We’re Now In End Days Territory. But In More Ways Than One’
I woke early on Monday morning to a couple of messages from friends, and various stories – when taken together – depict a country seemingly falling apart.
Given that our children have returned to school this week, the RAAC crisis inevitably continues to rumble on, though it is something which was entirely avoidable and is covered in the fingerprints of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, former Prime Minister Liz Truss and her loyalists, and of course Michael Gove and former chancellor George Osborne.
Another deepening crisis facing our education system is fast coming to the fore, this time around SEND issues – something that I have a deep personal interest in – with a report over the weekend describing the SEND crisis as ‘out of control’, and I can certainly attest to that.
And it wouldn’t be the start of another working week without another nightmare public transport story, and Monday morning didn’t disappoint. We know all about public transport fails in North Staffordshire, but on Monday morning I woke to learn that the railway stations with the highest rates of cancellations this year are all in the North, namely Huddersfield, Manchester Victoria, York, Newcastle, and Manchester Oxford Road, the common denominator being the Trans-Pennine Express franchise.
Just three stories that appeared before me in the space of only ten minutes; the joys of modern technology and social media!
At the same time, rumours abound of yet another Tory leadership challenge, with talk of letters apparently flying in to the 1922 Committee. While Rishi Sunak may talk about his five priorities, few seem to be taking him or them seriously, including those within his own party it would seem.
Yet our country’s problems all seem to be the fault of others, despite Sunak’s party having their hands on the wheel since 2010. However, they should remember this: when you have been in power for as long as they have, the only thing that you have to fall back on is your own record.
And it’s starting to dawn on people that that record is not a particularly good one: polls continue to suggest electoral wipe-out, while record numbers of Tory MPs are planning to quit come the next General Election.
It is starting to feel like end days territory.
And it’s not just end days territory for the Sunak government and the Tory party. The main reason that they have reached this point is that it is also looking like end days territory for the economic model that they are totally wedded to. It has run out of road, broken beyond repair, and even those that once had faith in it are abandoning it. But not the Tory party, of course.
The wreckage of our public realm, the crumbling mess that surrounds us, is the result of the Tories’ two big economic ‘ideas’, privatisation and austerity. Or the weakening of the state as it should really be known.
Costly, inefficient public transport. Failing utilities services. Eye-wateringly expensive energy. Strained public services. Shrinking pay packets for the many, but bulging bank balances for the few…all of this is the inevitable outcome of the state’s weakening.
But if this is also end days territory for the prevailing economic model, what should take its place? Well, certainly not more of the same. It has been suggested that whoever wins the next General Election will be facing the challenges of 1945, 1964, 1979 and 1997 combined. If that is the case – and it’s not hyperbolic to suggest that it is – then nothing short of a complete reset will do. There can be no tinkering around the edges, no going back.
This means building an alternative economy, one that works for people, small businesses and places and serves them. One that is locally rooted and is designed to focus on local concerns. One that allows people to fulfil their potential. One that eliminates waste in all its forms. And one whose success is measured differently; GDP means nothing to a family struggling to pay the rent.
And this is something that can be pioneered and driven locally, through genuine decentralisation of resources and power, with government acting as a partner and enabler. The next government could choose to do that; retaining power by giving it away.
That’s what taking back control would really look like.
DP
4th September 2023