Please log in or register. Registered visitors get fewer ads.
Forum index | Previous Thread | Next thread
If you’re struggling to understand the UK in 2021 22:18 - Feb 11 with 1458 viewsDarth_Koont

This is a good place to start.

Full disclosure: I’ve got a crush on Peter Oborne. While we’d probably disagree on many things politically (him being a traditional Tory and me being functionally socialist), I’m a teenage fan screaming tears for his unflinching belief in transparency and honesty in public life, as well as his principled understanding of the real role of journalists in holding power to account.

Watch this interview and then read what he’s written over the past few years (standards in public life, the Middle East, islamophobia, Labour antisemitism and even cricket, the worst sport ever or so I thought).

He’s not wrong. We’re seeing a slow but nevertheless exceptionally damaging erosion of standards from elected politicians and the journalists who certainly shouldn’t be active accomplices. This stuff doesn’t end well – and really we’ve been seeing that over the past few years. Even Oborne as an old but principled Tory knows it.




[Post edited 11 Feb 2021 22:23]

Pronouns: He/Him

10
If you’re struggling to understand the UK in 2021 on 23:35 - Feb 11 with 1316 viewsBugs

Really interesting stuff. That many people will care about the incessant lies before it's too late, I have my doubts.

Most people that voted for Johnson already knew him and his cohorts are liars, but they are their liars. So that's not a problem to them.
6
If you’re struggling to understand the UK in 2021 on 08:40 - Feb 12 with 1091 viewsCrawfordsboot

Thanks for posting this. Pretty depressing reality.
A must share clip
1
If you’re struggling to understand the UK in 2021 on 09:37 - Feb 12 with 993 viewsitfcjoe

For anyone who doesn't have time to watch it, it's available as a podcast on 'The Owen Jones Podcast' feed from 4th February

Poll: Club vs country? What would you choose
Blog: What is Going on With the Academy at Ipswich Town?

1
If you’re struggling to understand the UK in 2021 on 10:17 - Feb 12 with 935 viewsDarth_Koont

If you’re struggling to understand the UK in 2021 on 09:37 - Feb 12 by itfcjoe

For anyone who doesn't have time to watch it, it's available as a podcast on 'The Owen Jones Podcast' feed from 4th February


Good point.

No real need to watch the interview, just listen.

Pronouns: He/Him

0
If you’re struggling to understand the UK in 2021 on 10:40 - Feb 12 with 894 viewsTJS

I don't think the erosion of standards from elected politicians and journalists exists in some kind of vacuum.
it reflects the erosion of standards in society as a whole.
1
If you’re struggling to understand the UK in 2021 on 12:38 - Feb 12 with 823 viewsDarth_Koont

If you’re struggling to understand the UK in 2021 on 10:40 - Feb 12 by TJS

I don't think the erosion of standards from elected politicians and journalists exists in some kind of vacuum.
it reflects the erosion of standards in society as a whole.


There are certainly social trends that feed into it. For example, people thinking that “Faking it until you make it” or brazenly looking after their own selfish interests are possibly seen as more positive character traits nowadays. On the other hand, the unrivalled access to information means that standards of honesty and transparency should be higher.

And ultimately this is about public and democratic duty – and those who are paid to represent the public interest not their own.

The need for fair and diligent democratic representation is higher now given how complex modern life is but also how much more we now know about society, the economy and the wider world. But our politics and media seem to be moving in the other direction, and their perspectives and the interests they represent are becoming narrower and more selfish.

We’ve got an antiquated FPTP system that leads to two big monolithic parties dominating the debate and getting into government without a genuine democratic majority. Now both those parties have become answerable to large donors and not even their members. They’re permanently lobbied by private and corporate interests, as well as think tanks set up by the wealthiest individuals. They’re alternatively handicapped or enabled by a media predominantly owned by billionaires looking after their own interests. And they are packed with the career-climbers who see that this wash of money and self-interest is a pretty lucrative and personally rewarding industry wherever they start off or end up in the overlapping worlds of party politics, media, lobbyists and corporate enterprise.

That’s an incredibly bleak picture of a so-called civilized democracy in 2021. The whole thing needs reforming – and certainly these people can’t be trusted to do it themselves.

Pronouns: He/Him

1
If you’re struggling to understand the UK in 2021 on 12:53 - Feb 12 with 785 viewsHerbivore

If you’re struggling to understand the UK in 2021 on 10:40 - Feb 12 by TJS

I don't think the erosion of standards from elected politicians and journalists exists in some kind of vacuum.
it reflects the erosion of standards in society as a whole.


It doesn't exist in a vacuum but politicians and the press are very visible and when they display behaviour that shows little concern for integrity and accountability then that tends to pollute society as a whole. This is something the government seems not to get. Whilst I don't buy that lack of compliance with lockdown has been a bigger issue in the UK than anywhere else, I'd argue the public's attitude to following the lockdown shifted after the Cummings incident and the government backing him to the hilt. These things matter.

Poll: Should someone on benefits earn more than David Cameron?
Blog: Where Did It All Go Wrong for Paul Hurst?

3
If you’re struggling to understand the UK in 2021 on 15:14 - Feb 12 with 672 viewsbluelagos

Cheers

Most insightful part is that the Tory MPs basically knew Johnson is a lying turd but were still happy to have him as leader on the basis that he was most likely to win an election.

They are, without exception, every bit as culpable as him, they put him there and can't plead ignorance of his shortcomings.

Poll: This new lockdown poll - what you reckon?

2
About Us Contact Us Terms & Conditions Privacy Cookies Advertising
© TWTD 1995-2024