So Christmas is over for another year and we’re now amid Twixmas, the travel industry invented name for that no man’s land between Christmas and New Year (therapeutic for some, possibly many) when it’s tricky to know what places and services are open and when. This lack of consistency can make it hard to plan but at the same time it’s good to escape our normal routines for a while, allowing more time for reflection, perhaps. Of course neither Christmas nor Twixmas have seen the news agenda diminishing- indeed, it seems to have accelerated, not least the relentless efforts of right wing politicians and media aiming to undermine the government. Even on the day that Keir Starmer lost his younger brother, some unpleasant characters continued to attack him on social media, one criticising his allegedly luxurious time at Chequers. Never mind the facts, that it’s been the Christmas recess, this Buckinghamshire country retreat was always intended for the PM and his family to have some relaxation away from the public eye and Starmer has made little use of it compared with predecessors like the charlatan Johnson.
Despite the best efforts of the monarchist media and their hangers on, a noticeable aspect of this Christmas was far less interest in the activities of the royals, including King Charles’s Christmas Day address (television viewing ratings way down compared with previous years) and their walk to the Christmas Day church service at Sandringham. No doubt the revelations this year about the exploitation and profiteering from the Duchy of Lancaster and Duchy of Cornwall played a major part in raising awareness of the true nature of this arcane and secretive institution, besides lack of transparency around the illnesses of the King and Princess of Wales, the continuing disgrace of Prince Andrew and the machinations of the Palace PR machine such as the out of touch, privileged and tone deaf videos. Quite a few, too, have commented on the appalling serf mentality of those who did turn up to observe the walk to church and how the royals’ acceptance of gifts was in direct contradiction of the message of Christmas. And the worst media brainwashed thing is that the serfs feel so proud of themselves.
The maelstrom in Syria continues and we have to hope that the attack on security personnel by forces loyal to Assad (14 fatalities) is not a harbinger of inter-factional fighting, since Syria’s de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa had been keen to convey the message of acting to the protect the rights of people of all backgrounds. In the meantime mass graves were discovered outside Damascus and I’m still wondering what will happen to the illegal but highly lucrative drug trade (Captagon) which fuelled Assad’s regime. Although HTS has vowed to cease its production, possibly not all of its apparatus will have been destroyed and the new regime could be tempted to keep it going in order to provide much needed income. Not surprisingly, other countries are jockeying for influence there, if not guilty of outright interference, such as Israel’s land grabs and bombing raids, Turkish proxies attacking US-backed Kurdish forces in the north and the US attacking ISIS targets in the east of the country. They should back off and let the Syrians determine their own future but as The Week credits the New Yorker for pointing out, ‘Syria’s geography means it will always be of interest to foreign powers, ‘a hub for migration, terrorism and drug trafficking’ and where ‘Turkish–Arab and Iranian-Arab competition play out’.
There’s some hope that a huge archive of 1.3 million documents smuggled out of Syria some years ago could provide the evidence to bring Assad and colleagues to justice. Experts reckon that such a war crimes trial would be ‘bigger than Nuremberg’. The latest Radio 4 Today podcast discussed Syria and presenter Amol Rajan rightly said how complex the country is, with different factions and ‘tribal loyalties’ etc. But given the decline in journalistic standards over recent years we have to wonder whether our media are sufficiently skilled to properly analyse the situation in order to inform us.
Back in the UK, the extent of Reform UK self-aggrandizement and indignant attacks on Labour and the Tories based on misinformation beggars belief (Anderson, Lowe and Tice in particular sounding increasingly unhinged in their rants) and what’s been called ‘the war of words’ between Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage broke out over his claims of hugely increased Reform numbers now in excess of Conservative Party numbers. Accused by Badenoch of falsifying these figures, Farage threw down the gauntlet of verification via an independent source and has demanded an apology from her. Good luck with that. Although many see the rarely visiting Clacton MP as a destructive influence in British politics, it is quite amusing to see this undignified spat conducted so publicly, once again demonstrating Badenoch’s weird and hopeless performance as Opposition leader when she has such a high opinion of herself.
What’s more dangerous is Reform leaders’ lack of transparency over the nature of their organisation and the failure of the media to carry out their educational role: These supporters allude to ‘members’ when it’s not actually a party to be ‘joined’ but a limited company so people’s donations are going to the directors rather than a party whose policies and modus operandi they can influence. But it’s not only the royals who need to rethink their PR strategy: while presenting himself as a ‘man of the people’ the ‘fagash fuhrer’ (as one X user called him) arranged to have himself filmed with a Boxing Day hunt meet, seemingly unaware of the disconnect.
Even more dangerous is Farage’s determination to inveigle his way into positions of influence, for example with Trump and Musk and his latest audacious offer to help incoming US Ambassador Mandelson to cut a US trade deal. Mandelson could be damned if he does or doesn’t take up the ‘offer’ (Farage had the nerve to say he was a ‘fool’ if he doesn’t), potentially accused of letting Farage get a foot in the door and supping with the devil or looking a gift horse in the mouth when Trump is such a tricky individual to do business with. Yet another danger is Musk’s rumoured very large donation to Reform – amounts over £500 must come from UK sources but it could be even more insidious than a straight donation. It’s thought that especially since they now have the wealthy property developer, Nick Candy, as treasurer, donations could be channelled through organisations under less scrutiny, for example the Restore Trust, which campaigns to prevent organisations like the National Trust explaining to visitors the historic context of their stately properties (slavery and colonialism), attacking what it sees as a ‘woke’ agenda.
It’s essential that the authorities (but so many like the Electoral Commission have zero clout) and political parties take this threat seriously because we shouldn’t sleep walk our way into allowing malign actors outside the UK to determine election results. A few years ago you’d never have imagined it possible that directors of a limited company purporting to be a UK political party would have an audience in the President Elect’s home with someone like Musk. The statement they issued sounds unhinged: ‘We learned a great deal about the Trump ground game and will have ongoing discussions on other areas. We only have one more chance left to save the west and we can do great things together. Our thanks also to President Trump for allowing us to use Mar-a-Lago for this historic meeting. The special relationship is alive and well’. Everything about it is worrying and misleading – ‘ground game’ (so that’s what it is!); ‘one more chance to save the West’ (melodramatic take on Liz Truss’s book title and unbridled capitalism won’t ‘save the West’); ‘historic’ it might have been but not in a benevolent sense; and ‘special relationship’? That’s a concept mainly located in some Brits’ minds. It’s nothing short of alarming that Nick Candy said Reform (enriched by large donations which apparently could soon include Tory donors switching) would bring about ‘political disruption like we have never seen before’. But while the Electoral Commission has called for the rules to be strengthened, the government has said there are ‘no immediate plans’ to change them.
Reform UK is certainly keeping its finger on the pulse for opportunities to get one over Labour and the Conservatives, now courting voters in Runcorn and Helsby in case the court case involving the incumbent, Mike Amesbury, results in his recall. Said their insider: ‘We are first out of the blocks on this one. The Labour majority is massive, but when you look at the demographics in all areas, it is everything you would want for a Reform seat. If you wanted to win somewhere with such a large majority, you’d probably need an unpopular government, a bad economy and a scandal. Obviously, you’ve got all three. People think their public services are getting worse, and we think we have a story to tell on that. It’s also about community and promoting the family. People forget that we are opposing the two-child benefit cap. We think we can be the party that lets people show their anger at the Labour government’. Meanwhile, Reform is planning to make a big impact at May’s council elections – who knows, they might actually develop some policies before then. They need more than far right rhetoric.
There’s been much talk about the government’s housing plans, included in a new National Planning Policy Framework and intending 1.5 million new homes to be built in England by 2029. This is a much ambitious target than ever before, pushing the current planning system hard, and a number of councils have said there’s no way they can deliver the numbers demanded. That can’t be the case around here as a huge number of blocks have been erected in recent years, with quite a few still under construction but with no additional infrastructure. We have to hope that green belt land isn’t overly compromised but we’ve long needed a proper focus on brownfield and ‘grey belt’ sites. I’ve long thought the same as a Telegraph correspondent, who made the case for the thousands of unused and empty properties to be brought back into use.
In October 2023 the Office for National Statistics reported 1.5m empty homes in the UK, of which 90% were reckoned to be genuinely empty or abandoned. It would be much cheaper and more efficient overall (despite the work needed by councils to identify and assess them) to regenerate these, which already exist and are connected to services. No doubt developers would be less but this is surely a minor concern. Needless to say, the kneejerk Conservatives found plenty to criticise, as ever an attempt distract us from their own failure in another key policy area. There are indeed genuine problems, of course, like nimbyism, the market dominance of the big housebuilders and the lack of skilled workers to actually build these homes, but governments must tackle these rather than use them (as the Tories did) as an excuse to do nothing.
This weekend we’ve heard about Keir Starmer’s strategy to ask regulators for ideas on how to boost economic growth – somewhat ironic as these toothless bodies have proved very good at ensuring their own ‘growth’ and disproportionate salaries. Their proposals are due by mid-January. ‘Signed by Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, it said ministers believed collaboration to be essential to ensure the regulatory environment became ‘more pro-growth and pro-investment’ while respecting the independence of regulators’. Interestingly, Starmer’s letter was sent to Sky News – interesting it wasn’t also the BBC and other media. It sounded initially like inviting the fox into the henhouse but defenders say this is exactly the kind of exercise regulators should be involved in. At least it should ensure they actually do some work. These organisations rightly have a poor reputation with the public – mostly staffed by former water company employees, Ofwat, for one, seems to be working much more for the companies than consumers.
A letter to the Independent pointed out how out of touch their claim to transparency is – ‘Since when have private companies disclosed anything that may damage their bottom line unless forced to do so by legislation? The roughly £10bn spent annually by Ofwat is literally money down the drain..the government needs to show some resolve by ensuring that water companies cease their unfettered discharge of raw sewage and pollution into English waterways. It’s time for meaningful action’.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy0n14ywzqpo
At this time of year there’s the predictable media coverage of New Year’s resolutions, although it’s now well known that the top three (or maybe now smoking has been shoved down the list) ie losing weight, getting fit and giving up smoking have often run into the buffers by Mid-January. I believe that any time is the right time to make a ‘resolution’, not just 31st December, although for many this timing could prove a useful catalyst. And of course they don’t have to be something tangible or measurable – it could be, for example, changing a behaviour, attitude or expectation. My heart often sinks when I read ‘psychologists say’ but this article had some useful content in it eg ‘the best changes are personal, start small and tackle expectations – our own, and those we might have internalized’; ‘make sure you’re starting with what feels easiest… you want to feel that sense of achievement, of success – because that’s going to keep you motivated to do the harder things down the road; in all cases, the goal of setting the goal should be to get in touch with yourself, your values and your own needs today’,
While we all have our pet hates within corporate jargon (two of mine are ‘going forward’ and ‘direction of travel’ – over-used by politicians and often signifying the speaker to be a time wasting wordsmith), James Marriott in The Times comes up with some awful ones we may be unfamiliar with if not working in a particular field. He tells us that ‘business is a world of ‘key deliverables’, ‘actionable items’ (what about items deemed inactionable?) and ‘cross-sllo leadership’…. it is always the most pointless spheres of human activity that are the most prolific sources of jargon’. As someone (and I suspect there are many) who never had a good experience of HR people, this struck a chord: ‘The notoriously bloated human resources industry has developed virtually its own branch of the English language: ‘onboarding’, ‘rightsizing’, employee lifecycle’, ‘performance calibration’. At least with the corporate ones you generally know what they mean – less so with these HR ones. Jargon is used, consciously or unconsciously, to keep others out and make users feel important. It’s a moot point as to when necessary technical terminology which developed in a specific field becomes exclusionary jargon but it seems to me that the media fail by not challenging interviewees over their excessive use of it.
Finally, some but not all will have been pleased by the news that Christmas dinners would be graced by the presence of larger than usual sprouts. Farmers predicted that this year’s would be ‘whoppers’ because growing conditions have been good, and Tesco said that this year theirs had an average diameter of 30mm, up from 24mm last year. Let’s hear it for the humble sprout!
And best wishes for 2025!
Politics and mental health - the missing link? 