In the circumstances saying Happy New Year to all sounds somewhat hollow so I’ll settle for very best wishes for 2023. Over the years we’ve got used to various ‘Twixmas’ and New Year occurrences, some of them proving irritating, if not infuriating, bah humbug (or whatever the New Year equivalent is). One is the numerous Christmas and New Year greetings from retailers and service providers, which clog up our inboxes (does anyone appreciate them when they’re simply a reminder to buy something?). Another is the grandstanding and vacuous seasonal addresses from politicians including the disgraced Boris Johnson and another is the tradition on Radio 4 to invite guest editors, some of the choices being incomprehensible. One day it was ‘Lord’ Ian Botham, who came in for a lot of flak due to what many found his unacceptable views on Brexit and other issues; at least we had Jamie Oliver and Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe on other days.
Perhaps the biggest heart sink at this time of year is the farce of New Year’s Honours: yes, some are deserved but not the ones for those just doing their jobs eg civil servants and especially Tory donors. The more honours of this kind we have (and it’s possible the nominations from Boris Johnson and Liz Truss will be accepted) the more the entire system is brought into disrepute. Some of these honours are peerages and I agree with Andrew Rawnsley who, in the Observer, contradicted the apologists’ line that no one would invent the Lords ‘but it kind of works’. ‘Complacent nonsense – the Lords doesn’t work and must be fixed…. If the chaotic premierships of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss proved anything, it’s that the upper house provides no adequate check on rubbish laws and unconstitutional behaviour’. He goes on to point out how ‘embarrassing’ it is that while the US manages with 100 senators, Britain’s upper chamber has over 800. Absurd and also important to remember is that these people get a very generous attendance payment while often making zero contribution. You’d think they’d be more careful with cameras in the Chamber, though: a recent viewing of Lords proceedings on the Parliament channel revealed at least two asleep.
And don’t get me started on New Years Resolutions, a topic which, as ever, gives rise to a lot of column inches and media chat. While they may work for some, it’s quite possible and more helpful to set intention at any time, not using the start of a new year as an artificial deadline which often leads to failure. These days there’s often a cynical backdrop to it as well, given the number of ‘invitations’ to purchase some app or course.
What must be on everyone’s mind as we enter 2023 is the unavoidable evidence of this country grinding to a halt due to ongoing industrial action in numerous sectors which the government is doing little to resolve. Adding to the workers in various sectors taking action, we could be looking at a junior doctors’ strike very soon, too. The Lib Dems demanded that Parliament be recalled to debate this situation, a call naturally not heeded by the AWOL government, because rather than resolve these disputes, they want to prolong them as part of their ideological battle against the public sector. This is particularly the case with the NHS, so that a further run down service will justify shutting it down and privatising the lot – a long term Tory ambition.
Three aspects of this intractable situation are now clear: that the union leaders involved are bright, focused and determined to fight for members’ pay and working conditions, usually running rings round government and media people they engage with; that ministers hiding behind ‘independent’ pay review bodies and employers doesn’t work as we now know politicians have set the parameters for these bodies and have also prevented employers making offers; and the tired old Tory schtick that there isn’t ‘a bottomlesspit of taxpayers’ money’ doesn’t hold water now we see how much public money their corrupt mismanagement of the economy has seen off and how well paid they themselves are. Not to mention their additional expenses and access to subsidised bars and restaurants in Westminster.
On Tuesday’s Radio 4 Today programme, Transport Minister Mark Harper three times sidestepped Nick Robinson’s challenge about the government tying the hands of employers, who then cannot freely negotiate. Another point made is that the talk of reforming inefficient working methods on the railways is much to do with health and safety: driver only trains would be unsuitable and unsafe for any passenger needing help. Not to mention that Parliament has seen no need to modernise its own archaic working practices! RMT leader Mick Lynch said: “The executives who run the industry day on day are in despair at what the government is making them say in these talks’, that the government was ‘out of its depth’ and reminded us that pay is only part of the dispute: ‘This is about the way our members are deployed, their work-life balance – if we don’t defend those conditions we will end up like all the gig economy workers, all the low-paid and vulnerable people in our society’.
Radio 4 Today presenter Amol Rajan got no easier a time interviewing ASLEF leader Mick Whelan on Thursday: on his Tory-framed challenge of reduced ‘productivity’ on the railways not deserving pay raises, it was pointed out that the government had made no effort to get people en masse back on trains following the pandemic. A wag also pointed out that Amol’s considerable BBC salary was not expected to drop despite the marked decline in Today programme listener numbers.
The government, being incapable of intelligent, nuanced thinking and negotiation, predictably resorts to the blunt instrument of legislation to quell industrial action. Although this will take time to be passed and implemented, the writing is on the wall, as it’s been for some time given other repressive legislation. The legislation will aim to enforce ‘minimum service levels’ in six sectors, including the health service, rail, education, fire and border security, described as a terrible cheek by one NHS expert when ministers themselves don’t demonstrate any minimum service level. It’s not surprising that despite the bias of our mostly right wing media, a YouGov/Times poll found that 17% who voted Conservative in 2019 say they plan to vote for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Party at the next election.
Some have argued that the pay rises could have been funded by clawing back more of what’s proved irrecoverable from fraudulent Covid grants (£1bn), not to mention the eye watering amounts wasted on the crony contracting VIP lane during Covid. ‘The expected losses amount to 8.4% of all grants distributed via the small business grants fund (SBGF), the retail, hospitality and leisure business grants fund (RHLGF), and the local authority discretionary grants fund (LADGF). In total £11.7bn was handed out in 2020-21…. Gareth Davies, the head of the National Audit Office, which scrutinises how well government spends public money, said just 0.4% of all the “estimated irregular payments” paid out in grants by local councils had been recovered’. But a key problem seems to be delays by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Beis) in completing ‘planned assurances exercises’, leading to less being recovered because by then two to three years had passed since the grants were awarded. Needless to say, the government issued a defensive statement: ‘We’re continuing to crack down on Covid support scheme fraud and will not tolerate those who seek to defraud consumers and taxpayers’.
From the continuing ideological intransigence to the refusal to recall Parliament last week, the government has shown zero sense of urgency about resolving the problems besetting the country and worrying many of us. But something must be filtering through the thick skins because on Friday afternoon Sunak had the nerve to invite union leaders for ‘grown-up, honest talks’ on Monday – immediately criticised by Mick Lynch for patronising language. It will be interesting to see how that works out.
Besides the predictable elements of a new year discussed above, we also now have a PR battle between the party leaders to observe. It almost beggars belief that Rishi Sunak was so concerned at Keir Starmer getting in first with his key policy speech that he rushed to deliver his own and in the same venue! Having already come out with his crisis deflecting wheeze about pupils having to study maths up the age of 18, we were then invited to judge him on the outcomes of five pledges, in which the NHS wasn’t even cited first and which carried no targets or timescales so how could anything be judged? (It’s anyway a bit late for this ‘invitation’ because most of us will have judged him long ago – we don’t need anything else).
Sceptics immediately pointed out that at least three of his five undertakings (to tackle the national debt, reduce inflation and cut the NHS waiting list) would happen anyway regardless of any action of his. It was also suggested that (major news from the Royal College of Emergency Medicine this week which NHS Providers CEO Chris Hopson disappointingly tried to deny) the waiting list would reduce as a result of the 500 a week dying as a result of A&E failures. One commentator was concerned at the poor quality of and lack of inspiration in Sunak’s speech. ‘If a CEO presented this to his Board, it would be thrown out. It is such a basic, bland and obvious list that, if delivered, keeps us in the lower quartile of high performing nations. We deserve and are capable of so much better’.
If it wasn’t so worrying and tragic, John Crace’s withering analysis could be found amusing. ‘Rish spoke breathlessly and earnestly. And vacuously. If this wasn’t quite a suicide note it was at least a draft resignation letter. For it turned out he had almost nothing to say – nothing of substance – and could only offer a few vague promises. Much like an over-apologetic supply teacher. It was desperate stuff. His words dying on his lips. Lost in the aether.
‘Thanks to the prime minister and the genius idea nobody asked for, people will be able to calculate just how broke they are… So something must be done to head off the Labour leader. A room in east London booked. Preferably somewhere near where Starmer was due to speak the following day. Anything to take control of the narrative. Even if no one really had a clue what the narrative really was. This was about process not substance. Politics as performative arts. Politics at its most meta’.
The shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, said he found it “completely inexplicable” as to why neither Sunak nor Barclay “has raised their head or shown their face to say exactly what they are doing to grip this crisis and to support patients and those staff who are working in intolerable conditions and busting a gut against the most extraordinary pressures”. It comes to something when so many, feeling hopeless about seeing a GP, are resorting to ‘DIY medicine’ ‘Almost one in four people have bought medicine online or at a pharmacy to treat their illness after failing to see a GP face to face, according to a UK survey underlining the rise of do-it-yourself treatment. Nearly one in five (19%) have gone to A&E seeking urgent medical treatment for the same reason, the research commissioned by the Liberal Democrats shows’. Such difficulties can also lead to an increase in patients being exploited by quackery.
As per usual there was the usual meaningless, number spinning response from the Department of Health and Social Care. ‘We recognise the pressures GPs are under and are working to increase access for patients. Guidance is clear that GP practices must provide face-to-face appointments alongside remote consultations – and over two-thirds of appointments in November were face to face’.
Still on the NHS, we often hear the view that too many managers is the problem. Not so, says The Times. ‘Our health service is actually under-managed… as a percentage of its economy, Britain spends a third as much on managing health as France and Germany do and the Institute of Fiscal Studies attributes declining ‘productivity’ to a lowering of the ratio of managers to front line staff. NHS trusts often recruit allegedly top flight CEOs at considerable cost, but last year’s review of NHS leadership found that it’s the middle managers who play the crucial role in enabling staff to do their jobs. ‘Far from being villains, they’re a resource we undervalue at our peril’.
During the last week we’ve heard a lot (far too much, some are saying) about the US House of Representatives being hobbled by its inability to appoint a Speaker. After a dramatic few days of making so many concessions that he could already feel considerably weakened, the controversial Republican Kevin McCarthy has finally been elected. ‘Although McCarthy has successfully won the speakership, he now faces the considerable challenge of attempting to govern with an unruly conference and a slim majority. The dynamics of the House Republican conference could make it much more difficult to advance must-pass legislation, such as a government spending package or a debt ceiling hike’.
Back in the UK, it was astonishing to hear our own Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, comment on declining respect for politics and democracy, given the parliamentary events of recent times, when he is very weak in his role and has repeatedly failed to challenge misrepresentations and avoidances during Prime Minister’s Questions, for example. ‘He described the experience of a “bizarre” revolving door of ministers in the Commons, saying “we never knew who was going to be at the dispatch box….The only thing that was the continuity of parliament was myself. You know, we were running out of ministers, you couldn’t believe it. I’ve never seen anything like it. As I say, when you talk to historians, you talk to senior politicians, nobody has ever seen anything like it before,” Hoyle said’. Such a lack of self-awareness and abdication of responsibility ill befits someone in such a key role. And yet another reason for constitutional and parliamentary procedure reform.
The media frenzy around Prince Harry ahead of ITV’s documentary on Sunday night and the publication of his book next week shows no signs of abating. Cue a bloated retinue of parasitic ‘royal correspondents’ and commentators throwing in their pompous and sycophantic views, the latest example being Jonathan Dimbleby on Radio 4, a long term friend of King Charles and monarchy apologist. A most disgusting example of this pro-monarchist framing was Sarah Vine on Radio 4’s Broadcasting House this morning, rudely dismissing Harry and saying ‘he speaks the language of young people, mental health and all that’ – contemptible and typically not challenged by the presenter.
Public opinion continues to be polarised regarding Harry/Meghan and the royals, but there’s fault on both sides. We have to wonder, though, how long the Palace (and now the army) will keep up their longstanding imperious refusal to comment on what are incendiary allegations. Harry has said he wants a family, not an institution, accountability and a ‘summit’ before the Coronation: good luck with that as it seems very unlikely there will be any concessions. Shockingly, perhaps, the institution of monarchy is coming first whatever the cost and the royals are determined to cling onto it.
But how much are they being manipulated by their courtiers and comms teams? Quite a bit, it seems. Perhaps the central allegation, so far without response, is that they leaked and planted negative stories against Harry and Meghan to the press. There’s been quite a bit of grumbling about too much royal coverage in the media but some are missing the point: the issues may have been trivialised by the Establishment media but they’re important, to do with the future of the monarchy, which now has far less public support than it did. The undeniable fact is that Harry has now blown the lid off several Pandora’s Boxes, which those with a vested interest in maintaining the secrecy (and the power imbalance it leads to) are very uncomfortable with. We should set this in the context of the forthcoming Coronation, which King Charles, despite his considerable wealth, has not offered to pay for himself despite the massive cost of living crisis. We cannot afford to ignore the contrast between the hugely expensive gilded cage occupied by an extended Royal Family (not slimmed down like many European ones) and the many who are struggling to survive. It will be interesting (if we can bear it) to see reactions to the ITV documentary this evening.
Further to previous pieces in this blog, the issue of the ‘economically inactive’ (quite a stigmatising label) continues to occupy column inches and discussions and the government (plus some commentators) have tried to blame them for undermining the economy, depriving the Treasury of tax revenue, stoking inflation and so on. Apart from this being a clear projection of the blame attaching mostly to the government, this guilt tripping is likely to be fruitless because there’s been little effort to understand the various reasons so many in their 50s and 60s (630,0000) have left the workforce, let alone do anything much about it. A major cause identified is illness, many on the now 7.2m NHS waiting list and quite a few suffering from Long Covid but for others it’s a mix of caring responsibilities, lack of childcare, a decision to claim some freedom from unrewarding work and incompetent and/or bullying managers and wanting (and feeling they could then afford) more leisure time.
According to an article in the Financial Times called The real reason Britain isn’t working, a hugely overlooked factor is the significant decline in employee autonomy in recent years, and it’s well known that having some control over our work (and lives in general) is essential to our mental wellbeing. The author alludes to tighter deadlines, shorter breaks and higher expectations, all of which lead to work stress besides the other conditions imposed by gig economy jobs. It’s reckoned that during the last 30 years, the percentage of employees feeling they have some autonomy at work has almost halved, and could get worse due to the UK having ‘relatively few labour market protections’….. If we want a healthy country, we need to stop trying to push people into jobs that make them sick’. This begs a deeper question: why (besides the declining autonomy factor) are so many jobs ones that make people sick?
The government has a pilot coaching scheme to get people back to work but I wonder how well thought out this is and is it anything more than a piecemeal bite at something that needs much more input? How many will be enticed by the ‘mid-life MOT’ being pioneered in some job centres? Several journalists have written about this subject and suggest what’s needed, including local access to training and job support and employers taking more responsibility to offer job security and flexible working. A number of those in this category have written to the press, one highly qualified PA/administrator saying she’s applied for so many jobs and got nowhere, leaving her baffled as to just what employers want. From other accounts one hears, it seems far too much for the pay they’re prepared to offer.
The current situation is just the start, though: the Financial Times rightly points out that with ‘baby boomers set to retire in droves in the next few years, finding people to fill vacancies is only going to get harder…one way or another, we need to entice the ‘missing’ back to work’. And that’s the operative word: they need enticing, not coercing, so the measures developed must go way beyond what this government has shown its level of operating to be – well thought out , workable and helpful. Workers want to be treated as people, not just units of work delivering tax and national insurance contributions.
Finally, although this interesting news is a few weeks old now, it’s perhaps worth flagging up that around 50 products and customs are in line to be added by Unesco to the already 600 strong list of ‘human treasures’: they include the French baguette (which caused delight in France), Japan’s ritual furyu-odori dances, a cold North Korean noodle dish called naengmyeon, Pyrenean bear festivities and Kun L’bokator, the traditional martial arts of Cambodia….. Other contenders include Georgia’s traditional equestrian games, the Maghreb hot chilli-pepper paste known as harissa, Serbia’s šljivovica plum brandy, oral camel-calling in Saudi Arabia and Oman, and a central Asian lute called the Rubāb’. It’s great that these ‘human treasures’ are recognised but we do have to wonder what Unesco and the countries they hail from are doing to publicise them….
Politics and mental health - the missing link? 