Labours policy to tackle the 2008 crisis would have been to 'spend our way out of it' and they criticised the Tories for not spending more. So I find it hard to get my head around a lot of the sainted thoughts that Labour would have done better.
The UK is largely following a pattern that is replicated across the western world. There are differences but there are more similarities. One of the key issues is our population demographics within Europe. We have an aging population and we didn't account for this properly decades ago. The Boomer generation will be net beneficiaries of taxation over the course of their lifetime whilst this switches and gets worse the younger you get. There's your ultimate issue.
Our aging demographic has massive implications. We didn't calculate for people living longer so pensions need to be paid for longer. We didn't calculate for more people needing social care due to their age. We didn't calculate for the increasing costs of health care with advances in health meaning people live longer but have more complex and expensive health needs. We didn't calculate for how paying for this by placing the burden on the working age population would lead to longer working hours and greater demands on women. This has had an impact on the birth rate. It's had implications for parental involvement with children. It's had an impact on demand for immigration and cheap labour. This goes way back. Probably prior to Thatcher.
This has been compounded with pressure on housing stock. We've not replaced housing when it was needed and we've tried to build the wrong things in the wrong places. That's not helped matters. This isn't to say there aren't places to build. The assumption is for green field sites. The thing is with the death of the high street we have far too much retail space. Much retail space has been converted to food establishments too. So we have convenience food on every corner but no housing. Everything manufactured is outsourced to cheap labour abroad which makes us politically and economically more vulnerable. Eateries are work but they are antisocial hours work. The percentage of 9 to 5 jobs out there has shrunk.
This is leading to a rose tinted view of the past. It's adding fuel to the ideal of American lead Christian right values, the rise of Andrew Tate and racist views.
The west reflects historical patterns of empire growth, heyday and decline. We are in a period of decline due to mismanagement and an inability to plan well for the future. 5 year election terms actually don't particularly help with that either especially when you start to see political polarisation. It just accelerates the process.
Do I think we'd have been better under Labour in the face of this? Not really. The attitude of the 'theres no money left' note sums up how running things was ultimately seen as a game where you play for the next five years until you lose then it swaps with the other party. There's no accountability in that.
And the public haven't helped. They voted against tax rises and parties didn't propose pension increases decades ago because they weren't vote winners. The best example of this was May's 'dementia tax' and the reaction to it. Ultimately it was the right thing to do to better fund social care and make for a fair system but it bombed on the doorstep.
Because the general population lacks good understanding of key issues we won't vote for policies in our country's best interests. We have got to a state where most people vote based on the theory of 'the least worst option' not because we see any party as credible, good at management and have a good grasp of the problems and crisis we are likely to face. We've lurched from one crisis to another in recent years - these crisis have been worse because of our social fabric and infrastructure aging and no longer really fit for purpose. Those who do vote in a more optimistic and positive fashion tend to be younger and dare I say it more naive and less jaded by the bullshit of politics.
Ive recently talked to two people in their fourties who have previously stood for parliament and are passionate about politics. Neither has bothered to watch the parliamentary debates and both have totally tuned out of the election this time around. They stood for different parties. Both are generally more left than right leaning. Neither know who they will vote for. Neither would stand again. Both hate politicians. That's your indicator of just how bad and disillusioned with politics people are - when those passionate to that degree check out mentality and feel that hope is essentially lost and all trust has evaporated.
And that's why this is a dangerous period politically for the UK. We have five years. Like Biden had five years and just totally didn't get or address the chronic political corruption and insanity - not with the Republicans but from his own party and indeed his own aging self. The warnings have been there throughout. They haven't been heeded.
Tbh I think Labour will ignore them and will be caught out by a rising tide of far right support amongst the young. There's warning signs there. And too much hope being misplaced on certain issues which when they meet the test of reality with implode with unintended consequences.
Yep this post is cheery. I ultimately don't give two shits how people vote. I don't think it makes a great deal of difference this time around all things considered. I think it makes a much bigger longer term difference though if we aren't critical of the incoming government. What I want is for the next government to be held to account and to stop ignoring issues when they don't align and match with their ideological agenda. I want them dealt with and not left to fester to give ammunition to the far right.