The Song Remains the Same

This is a truly dreadful election, full of dreadful, lying politicians, spear-headed by our prime minister who continues to break new ground and plumb greater depths in promising the world and distancing himself from the truth regarding everything. The following came in before the events of last Friday and I've been waiting to find the right moment before republishing:-

The song remains the same. For years now, and that includes the BlueLabour years, the move has been towards 'monetising' & 'profitising' anything and everything. It's always been thus in the USA where the pioneer spirit defined the development of that relatively modern nation. And look what they elected as a 'Leader'.

The UK is a different animal. Its place in the global market has always been defined by the privileged 1% (most by accident of birth rather than talent or ability) and a cabal of calculating greedy spivs acting on their behalf. This election is crunchtime for the UK in so many ways.

From my perspective:

• do we let the 1% of privileged bullies continue to drain the public purse for their own enjoyment
• do we sacrifice 'community' for petty personal gain
• do we let multinationals continue to rape the planet
• do we sell the remainder of the UK to a global facilities magnate
• do we abandon all notion of social care for 'career prospects'
• what do we tell future generations when they ask "What the fuck were you thinking?"

Watch Mike Leigh's 'Peterloo'; watch Ken Loach's 'Sorry We Missed You'; watch 'I, Daniel Blake'. They are accounts of how the UK works when the 1% are in charge. Perhaps not everyone sees it.

Perhaps, on take-home salaries of £2k/3k/4k/5k+, its hard to comprehend? For some, perhaps, the caseload of the day live in another world that disappears after 5pm? For others, perhaps, the attitudes and actions of those before the courts are just something to 'highlight, criticise & correct' through punishment?

Do not forget - we are all not so very far away from each other. We have more in common than we are different. It only takes.... a false allegation; a missed payment; a moment of anger; one too many wines after a stressful day; a line of this or that on a night out; a failed company; loss of employment; illness; bereavement...

But hey ho, being a touchy-feely lefty pinko fluffy-bunny just ain't cool:

"Toughen up."
"Get over it."
"We are where we are."
"It is what it is."
"Just fucking do it."
"This isn't a pity-fest."
"You're paid to protect the public, not mollycoddle bloody offenders."

Not one single political party has made one single reference to the probation profession. Not once, not even in passing. The Wales experiment will become the UK experience. It is NOT reunification. It is NOT public ownership. It is NOT a victory for the woefully inadequate & amateur "probation union" (whose staff are nevertheless paid professional-sized fees). It is, as stated above, "Just moving the dividing line and remarketing again".

The consequences for staff, for victims' families and the public in general WILL be far more serious than TR1.

--oo00oo--

I'll combine the contribution above with something I spotted on the politics.co.uk website and slightly edited here:-

Every day of this campaign, our basic standards erode a little further

Not long now. It's the sort of comforting phrase a parent might offer to a whining child complaining about the length of a never-ending journey. Not long now until December 13th and the end of the worst general election campaign in living memory – and I am old enough to remember some really bad ones.

If you are feeling nauseous, weary, depressed, angry, sad – don't worry. That seems like a rational range of responses to what we've been served up. This process is supposed to be about what Sir Robin Day called "the destiny of the nation" – big, serious and important stuff. Instead there are fantasy claims and fantasy accusations, with the combined effect being more like a horror movie than Disney's Fantasia.

It has been profoundly unsettling. But why specifically? What is that persistent, nagging feeling of disquiet which follows so many interviews, 'debates' and election adverts? I think it has to do with the shattering of norms of behaviour and the upending of some fundamental tenets and beliefs.

Chief among these is the until now unchallenged one that we should, as a rule, tell the truth. Apart from assuring our children that yes, we are nearly there, one of the other things we tell them is that lying is bad. It is wrong. 'Cheats never beat', as the old phrase had it. Dishonesty should not be rewarded. The prizes should go to the most talented and the hardest working, not the most slippery and untrustworthy.

Lying has traditionally been frowned upon. Go back to the story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. It is the wicked, deceitful serpent who misleads Eve, causes all the trouble, sees us kicked out of paradise and puts back the cause of naturism by thousands of years.

--//--

Fast forward to our delightful general election campaign and you can see how far we have fallen - about as far as Adam and Eve from their earthly paradise.

Of course politicians have always fibbed, spun, and put the best gloss on things. Anthony Eden lied about his intentions over Suez – but then he resigned. Harold Wilson said that "the pound in your pocket" had not been devalued – but then he never again regained a reputation for straight dealing. Tony Blair was not, I think, lying about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Like others he believed in the intelligence, such as it was. But many people were convinced he lied - and he too never recovered.

This time something is different. People talk rather glibly about 'fake news' or a 'post-truth' election. But it's much more serious than that. The very nature and status of truth seems to be being discounted, as though it either doesn't exist or doesn't really matter if it does. The British liar in chief is, of course, Boris Johnson, who no longer seems able to recognise what the truth is, in his public utterances at least. I expect members of the DUP feel his private words cannot be relied on either. Johnson took his lead from Donald Trump. Nuff said.

Perhaps this all sounds naïve and unrealistic. People have always lied, and they always will. Perhaps only believers in the so-called 'just world fallacy' - that heroes are rewarded and villains get their just desserts - are upset by this cavalcade of lies and deception. Perhaps we should even admire and marvel at the consummate, shameless lying of the prime minister and his colleagues and make no objections on moral grounds.

Well I object. And not just out of moral squeamishness. This is a slippery slope. If we give up the fight on truth-telling and facts, which will be the next Enlightenment value to be jettisoned? Will casual violence become acceptable? Theft? We haven't even dealt with existing moral failures such as slavery or rape. What happens to a society in which we just shrug and let the liars win? Returning to a pre-Enlightenment world does not strike me as progress.

We won't always agree about the facts. As Montaigne also said: "Today's truth is not that which is, but that which others find persuasive." But I'm not giving up on facts and truth, and neither should you. Another 18th century voice, that of Jonathan Swift, tells us why:

"Falsehood flies," he wrote, "and truth comes limping after it, so that when men come to be undeceived, it is too late; the jest is over, and the tale hath had its effect…like a physician, who hath found out an infallible medicine, after the patient is dead."

Not long now. And so much still to lose.

Stefan Stern is a journalist and author. He is a regular contributor to The Guardian and the Financial Times. His latest book How To Be A Better Leader was published in March this year. You can follow him here.