[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by ianch99

I am thinking deeply I assure you. What is not needed is a cartoon-like 2 dimensional analysis of the complex socio-economic challenges. The application of simplistic analogies to reduce these issues to sound bites is why we are here today. "Labour bad, Tories good", "Free Market good, Nationalisation bad", etc."


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The system is broken and when people who cling to the debunked "rising tide floats all boats" maxim try and sell the "greed is good" snake oil, it really is depressing. I find it interesting to see the people defending the current system: they seem to be invariably those who comes from the baby boomer period where they had the fortune to find a good job easily, to have a final salary pension that we can only dream of today, to be able to easily afford to buy a house that now has risen many, many times in value and to have enjoyed the best of social service quality during this period.

These are the people who will now say: "I got where I am today through bloody hard work" .. well, truth be told, they were just very lucky. The sinister part is that they feel entitled: "how dare you take away what I worked hard to get". The awareness that the wealth and opportunities they enjoyed will never be available for the current generation is just absent. This lack of empathy underwrites a lot of the current politics.

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Although you've decried "sound bites"the term "baby boomer" is just that and highly offensive - although I know you did not intend any offence. These people essentially repopulated the UK after WW2.

You are right - the system is broken, albeit that it is the same system in force since 1951. That system worked well up to around 1992 which is when the EMU crisis broke. Since then the economic dynamics across the world have changed and this has affected us (within the same system) not to mention the huge increase in UK population that has imposed serious strain on our public services at the time when the economic position is at its nadir.

Where I probably differ from you, is that the system is not specifically broken for the reasons you have given. It has been broken by the politicians refusing to deliver the Referendum result - public trust has been lost. That is a very serious position.

How to repair the system? For a start, at the next GE, there should be a single alternative vote.

Turning to your assessment of why the system is broken, I don't see how any system can deal with the psychology of power, the slice of power that each MP wants leading to the ultimate trip for some of them. DO we need a benevolent dictator? Possibly but that won't happen. We won't get honest politicians - they have become increasingly dishonest since 1997 - all of them.

I fear there is no answer.