The triumph of the will
Ben Wildsmith
We’ve seen this week what an elected government in the UK is capable of if it is motivated to act.
Far-right rioters have appeared in court quickly and been sentenced without recourse to probation reports or consideration of overcrowding issues in prisons.
In a moment of seeming national crisis, the system jolted into action in a way that we haven’t seen since the pandemic and, before that, the last riots in 2011.
Observers of British life over the last thousand years will be aware that the supposedly ironclad separation of the executive from the judiciary is more of an ideal than a reality. The nebulous nature of our constitution allows for all manner of cross-pollination between the two spheres, and, in an emergency, that can facilitate urgent action.
‘Leaned’
Keir Starmer is, of course, uniquely well placed to locate the correct levers when it comes to criminal justice, and it has been widely reported that he ‘leaned’ on the justice system to act as it has.
So, in the first instance, let’s applaud that. It was a situation that could easily have spiralled out of control, and, for now, that’s been prevented by governmental decisiveness backed up by the system.
The UK was on fire and now it’s not, only a fool wouldn’t welcome that outcome.
Interestingly, there has been little objection to the process outside of complaints from those – Musk, ‘Robinson’, Farage, Tice etc. – whose views reflect differing shades of those held by the rioters themselves.
Amongst the rest of the population, there seems to be general agreement that the urgency of the situation justified suspending conventional practices.
There is a lesson for elected representatives here. We put them into power with the expectation that they will wield it on our behalf. That power is considerably more potent than politicians of all stripes would have us believe. In 2008, it was used to bail out the banking sector to the tune of £137 billion.
Furlough scheme
The pandemic furlough scheme cost £70 billion. These spending decisions were made quickly and without a mandate as circumstances demanded. In both cases, they were made against a backdrop of neglect, in banking regulation and pandemic preparedness respectively.
So, we have seen that government is adequately empowered to enact legislation quickly, compel agencies to implement it, and to raise finance as necessary. The system, it seems, works, but is only made to under threat of impending disaster.
The question for Starmer going forward is how to keep the systems of government running like this so that points of crisis are averted in the first place. My own view is that the perceived problems around immigration are more of a symptom than a cause of the widespread dissatisfaction amongst the British public.
It is now so embedded in the national consciousness as a set of serious issues that it needs to be addressed specifically. In recent years, it has been government policy simultaneously to inflate the seriousness of the problem and then feign powerlessness in the face of judicial restraint.
That game needs to be brought to a very public end. Labour was circumspect about its plans for immigration measures during the election campaign, presumably feeling that whatever it proposed could be misrepresented.
Decisive majority
It now has a decisive majority and no credible opposition in parliament. However it seeks to address the issues, whether by negotiation with the EU or via domestic legislation, the government needs to be clear, decisive, and resolute.
The same attitude should, of course, be taken towards the crisis in public services.
We have seen with our own eyes how much can be achieved quickly if there is the political will to act. The rhetoric of this government has a tendency to conflate inaction with caution, as if it were a safe option. A Conservative government is elected with a mandate for that line of thinking, as it is charged with maintaining the status quo as regards the distribution of wealth. It has led to a tearing of the social fabric which is becoming more expensive with every botched repair.
Here in Wales, no such remedial power exists. Our government cannot print money nor borrow it in quantities to address the fundamentals of our economy. It is, however, in possession of a pulpit from which it can preach the urgency of the situation. It was, then, excruciating to hear Baroness Morgan use her first speech as FM to instruct us that more austerity is on the way.
If you ask any Labour politician whether George Osborne’s economics were ruinous for the UK, they will agree that they were. They were ruinous in poorer areas, many in Wales, to a disproportionate degree. To persist with underinvestment when the electorate has rejected it is perverse.
The ‘our hands are tied’ defence for neglecting serious issues in this country is dependent on discredited economics that were a trojan horse for further enriching the investment class.
This government, as we have seen, is capable of acting when it needs to. It has a thumping majority and minimal internal dissent. The question we should be asking of Starmer and Morgan is, what do you want to do? We’ve heard enough of what you can’t do to fill a courtroom.
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Spot on again Ben. All of which raises a salient question for the UK Govt wrt Wales. When will it choose to invest in our economy to ensure our GDP per Capita is at least comensurate with the UK average? Will it eradicate child poverty and the need for foodbanks in Wales? A good start would be giving back our HS2 money.
The article gives too much credit to Starmer and his government. What really convinced the rioters that they were on a hiding to nothing was the truly massive turnout at counter-demos, often chanting “there are many more of us than you”. (To the tine of “She’ll be coming rind the mountain” if you want to try it out. It is a catchy jingle). Well and good to suggest that the riots were a sort of warped response to deprivation. But it was people from those self-same areas, equally deprived, who turned out to clean up the mess and repair the… Read more »
‘What really convinced the rioters that they were on a hiding to nothing was the truly massive turnout at counter-demos …’
I think that you’re spot on with that. Earlier today I heard on the radio a recording of one of those very large counter-demonstrations, on this occasion in Bristol.
A large counter-demonstration confronted a much smaller far right group, chanting: ‘We are many, you are few; we are Bristol, who are you?’
Just now and then, a mere slogan says everything which needs to be said.
Not up the mark on spelling yet…Welsh education the worst in the Western World and you are the proof!
If you look at the PISA results you will see Welsh education results reflect its economy. Poor. This also occurs elsewhere – Tasmania in Australia has the worst Austraian PISA results and has the poorest economy. Educational outcomes reflect the wealth of the community not least as the strongest predictor of educational outcome is home background. Schools are way less important…
I suspect that to get any movement from our elected representatives on the issues the majority of us are most concerned bout, the NHS, homes, jobs and education as well as the elimination of poverty, particularly that of children we’ll have to start peaceful protests outside the Senedd and outside every MS constituency office up and down the land, bombard our representatives with e-mails, start petitions on the subjects we care about, such as demanding changes in our NHS so that we don’t have to compete to get a doctor’s appointment, so that we don’t have to see people homeless… Read more »
Excellent piece Ben. Another thing we have to do is get Welsh youngsters into Welsh universities. As the Vice Chancellor of Swansea University has pointed out, they are our next generation of doctors, engineers and teachers. We must then ensure that they practice their skills in Wales, not filter off elsewhere. Welsh Government has to take a far more proactive, pro-Cymru position. The time for pussyfooting has long gone. Stop the brain drain and invest in our future.
The decline in Wales is mirrored in Scotland with only 0.1% more uni applicants there.
For the unis it is about numbers for the finance to run the uni so a vested interest from vice- chancellor is dressed up by a warning of lack of future graduates in specialist roles but when you look at graduate jobs, post-uni, there are many in what some would call the mundane everyday jobs with no correlation to their degree at all.
It needs serious discussion with graduates after leaving uni and school leavers to find the true cause of decline.
The Welsh economy is poor. Working class people are less inclined to go to university – the sensible ones get apprenticeships. Going to uni is not the be all and end all of getting good jobs. Going to University only definitely gets you a debt of about £50,000. We need highly skilled graduates in STEM but degrees in humanities are very poorly paid. Much more sensible not to go to universities to get such degrees.
What this shows us, as the article states, is that action and the money for that action, can be found when the political will is there. Imagine how quickly the sort after ‘growth’ would happen if the will was fully there too. Recently, caution has been the name of the game. Labour in Westminster has a huge majority, it’s time it used it and became braver. Growth and prosperity will continue to fail until they do.
‘In recent years, it has been government policy simultaneously to inflate the seriousness of the problem and then feign powerlessness in the face of judicial restraint.’
Since inward migration, and particularly the matter of the ‘small boats’, has become such a major political issue in the UK, I don’t think that I’ve come across a more precise and pithy summary of ‘where we’re currently at’ than Ben Wildsmith’s terse sentence reproduced here.
UK Labour once in office are always proactive when it comes to England but forever inactive in Wales. UK Labour PM Keir Starmer deliberately withholds powers & levers in Whitehall that could transform not only our economy and Senedd democracy but he along with WS Jo Stephens refuse to devolve powers requested by Welsh Labour also sought by Paid Cymru because they know if Wales had its own destiny in its hands would become eventually become a prosperous country and as you know nations who are a prosperous tends to not vote Labour and are independent minded. See Labour cynically… Read more »
Have you been asleep and not seen what Welsh labour has done to us in 25 years, wasted so much of our money , and now want another 36 on the gravy train. I want to see the assembly shut down to save us from further costs
Yvette Cooper doesn’t get it…
This behaviour is in part a result of Fat Shanks’ occupation and ruination of No 10 and the total debasement of the office of Prime Minister…this gang of pissed up coke heads brought bit of the UK to the position of a vulnerable person whose home has been taken over by a gang of thieves, fraudsters and mad sadists and robbed blind…in the face of such criminality it is hardly surprising that Gove and Co have left many people in a bit of a moral maze…
Pensioner winter allowance….
Given the Labour party are now Thatcherite neo liberals its difficult to imagine them morphing into democratic socialists with the well being of all people at heart. I doubt the idea of printing money to invest in UK infrastructure and growth will happen. Corbyn tried and failed to implement change because of the arrogance of Westminster MP’s and other Labour politicians. ‘They knew best’ and conspired from day 1 to destroy him.
Personally I have little hope of Starmer and co doing anything for Wales. It will be the continuation of wealth extraction at the expense of Welsh people.
Well I see the media is out in force spouting the government line of everyone is a far right thug. This name calling in itself incites trouble. Of course these attackers were thugs, they always are but the tensions that are boiling over are being ignored and stamped upon. People are angry. I hear people discussing it everywhere. Usually in whispers. When the whispers grow is when we have trouble. The shame is no one listens even when people vote for change. Brits are apathetic and that’s what the elite love.