the country have been forced to close their doors as they fear for their staff's safety after Pro-Palestine groups instructed their followers to hound pubs showing the contest'.
Divisive far-right extremist grifter Steve Laws is dangerous: he has a long & well documented history of using racist & Islamophobic rhetoric, harassing people, & trying to get decent people sacked. Laws' hateful rhetoric was even too toxic for Richard Tice's Reform UK.
Former UKIP candidate & far-right extremist Laws is a prominent so-called 'migrant hunter' who gets off on filming boats arriving in Dover. He constantly uses grotesque 1930s-style dehumanising rhetoric, & pushes the “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory.
For decades, Big Tobacco cast doubt on the link between cancer & smoking. Today, doubts about climate science is fuelled by misinformation spread by politicians, news media & think tanks, invariably funded by those who benefit from fossil fuels.
The phrase "the spawn of communism" derives from early twentieth century US #nativism - the political strategy of promoting the interests of "native-born" inhabitants over those of immigrants.
But where does it come from, & what might it tell us about Jacob Rees-Mogg?
This thread is about how nativist ideology gave rise to the first US 'Red Scare', & how, long before TalkRadio or Fox & GB "News" existed, populist Christian broadcaster 'Father' Coughlin stoked the fears & prejudices of millions of his listeners using divisive nativist rhetoric.
The phrase "spawn of Communism" is now used by 'anti-woke' alt- & far-right nativists to describe everything from Democrats & socialists, through LGBTQ+ rights, CRT, & feminism, to 'identity politics' & 'environmentalism' - anyone, or anything, perceived by them to pose a threat.