This video was recorded yesterday morning before I knew there would be an election. But it remains totally relevant despite that. In it, I argue that politics is all about power. The problem in our current political system is that almost all that power is being used to serve the interests of the wealthy. Where do the rest of us get a look in?
The transcript is:
Politics is all about power and anyone who says otherwise is denying reality.
When it comes to it, everything in politics comes down to this series of questions.
- Who is in power?
- How did they get that power?
- For whose advantage do they exercise that power?
- Who holds them accountable for doing so?
- How can we get rid of them if they fail?
- Are there any real alternatives available to those in power?
- If not, why not?
And for anybody who recognises the influence of Tony Benn on what I've just said, well, I recognise that influence and acknowledge it.
The point is that in 2024, assuming somewhat simplistically that we have a functioning democracy, even though we clearly haven't, the three key questions in that list are:
- For whose advantage do those in government exercise their power?
- Are real alternatives available to those in power?
- And if not, why not?
Our problem is, in a nutshell, that almost everywhere we look in the current political system in the UK, the answers to these questions is serving the interests of the already wealthy.
This is true of the Tories, Labour, the Lib Dems, and Reform.
All of those are undoubtedly structured to service that one interest group who are a tiny minority within the UK.
It's also at least partly true of the SNP, unfortunately, because they showed under Nicola Sturgeon's leadership a decided bias towards those with wealth.
But it's not true, in my opinion, of the Greens or Plaid Cymru.
So we have a decided imbalance of power in the UK where most of the political parties who will be sending most of the MPs to the next parliament are heavily biased in serving the interests of the wealthy.
Now, that of course, also means that there's a corollary, which is, that they must not be serving the interests of everyone else, because this is pretty much a binary decision.
You can't serve the interests of the wealthy, and then also serve the interests of everyone else, let alone the poorest. So, the Tories, Labour, Lib Dems and Reform, are all definitely not acting in the interests of most people in this country.
The SNP might be, might not be, we can only say for certain, that the Greens and Plaid Cymru, are working in the interests of the majority of people in this country who are on moderate or low incomes.
In that case, what I've already answered is the second question. There are no real alternatives at present to most of the parties in power in the UK.
Most offer the same bias towards those with wealth and against the interests of most people in this country. They might seek to deny that, but as a result we end up with what I might call a democratic facade. But what that means is we end up with a situation where there is no real choice but there is a pretence that there is.
Those with power rule the roost, they have captured politics, and most especially the parties who are most likely to be in power, are creating a political void where ordinary people are simply not getting a look in. They're being asked to decide between policies and parties, all of whom want to serve the interests of the wealthy, and no one, except, as I've noticed, the Greens and some of the nationalists, want to represent the interests of ordinary people in UK politics.
Is it surprising as a result that people feel disenchanted with politics and think that it does nothing for them?
The question is, why? What can be done about this? Well, that's going to be the theme for future videos. But right now, it is important to recognise that this is potentially the biggest issue in UK politics, and almost no one is talking about it.
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Only yesterday, our First Minister, John Swinney, announced an extra £16m to help fight poverty in our country. Just one example of a political party trying, with one hand tied behind it’s back, and opposed by a hostile media, to do its best for the people it governs. The S.N.P, are as all of us, not perfect, and have recently made glaring errors of judgement, but at least they are trying, so I for one will be voting for them at the General Election, for to have a Unionist majority in Scotland is unthinkable. Saying that, of course we will still be under Westminster’s heel, unfortunately.
There really is very little choice here for the 50% of us who are in favour of Indy.
There are only two possible votes available.
The SNP are a pro business, neoliberal, centralising party, but with a few redeeming social policies. They have tried to mitigate child poverty, yes, that has been a positive, but then messed up educational support, (we lost almost all our special needs support staff a decade ago).
They’ve been poor on land reform, and done nothing about council tax anomalies.
Both the First Ministers who had the Health brief were pretty poor there.
Our own WM MP, Brendan O’Hara, even protested about Scottish marine conservation policies in a round robin letter to all his constituents, deliberately undermining the Holyrood government….. With friends like these….(The Marine Conservation Society have only just pointed out to Scotgov, that they have missed almost all their own marine protection targets and will continue to do so).
The Scottish Greens have been sucked into the gender politics storm drain and have lost sight of their primary environmental priorities, even fudging the initiatives they had whilst power sharing. Their proclaimed commitment to pluralism didn’t stop Harvie expelling 13 prominent members on gender issues. We probably won’t even have a Green in this constituency anyway. Just as well.
So those of us who cannot vote for unionism, have a dearth of choice, if you are on the left.
Even if you could support a unionist party LINO are hardly an attractive option.
I am aware that a lot of power is attained by patronage in this country.
I am not well informed about the extent of it or who has that power. I am thinking of the BBC, House of Lords, Bank of England, Centres of culture like the British Museum, editorships of various organs – august than this one -, even charities and heads of Hospital trusts and School Academy Chains.
I am not suggesting they should all be elected but the pool in which they fish seems quite small.
Agree with all that is written.
Eco-systems of power? Political power & wealth are usually linked. A cursory consideration of the growth of univeral sufferage in the UK, shows that it tracks quite nicely the development of “popular” newspapers which tell people what to think – the owners of same being part of political power structures. I am sure others have written similar.
Everything is designed to delay change that benefits “ordinary” people & give time for the rulers/wealth to adapt – exceptions such as end-WW2 only proving this reality.
The UK’s neo-liberal “project” had as an outcome (intentional?) a reinforcement of wealth – the problem is that it was a utopian project (Late Soviet Britain/Innes) & is now failing – terminally. In the case of the SovU failure led to 10 years of poverty, looting of the state and the rise of oligarchs and Putler. It is difficult to know what awaits the UK. Probably breakup (Scotland & N.I joining the RoI). Which leaves the open question: can existing power structures maintain control of a disintegrating state? The lube that will stop them keeping a grip is I.T-related ref: summer 2011 and the use of mobiles by those that want to spread some mayhem. The stability of UK society is based on consent – and most people, most of the time following societal norms (usually defined by the wealthy/powerful). What happens when they don’t?