We need to take the long view to mend broken Britain

Published: August 11, 2011
EDITOR'S COMMENT

OUR governments don’t “Do God”, as Alastair Campbell would say, but they certainly worship at the shrine of  “short-termism”.

From the 50s to the mid-70s, Britain – under both the Tories and Labour – encouraged long-term investment, especially in manufacturing.

With Thatcherism and New Labour, short-term and quick fixes became part of the political bloodstream, an expression of neo-liberal economic policies.

Under Thatcherism, there was the quick fix replacement of our manufacturing industry with City finance; under Tony Blair, quick fixes in penal legislation that filled prisons until today there are more prisoners in our gaols than in any other single European country; under the Tory-LibDem Coalition, a quick fix in the sudden reform of the National Health Service – a quick fix in controversial reforms to the education system; a quick fix in the pursuit of a deficit economic policy instead of a growth policy along Keynesian lines. 

Now, another short-term quick fix policy is looming.

From politicians – Tory, Lib-Dem and Labour – comes the cry: Pursue the criminals in the riots and lock them up.  

There is a wilful blindness to the wider causes of the riots. Of course, looting is theft, setting fire to buildings is arson. And all these crimes have been committed.

But in today’s political culture, many people – not just youngsters – feel disaffected.

More than a million people marched peacefully against the Iraq war, only to be ignored by most MPs of all parties.

Now it is recognised as an illegal war based on false intelligence.

Isn’t there some form of criminality here?

When students protested against education cuts they were “kettled” and later given harsh jail sentences for “violent disorder”.

The neo-liberal economic policies since the 80s have produced a broken Britain.

Inequality in society has never been higher. Working people are aware of the obscene bonuses and enormous salaries paid to bankers and chief executives of transnational companies.

Is it not to be expected that  today’s jobless and consumer-driven youngsters will react to all that with envy and anger?

The riots, in some parts of London, can be described as “race riots”.

Subconsciously, at least, the heavy-handed police “stop and search” policies, directed mainly against black youngsters, have exacerbated racial feeling.

The death of Mark Duggan at the hands of the police is not the first death of a black person to trigger a riot – both here and in the US.

Only forward-looking politicians, who see the need to re-compose society, from top to bottom, argue for the desired changes. But will this happen?