the brilliantly leaping gazelle

There’s a fundamental paradox of modern British politics that lies at core of British politics – and I use lies in both meaning of the word – and that is the patently absurd notion that tax cuts are somehow compatible with the effective functioning of good quality public services.

Modern politics now appears to be obsessed with this nonsense, as Penny Lessthan wonderfully proved during Thursday nights ITV shouty lie fest, by constantly claiming that Labour would raise taxes whilst the Conservatives wouldn’t.

Since the mid-eighties it seems to me, the British electorate have been more than happy to enter into a diabolical Faustian pact with politicians, one that denies not just the reality of their own experience, but also denies that there is indeed such a thing as society and that they are just as much a part of it as anyone else.

And nothing better illustrates this doublethink more than at election time, when ironically enough politicians all compete to prove just how honest they are. This they do by the blatantly dishonest means of bullshitting the electorate. And credit where credits due, to must takes incredible skill, nerves of steel and absolute self- belief to bullshit so brazenly, so convincingly and for so long.

About things that the electorate have to know are to be bullshit, not least because many of them work in the public services that are the victims of this bullshit. And that the rest of them will likely have had some first-hand experience of the effects of this bullshit, but despite this, they remain quite happy to be the bullshat.

That there exist yet more ‘efficiency savings’ to be had, that ‘cutting red tape’, ‘streamlining services’, ‘better use of technology’ ‘ being more focused on outcomes by concentrating on our core function’ aren’t predictably grim euphemisms for the same thing. Namely, another round of funding cuts which inevitably means that public services will have to do more with less.

Sometimes events will briefly intrude upon this symbiotic relationship and the electorate, normally because of a scandal or tragedy that’s an inevitable consequence of the reality of lower taxes, will purport to be outraged that such a thing has been allowed to happen. To act all innocent, all ‘nufifnk to do wiv me guv, honest’, as opposed them thinking that maybe, just maybe, it does have something to do with them after all. 

But, to the relief of all concerned, normal service will quickly be resumed, once the electorate and the media have had their fill of demanding heads must roll, that something be done and that lessons must be learnt. Think of how wise parent will patiently let their toddler have its tantrum so as to exhaust them and thus ensure a ten hour sleep. Same thing.

For me most sickening manifestation of this Faustian pact was evidenced by the whole ‘Clap for Carers’ obscenity that took place during the first lockdown. You remember that? You probably joined in, to express your sincere thanks to a NHS that despite having repeatedly endured government funding cuts and ministerial interference, rose incredibly well to the manifold challenges that Covid-19 presented. Challenges that they had to face without adequate PPE so that sometimes they had to wear bin-bags instead. Their reward for all of that?

People clapped at their front gates for a minute for a few Thursdays as a thank-you. Fuck-a-doodle-dandy!

Not for a decent pay rise, something tangible that the medical staff who were performing such heroics could use for, I don’t know, maybe buy food, pay bills, or even have a week-end break. Not extra funding to allow more people to qualify as doctors and nurses. Certainly not having an educational system of sufficient a standard to enable people to get the qualifications to allow them to train as such in the first place.

And most definitely not for people to have voted in sufficient numbers and consistently for a political party that when in government wouldn’t have allowed the NHS to get into the such state as it was when Covid-19 happened. 

And if politicians can’t be honest with electorate about tax, which is both a comparatively simple issue relative to the others this country faces, and yet the issue that will determine if those others to can fixed, then what else can we not trust them on? As I’ve made clear on this blog, simplistic reasons are for simpletons. Issues have many interconnected, some invisible but all complex, factors to them.

So again, who is worse? The person who bullshits, and knows it be bullshit – the bullshitter – or the people who believe the bullshit even though they know it be bullshit because it saves them some money, -the bullhsat?