From Cool Britannia to Cuts Britannia
by Edward Rowley
The Government is right to focus attention on the deficit, but they need to be cautious they don’t become defined by it.
When New Labour strode into office in 1997 they were welcomed with cheers and applause, and duly promised to bring about a new approach to government and a ‘Third Way’ for politics. Furthermore, the party tapped into a discourse of youth and idealism which, regardless of its authenticity, enmeshed Tony Blair and the party with the culture and sentiment of the time. The feeling was a positive new start for Britain, and it imbued the government with an idealism and agenda which extended beyond the pages of their manifesto.
The 2010 Coalition’s ascension to office stands in stark contrast. Being afforded no such pleasantries, Cameron and Clegg’s government have had to get down to the difficult task of solving the UK’s economic deficit. This week has seen the rhetoric of the economy dominate almost all of the government’s key public addresses with claims the impending cuts will ‘change our way of life for years to come’. While they are right to prepare the public for the times ahead, the Government runs the risk of becoming enveloped in a discourse that may come to harm its time in office.
Speaking at Treasury Questions, George Osborne accused the Labour government of ignoring international consensus on cuts and claimed the party to be “outside the international mainstream”, yet the Coalition runs the risk of hurting economic recovery through propagating an image wholly focused on financial hardship. If the Government rely too heavily on the rhetoric of the current crisis it could fuel the perception that they lack a strong political impetus and that their agenda is only propelled by spending cuts, harming investment and confidence in the British economy.
Indeed, times of such financial woe may inversely be the situation in which calls for a ‘Big Society’ could actually gain a clear momentum. On Monday, in his speech on spending cuts, Cameron stated, “It’s going to be a very, very difficult task but I think it’s a task that actually helps to bring us together in this common endeavour.” But for an international audience, as well for those inside UK borders, the Coalition needs to provide a narrative that offers a broader, more fully encompassing agenda for Britain’s future that isn’t solely characterised by the bleak economic outlook.
DAVID VINTER
The fact is that the UK has on average, lived way beyond its means since 1950. The final ten years of a household debt driven boom, has broken the camels' back. Savers, have been mocked as unfashionable! Well, I may be miserable and aged----but I told you so. Mr Mickawber got it right!
Andrew Preston
Um, actually I thought what had really given the camel a sound thrashing are...
1. The economic policies introduced by Margaret Thatcher, and her ideologue chums in 1979, and the emphasis on the City, and financial services. And the creation of an unbalanced and unregulated economy.
2. The adoption by the Labour government in 1997 of much the same policies while trying to do something about the blatantly anti public-service attitudes of the Conservatives. And every time they introduced some measure of regulation the howls from the opposition could be heard all the way back to their beautiful country homes.
Didn't Mr Micawber go to Australia, change his ways, and become a prudent bank manager. Unlike Dave and George, trying to look after their friends....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFwCjibMBDU
Jonty Olliff-Cooper
Great blog Ed.
You are spot on: the message has to be, and can be something much more distinctive than cuts alone. no point in making a bad system smaller. we need to be simultaneously creating a more efficient system in the first place.
Jonty
Andrew Preston
@Olliff-Cooper
You missed his point entirely.
The 'we' bit does rather show that you aren't really interested in the majority of the country who have little time for neo-conservatism. And you couldn't even assimilate that what Rowney said was that.....
your party needs a lovely little cover story, a political rhetoric as cover for your slashing and cutting.
Living out in that massive country house of yours, going to Eton, clearly hasn't done much for the old neuro-transmitters.
David Vinter
I have never been inside of a public school. Never lived in a mansion. Come from very common stock, but I can remember Churchills government. Funny how the Labour party kept having to devalue, funny how the Tories built more houses! Old Harold Macmillan was best at that. It was Blair that took the UK into Iraq /
Afghanistan wars. He who like so many of the Labour party had never done or inteded to do any 'labouring' in their lives!
Andrew Preston
" ... I can remember Churchill.... "
Yes, others did too......
" Thank God that succubus Churchill has gone. " - Admiral Lord Fisher, shortly after Churchill resigned from government as a result of the Gallipoli debacle. A quarter of a million soldiers dead or wounded, and they'd hardly been able to get out of their trenches. This was the thing with the Churchills and their ilk. Other people paid the price for their failures.
Enough.
DAVID VINTER
So Mr Preston, war is OK, provided that a socialist, and not a tory is in charge? Frankly I think Blair was a useless twit, and Brown is rapidly writing himself out of history! [After curing boom and bust].
All politicians get elected by 'talking a good fight', most can do little in the real world, where the UK keeps slipping down the league of education, like I said credit card Britain lives beyond its means.
Paul Kearney
The same is true of over gung-ho cutting deficits, as with GFC - they are only REAL, if YOU lose YOUR job.
Andrew Preston
You can lard them up all you like. This government is chock full of Etonians, millionaires and neo-con androids.
I must say though that this is the first time anyone has divulged that their agenda is to cut spending, and also to harm investment and confidence in the British economy. I did know that , for example, when Ted Heath was Prime Minster, he made his fortune to do all that ocean yacht racing, by receiving share tips from City people doing what they've always done.
But short-selling the British economy just so that they and their friends can reap the profits seems to me to be the lowest of the low.
The Big Society? Just vapour and ideology. The word coming out of government from civil service insiders is of large pictures of Margaret Thatcher being put up in ministrerial offices, and the general exuding message that they are in power, back home.
Message for you chaps. You are not at home, and you'll be out sooner than you think.