Category Archives: Social

Covid & Disaster Capitalism

The Covid pandemic is now about one year old. It is just over a year since the first person in the UK died from it. The response to the pandemic has been very different in different countries, and this has led to very different outcomes. As of today the UK has had 4.21 million cases, resulting in 124,261 deaths. New Zealand by contrast has had 2,398 cases and only 26 deaths.

The extraordinary differences in these outcomes is attributable to the very different actions of the governments of these two countries, especially during the first days and weeks, in February, March and April last year. New Zealand, under Jacinda Ardern, listened to the science, closed borders and locked down early. It quickly and cheaply developed an effective track and trace system, and kept transmission rates low.

UK, under Boris Johnson, talked of ‘taking it on the chin’ and boasted of shaking hands with everyone in a hospital where people had the disease. Like Gove, Johnson has contempt for experts. Instead they were over influenced by some crazy ideas about herd immunity. Thousands of British people paid with their lives for this ideological nonsense.

Dr Nafeez Ahmed and Rebecca Davis, writing in Business Maverick have plotted the links in a bizarre disinformation network featuring Cambridge Analytica and a strange organization called Panda (standing for Pandemics: Data & Analytics) which have been promoting an ideological anti lockdown agenda, claiming it is bad for business. Much of the Tory right wing shares this dysfunctional libertarianism, not least Dominic Cummings and Boris Johnson.

Paradoxically, but not surprisingly, this so-called pro-business ideology has been disastrous for business. The UK has suffered badly economically, as well as in health terms, due to Covid becoming widespread. New Zealand on the other hand, by shutting down early nipped the infection in the bud and have since had less economic restrictions and costs.

But maybe from the point of view of the ideologues of the far right and for the Tory government things are going more or less to plan. According to the principles of Disaster Capitalism crises are opportunities to create change and bring forward ever more extreme free market policies, to roll back the state, and an opportunity to simply make money. Many ridiculously lucrative contracts have been awarded for dubious quality PPE, a track and trace system that cost billions and yet didn’t even work, but all opportunities to make money for the governments friends and supporters. One of the largest American health insurance companies is buying up GP practices across London, and the derisory pay rise offered to nurses are all symptomatic of this governments desire to undermine the NHS and to profit from its privatization. From this ghastly perspective Covid has been a splendid opportunity, and they have grasped it, and increased their wealth, power and influence. They have done so at the expense of many peoples’ lives and livelihoods. Of the UK population many of us are incandescent with rage at this government, but apparently nowhere near enough of us. According to the latest opinion poll the Tories are 13% ahead, so this government are very pleased with themselves. They have created a disaster and profited handsomely from it. Welcome to the weird world of Disaster Capitalism.

Nordic Inspiration

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I’ve recently read ‘The Nordic Theory of Everything’ by Anu Partanen. Anu Partanen is a Finnish woman married to an American man and living in New York. She contrasts the extraordinary differences between the USA and the Nordic region; how they organise all aspects of society, from education and social policy to taxation and business creation, and how these differences shape individual lives and relationships. It’s a great book and I cited it in my recent talk in Hereford.

She blends extensive academic research with personal anecdote to paint a vivid picture of the two systems. Of course there are differences between the five Nordic countries, as there are between the fifty states of USA, but there is a huge gulf between USA and the Nordic region. Interestingly she chooses not to paint a simple dichotomy between more socialist and capitalist ideologies, and barely uses either of these terms, preferring to talk about the purpose and function of a system. She sees a clear purpose underlying the general direction of policy in the Nordic region, the overall objective being to build strong, happy, healthy, independent, self-reliant individuals, capable of forming strong relationships, families and communities. The implications of this are enormous. The concern is for the welfare of all the people, and therefore equality is central. Providing excellent health, childcare, education and other opportunities for all people flows from this. Children start school later, have shorter school hours and minimal testing, and yet massively outperform USA and UK, in large part because children are less stressed and all schools equally well resourced.

She shows how much greater stress Americans live under. Everything seems designed not for the happiness of the people but rather for the vested interests of corporations whose sole interest is in maximizing profits. But this does not lead to America being better for business. It seems rather to result in a lot of confusion, conflict and stress.

It is not surprising that the Nordic countries have systems of proportional representation, where political representation accurately reflects how people vote. Recent elections in Finland have produced a very interesting coalition government, made up of five parties, including the Greens, and that very quickly they announced some of the most ambitious carbon reduction goals of any country. This is such a contrast to the chaos and division that are ruining life in USA and UK. We have so much to learn from the Nordic region. Tragically UK under Boris Johnson seems set to emulate Trump’s America.

In ‘the Nordic Theory of Everything’ Anu Partanen frequently refers to ‘the Nordic Theory of Love’ as the underpinning principle of the Nordic system. She draws on previous work by Tragardh and Berggren who wrote about ‘the Swedish Theory of Love’. In my talk I extrapolated further, and used the term ‘the Global Theory of Love’ to mean taking these principles of nurture and care for the wellbeing of all individuals to the global scale, and speculated as to the possibilities of providing Nordic quality public services to all humanity, while redirecting the global economy towards ecological renaissance. A phase I used a number of times in the talk was that ‘Everything needs to change, and fast!’ This is true to combat the climate emergency, but the same changes could also be used to bring about a wellbeing revolution. It’s a big and complex concept, and in my talk in Hereford last week I tried my best to make it comprehensible. I hope, at least to some extent, I succeeded.

The end of Neo-Liberalism?

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The Neo-Liberal obsession with cutting ‘red tape’ (fire regulations, building regulations, building inspectors etc) contributed to the disaster at Grenfell Tower.

Since the Thatcherite revolution of 1979 a neo-liberal ideology has dominated politics. Rolling back the state, low tax, low regulation unrestricted capitalism have been the central tenets of this worldview. Wealth has trickled up, further enriching the very rich while the majority have seen living standards stagnate or fall. Levels of inequality have risen dramatically. It was an ideology that was especially dominant in UK and USA, and Trump, May and the Brexiteers are the real extremists of this policy direction. The tide seems to be turning. The need to build stronger social and environmental legislation seems more apparent than ever.

The Grenfell tower block fire has brought into sharp focus several of these issues. The obsession with cutting red tape included watering down fire regulations and cutting back on building inspectors and other council services. The fact that flammable cladding materials were used rather than fire resistant ones just to save a tiny amount of money has cost the lives of many people. David Lammy and Jeremy Corbyn have shown empathy and leadership entirely lacking from May and her cabinet.

Poor air quality causes much illness and death and it is an issue which can be greatly helped with the right legislation, but this government continues to drag its feet and is only spurred into action by the legal challenges of ClientEarth and the European Union. The same can be said for the banning of dangerous agricultural chemicals such as glyphosate and the neonicotinoids where this government seems to be on the side of corporate interests at the expense of public safety. On climate change Trump, May and the neo-liberal extremists always line up on the side of the fossil fuel industry and against the interests of people and planet.

Many cities, regions and countries are realising the benefits of stronger environmental, safety and human rights regulation in stimulating a new cleantech economy which prioritises the needs of the many and not the few, the planet and not the polluter. A new worldview is emerging that has not yet got a name. It is pluralistic, pragmatic, cooperative and collegiate, socially and ecologically responsible. Corbyn taps into a part of it, Macron and Merkel to other aspects of it, perhaps in many ways the Greens fit best, but no one group has all the answers: we must work together to overcome the destructive dominance of neo-liberalism and create something very much better.

In much of Europe, particularly in Scandinavia, neo-liberalism never held such dominance, and they have more socially and ecologically responsible governments. We should withdraw article 50 and remain in the EU. Together we can repair the damage that 38 years of neo liberalism has created and that the Brexiteers will only make worse.