Tell me the old, old story

Sir Keir Starmer promised us "Change" but the political debate is drifting dangerously towards what my father used to call "The same old over again."  Minister after minister sends most of her/his interview time on the media telling us what a mess the Tories have left behind, Conservatives distort the debate with dubious claims about "two tier Keir" (the fatuous suggestion that right wing demonstrations are more strictly policed than left wing ones) and that a lord and Labour donor has paid for Starmer's suits and glasses during the election campaign (which,even  if true, is hardly comparable to the VIP line for Tory  mates to make a fortune out of the COVID pandemic).  

Sir Keir has devoted his first major Downing Street address to emphasise the case.  Let's hope that will put an end to the moaning.

We, the electorate,  know that the Conservatives, after fourteen years in charge, have left the public realm - from the NHS, care system , local government, the armed forces, law and order, courts and prison system, the BBC and the arts, -  in dire straits.  Labour,  Liberal Democrats, Greens, and Nationalists where appropriate, have made the point,we have given our verdict and kicked them out.

Now we need a positive, constructive debate on how to put things right.  It will be a long process, Sir Keir is probably correct in suggesting it will take at lest two parliaments.

But  it will not be painful.  

It should be a joy.

We believe the "adults" are back in charge.  Let's roll up our sleeves and enjoy  rebuilding a caring, comfortable, effective and  efficient society that can work with other nations and international organisations to preserve our environment and spread peace and prosperity throughout the world.

Of course it will cost money.  But even if the government take a few pounds more from our incomes and wealth in order to pay the price, most of us (I'd estimate about four fifths,) will not suffer pain.  Mild inconvenience perhaps, cutting from three to two bottle of wine a week, postponing the second foreign holiday, wearing last year's outfit for this year's season, walking or cycling instead of driving.  Plenty left over to compensate the 20% at the bottom of the pile.

Rather that spreading gloom, the Labour leadership should use its PR machine to make it fun. 

If fun is to hard even for these masters of perception management, then at least a privilege to take part.

Farewell to the universal Pensioners' Winter Fuel Allowance

 Although I am a recipient of it, and have been ever since it was introduced, i think Rachel Reeves is quite right to scrap the pensioners' universal  Winter Fuel Allowance.  It has been a profligate waste of public money from the start.  

I have no idea what the proportion is, but I suspect at least half of us, and possibly more, are very comfortably-off on a combination of our state pension, work pension and, in some cases, interest and investment income.  We need this  extra boost like a hole in the head.  (At least one of my friends calls it his "wine wine allowance.")*

The people who do need the Allowance, and indeed much more, are those who are dependent on the state pension alone.  However, M/s Reeves has decided to limit it to those receiving Pension Credit (for which a lot of those entitled to it don't apply) or other benefits.  Critics, quite rightly, say this is not enough.

To me the simplest solution would be to continue to pay the Allowance to any pensioner whose total income is below the income tax threshold.  In other words, not to pay it to pensions like me who do pay income tax. The Treasury already has the information: there is no need for the dreaded "means testing."

At the moment the "personal allowance" or amount of income we receive tax free, is £12 500 per year.

The "New" state pension is just below that threshold at £11 502 per year

The "Old" state pension is well below it at £8 814 per year.

So all would be covered.

If the saving  gained by not paying the Allowance to the comfortable is considerable, then the amount for those who do need it could be increased.

In the long run the source of the problem is that state pension in the UK is woefully low by international standards.  It France it is  above the equivalent of £18 000 a year, in Spain a whopping £32 000.  Like so much else we need a root and branch reform of the way we finance our pension provision so that all are assured of an adequate income in retirement.  This would need something like a Royal Commission and could include consideration of a Universal Basic Income.

* Nor do we need the extra £10 at Christmas which dates from the days of Sir Alec Douglas-Home (he called it a "donation") and stilt less the extra 25p per week  we get when we reach 80, but the Treasury still sends them.  What does it cost to administer these bonuses?

 

Taking part in Democracy

 

 

I suppose that the UK’s 2024 General election will be best remembered as the one it which Labour replaced a Tory majority of 80 (but dwindling) with their own stonking majority of  172.  However, it should in my view be equally memorable that for the fact that only some 52 %* of the adult population took part in it.

This should be a cause of considerable worry.  As a political anorak or nerd  I find it almost incomprehensible that, in spite of all the fuss, drama, gaffes, debates, reports, leaflets, and exhortations and reports which have saturated our news outlets, half the adult population just couldn’t  be bothered to take part.

Some may have positive reasons.  Some religious groups, for example, believe it is wrong to take part in “worldly affairs.”  But for most I suspect it is either a belief that , whoever wins, it won’t make much difference (and they have a point) or, more seriously, that the system simply doesn’t work for them.

We need to see the present riots (thankfully taking a lull mid-week – let’s hope it lasts) in this context.  Of course, many factors have contributed to the riots, not least the drip, drip, drip of poison fed into the system to distract attention from the failures of the government and direct it to  the scapegoating of “others.”

 But another is that our supposed democracy has degenerated into a system in which every four years or so, the major parties engage in an unseemly auction which offers packages of bribes of what is “best for you and people like you” and then, having won, act as an elected dictatorship  to reward their supporters accordingly.

In 1961 the newly elected President J F Kennedy concluded his inaugural address with the famous peroration: “Ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.”

This ideal features little if at all in our politics.  The top-down “winner takes all” see-saw system is no longer fit for purpose (if it ever was).  As outlined in previous posts we need a root and branch reform our system which will involve fairer elections, an executive controlled by parliament rather than vice-versa, genuine devolution to the regions and localities, so that decisions are made at the lowest practical level and the overwhelming majority of people can feel involved in the system and able to influence it.

It is called “participatory democracy.”  It would be nice to think that somewhere in the minds of our new parliament  are the glimmers s of ideas to move in its direction.

 

·       *The official figure for the turnout is 59.8%, but that is the percentage of those registered to vote.  The 52% is an estimate based on including also the number of adult residents who are not on the registers.

Creaking Britain

 

In the past few weeks I’ve done quite a bit of travelling by public transport.

At the beginning of last month I went to Swansea in South Wales for a week’s walking around the Gower Peninsula with a group of Anglo-French friends.  My journey involved a bus to Leeds, train to Manchester and then another train to Swansea.  I arrived in Leeds in good time for the train, sat on it for an hour while, every few minutes  an announcement said there had been an “incident “ on the line” but we should be leaving sometime.  Eventually we were told that this train would not be leaving, but we could take a different train which went by another route.  So three hours or so after leaving home I passed through Bradford, some four miles up the road from my house, and eventually arrived in Manchester, but at the Victoria Station rather than the Piccadilly Station from which trains to Swansea would leave.  I couldn’t find any officials at Manchester Victor to tell me how to get to Manchester Piccadilly, so took a taxi. ( Costing £9. I’ve later discovered there is a free bus). I eventually caught a much later train than the one on which I was booked, arrived in Swansea at half past eight and so missed my dinner. 

Back home, later in the month a friend drove me to the funeral of a distinguished Liberal (Trevor Wilson) in Elland, and afterwards to Bradford where we had a pleasant lunch together.  Then my friend went off to play bridge and I want to the  Bradford Interchange to catch the bus to my home in Birstall.  However, the Interchange was closed* and boarded up with no official handy to tell me where, if at all, I could catch my bus.  Eventually a security guard kindly directed me to Nelson Street, but unfortunately by the longest way round. When I arrived I found that I had just missed a bus, and the electronic sign in the shelter said that the next one was “cancelled”.  That meant an hour’s wait so I decided to visit the National Media Museum just up the road. (As well as passing the time culturally It would also have the advantage of a lavatory.) However, the Museum also turned out to be closed for renovations and wouldn’t be open again until 2025.  So instead I went to admire the fountains in the lovely square outside the town hall, but left in plenty of time to catch the bus, which the electronic sign in the designated shelter said would come as scheduled.  I waited patiently.  Eventually the sign went off, but no bus had appeared.  After a few minutes, however it did, sailing down the road, already half-full of passengers, and would have gone straight past me had I not jumped almost in front to it with arms waving furiously.  Having first of all seemingly refused the driver did indignantly open the doors and remonstrated with me and let me get on, but gave no explanation as to why the bus had loaded at a place other than the official and advertised place at “Stand 1.”

 Last week a journey to Dorking via Leeds, King’s Cross, St Pancras, and Redhill (and back again at the end of the week) to stay with friends passed without disruption, but during the week, after a stunning evening performance of “As You Like it”** by the “Duke’s Theatre Company” at Wilton’s Music Hall in London’s East End, we took a fairly long walk to the nearest tube station in order to travel to Waterloo and from there back to Dorking.  Just as we arrived at the tube station officials were closing the gates.  The Circle Line was out of action because of a “signal failure”.  This then involved a frantic dash to another tube station (fortunately my companions had mobile phones with maps that told them where one was) and we eventually caught the last train, not from Waterloo but from Victoria, and arrived a my friends’  home at one thirty in the morning.

I said above that my  journey home form London  was without incident.  Well it was as far as Leeds, but, after dragging my suitcase half-way to what was the nearest bus stop to the railway station, I remembered that, because of roadwork, the bus had been re-routed, so I dragged myself and my luggage back to an earlier stop.  There the sign said that the next bus to my home had been “cancelled.” Happily another bus which passed through  the town  adjacent to my home arrived shortly afterwards and I took that instead.  It involved lugging my luggage (are both words derived from a verb “to lug”?) about three times as far as normal, but I made it.

 Yes, I know that compared with the horrors of Ukraine, Gaza, Somalia and lots of other places, not forgetting the disgraceful riots in various parts of the UK, and that a third of our children aren’t properly fed, these are trivial inconveniences. But in this “sixth richest economy in the world” they shouldn’t be happening. “Incidents” will, of course, happen in the best regulated economies, but we should be able to make alternative arrangement with the minimum of delay.  And above all, we should have personnel available to advise frustrated passengers of what the arrangements are.

* It had been built of the "crumbly concrete" which has also led to the closure of may schools.

** It's interesting that, at £24 per person, this was not only the cheapest but by common consent the most enjoyable of the five theatrical productions we saw.