Anyway more than a statement perhaps a mood, in case this blog has any duration, let's just fix the starting point in context.
It's early April, 2009 and 12th months ago, few of us were barely conscious, of what is now known, as the credit crunch, which for many would-be more aptly described as a crush.
Britain's MP's backbenchers and front bench ministers of the government, have in the past few weeks, been revealed for the weak and feeble money grabbing bastards that the British public, have often suspected.
The Economy is down the toilet, Gordon Brown has so far failed miserably to instil any sense of confidence, that he has either a grip or understanding of the current economic circumstances, we find ourselves in.
It seems every day the British public, is informed of ever increasing amounts of money, that we will need to stump up to cover the government's, ill judged gambles as it attempts to mitigate the worst effects of the global recession and fails.
Sums of money which are totally incomprehensible, are regularly quoted as having been given to banks to shore up, their business to what end, nobody has yet had the courtesy to inform the British taxpayer.
Anyway that's the starting point of this blog, where it will go I don't know.
I think the current economic situation has made people undoubtedly angry but also more apolitical and more apathetic at the same time. During previous declines there was a feeling that the ballot box could be relied on, at least for a change of direction although, with a few exceptions, real change rarely occurred.
ReplyDeleteThere's a feeling now, even amongst present and ex-tories, that nothing will really change when Broon is out of power. The myth that we are as a nation, in charge of our own destiny, has been truly exposed as a sham. We've exported our legal system and allowed ourselves to hand over many of the levers of economic management to Europe. As a nation, we've somehow been both nannied and neutered.
When a bank (or a car company in the US) is considered too big to fail, something has gone doubly wrong.
The irony is that it may prove to be a Labour government, not Thatchers as we've been told for 20 years, that puts the final nail in the coffin of the concept of 'society'. The whole climate of uncertainty and the breakdown in trust in those elected to represent our best interests is seeing people pulling up the drawbridge around theirs and their own.
Something's been lost Tony. Any ideas?
What an interesting comment, not Thatcher who distroyed society? I am a child of the 70's an 80's and I felt that distruction in the 70's I roamed free, mum felt safe that neighbours would report any misdoing or problems the street where filled with children, 80's came and in the early part amost the same! then the paranoia, my cousin M (10 years younger than me) Tonys number 1 had a little freedom but not quite so much by the time Tony's number 2 came long gone! nobody cared I am number one and I have no responsibility out side my four walls! sod the lot of you, we became a selfish bunch of B££££ards, "loads of Money" my god people even wanted an end to the NHS not perfect but try living in America, my neighbour, solvent, husband a doctor about to lose her health insurance at 42 cos she was stupid enought to get ill and need surgery! this is a basic feeling of Thatcher I was a child but this is what I saw!
ReplyDeleteHi Heather,
ReplyDeleteAs I said, something's been lost.
I'm 44, born and raised in London to a not wealthy but not poor family, so I accept that the impact of the Thatch revolution (or whatever it was) wasn't felt by myself, my family, relatives or friends in terms of the negatives.
Although a sensitive soul at heart, the reality of the last major downturn in the early 80's wasn't felt by me in the way it was in places like Sheffield, Manchester, parts of Wales or down here.
What's different this time is perhaps the following (and what I believe is the big challenge facing the very notion of where we are as 'a society').
It's down to my throw-away line in my first comment about how as individuals we've become both neutered and nannied. Individualism has always been a British positive. Thatch tapped into that (sell off the Gas Board, buy your council-house and so on) but the rise of New-Labour accepted all of that, ditched the interests of the old working class and through a process of noblesse-oblige, neutered any form of resistance to the new-orthodoxy. According to Blair, Mandelson, Broon et al, if you're not middle-class you're underclass!
Don't say what you think, don't smoke in a pub, aspire through the public-services!
(Choose where to have an operation, choose where to send your children to school - great ideas but undeliverable) When the choices mean nothing but the tax-system exists to fund the notion, people feel let-down, disillusioned and yes, angry.
Hence we have the cavemen of the BNP spouting their crap all over the place.
If there's one good thing that may come from all of this, what Tony says (and I paraphrase)is a feeling reminiscent of the early 80's, it's this:
Look forward to closer, more meaningful relationships, clearer thoughts and better Arts and Music!
And a break-up and privitisation of the RBS -
Tell Sid.