What's still wrong with our economy?

The source of much of the damage to our economy and well-being is of course the banks – still largely unreformed – and also globalisation driven by the avarice of individuals high up the corporate ladders and in hedge funds operating in a patriotism-free zone allied to their political placemen. There is a perverse competitive force at work that belongs more to Catastrophe Theory than the ‘dismal science’ - the sadly apt nickname for economics – and the Lemming-like mentality of "the other lot have made a fast buck out of shutdown-and-offshore so we will too".
Thus it was that real industry, especially manufacturing and engineering, was eviscerated and other productive sectors such as agriculture have had their standing reduced. We sometimes hear talk of a ‘post industrial society’. You can certainly have post-industrial societies in Europe and the US. Indeed we may yet get to find out what one is like. What you cannot have in a country larger than the Cayman Islands is a post-industrial economy.
I have said for many years that when the US Government came to see that the globalisation trumpeted by self interested executives was not working for the country they would stop singing along with the shrill brass. There is evidence that this is now the case in Democratic circles – but not of course in those associated with the likes of Bain Capital.
‘Free trade’ is a hypothetical concept never realised in reality. It might work to the mutual benefit of sections of societies when practised by responsible agents between countries with similar values. Here I’m not talking in terms of ill-defined concepts of ‘capitalism’ or ‘socialism’. I refer to moral stances in relation to fundamental concerns such as the use of child labour, pre-Victorian working conditions and befouled environments. And on the positive side the concept of the Common Good.
‘Free trade’ - is neither inherently good nor inherently bad. Its merit depends on the conditions and principles under which it operates. A bit like America’s constitutional right to bear arms - one thing in the birth of a nation phase, quite another today. What can produce great benefit in one set of conditions can be malignant in another.
And trade is not the only thing that should be ‘free’. The people producing the goods to be traded should be free too. Unless they are, you do not know that the export / import imbalance in their societies is what they would choose. And national currencies should be free to find their own relative levels. These conditions do not exist in many major participants in global trade.
There is another critical factor - the distribution of power and choice in overseas countries and regions used - I choose this term deliberately - by globalised corporations to make their products. Used and then ignored in the ruthless quest for ever greater ‘shareholder value’ and executive bonuses.
The domestic consequence has been the demise of great swathes of the Midlands and North of England and the Midwest of the United States. The production of industrial wastelands and ruined communities at home is as corrosive a by-product of global profiteering as is the effluent discharged in countries to which jobs and production have been taken.
An essential context for free trade to work properly is morality and social conscience. We’ve seen the lack of principle (which resulted in the lack of principal) in the banking sector and the disregard for the fate of communities shown by those entrusted with the power to manufacture.
Executives should not be free to act regardless of scruple (nor should they want to - a change essential for a long run solution) any more than they should be free to ignore chemical pollution. Corporations should be trusts, not in the sense of being monopolies (although they are often effectively these anyway) but in the sense of holding the livelihoods of individuals, the life of communities and the self respect of nations in their hands. We need due diligence here too.
The timescale required for such changes could be a generation. We’ve seen the resistance to social pressure to reform disgusting bonus cultures and the continuation of contempt for people seen as ‘punters’ in banks and other ‘services’. There needs to be a comprehensive re-education of our corporate and political leadership. And to get the policy right, the funding of political parties needs to be freed up from the unseemly and unseen influence of big donors. In fact we need our own cultural revolution.
The original name for economics was ‘political economy’. What is needed now is ‘moral economy’ where concern for the human consequences of decisions is embedded in the mindset of the captains of industry - as should be a sense of responsibility to the society that gave them the opportunities that they so frequently abuse.
Genuine competition might not be a bad idea too, rather than the spurious competition (such as in banking, communications, power and fuel supply and a good chunk of retailing) that is informal cartelisation designed to exploit consumers. Included too should be the politicians who have so often seen their primary role as the reinforcers of, and apologisers for, this dire mis-managerial capitalism.
Internationally, future trade round discussions, if any, should have an infusion of social and moral as well as environmental responsibility.
At home governments constantly tamper with educational syllabi. As part of the much needed moral restructuring of society there should be moral economics as well as ‘bog standard’ economics on the syllabus.
All this is a tall, but the time to start is now. And it is a journey we need to make since the current crisis is ethical as much as economic. Failure to get a grip on the greed and disloyalty of globalisation, the culture of cheating and deceiving, the disregard for sustainable limits to growth and the lack of morality that produced these and other undesirables will result in a post-industrial wilderness in the West.

Lighten Up!

Here I’m not referring to the advice I often receive but to the question of Summer (Daylight Saving) Time. The clocks go back this evening and each year at the end of October marking the start of the ‘dark nights’. This is always a bit depressing and in my opinion we should have the clocks set two hours rather than one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time in the summer and one hour ahead of GMT in the winter months.
It is an established fact that this would save lives in traffic accidents. This arrangement would also be better for evening sport and outdoor activity in general. It would also reduce the impact of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) as people, on the whole, would experience significantly more daylight. And, as is also well known, it would save energy too.
So why isn’t this apparently good idea brought in? It is reported that some people in very high places don’t like getting up in the dark, but I find it hard to take this seriously. Our farmers may grumble - and indeed they’ve much to complain about as undervalued contributors to the productive part of our economy - but I imagine that livestock go by other perceptions of time rather than how we choose to set the nominal dials on our timepieces.
I believe that most people in England (three out of four according to a recent survey) support such a measure - and have done so for a long time. But I understand that Scotland wants to keep the present system so that’s apparently that. In my view they should be told to keep their own time and go their own way in this as in other matters.
All in all we do need more illumination at home - not to mention in our national affairs and I suspect few people would disagree with that! The Government recently let a private members bill fizzle out and there’s little chance that the Government will see the light anytime soon. So no change there then!

Help St Basil’s win £250,000!

St Basil’s is an outstanding Birmingham charity that provides expert advice and support to young homeless people in our city – and indeed helps them to avoid homelessness in the first place. The organisation provides housing advice, family mediation, emergency housing and supported accommodation.
St Basil’s will have completed 40 years of service in October this year and they have the opportunity to win £250,000 to extend the ever more needed services that they provide. And what’s more, you can help them to win it!
The money would come from Persimmon Homes, one of the country’s largest house builders, who are giving away a 3 bedroom home worth up to £250,000 and consolation prizes of £6,000 - also, as it happens, to celebrate their 40th birthday. But there are twenty-three other organisations hoping to win the home and crucially, who gets it will be decided by a public vote.
You can support St Basil’s by voting at persimmonhomes.com More than this, it's possible to vote once a day until the vote ends on the 27th of this month. Please do your bit to help this wonderful Birmingham charity!

Middle-earth Weekend 2012

From an item in ‘Amon Hen’, the bulletin of the national Tolkien Society:
The Middle-earth Weekend 2012 was held at Sarehole Mill in The Shire Country Park, Hall Green, Birmingham over two days in May. It was a great opportunity to meet old friends and make new ones. Vivienne Wilkes and the Middle-earth Weekend Planning Group brought together this mix of contemporary and historical elements and created an atmosphere redolent of the world of Middle-earth at the Mill and on the event field.
This year’s theme was ‘Celebrating 75 years of The Hobbit’ and visitors were treated to entertainments, activities, craft demonstrations, re-enactments, food, drink in the all-round hobbity surroundings that this part of the country possess.
The Tolkien Society was there as well in the Tolkien tent organised by Dave Corby of the Isengard Smial. The weather may not have brought the May sunshine; but the warmth of the hosts, and the enthusiasm of the visitors, served to brighten the whole experience.
The weekend is the culmination of months of work by the Shire Country Park Friends, the Birmingham Tolkien Group, Shire Productions and staff at Sarehole Mill. They rely on a dedicated group of volunteers both in the run-up to and over the weekend.  The regular features of recent events have been the marquees, on the recreation ground behind the mill.  These provide the covered venues for the following attractions:
Crafts, various artisans exhibiting and purveying their wares
Activities, usually themed, this year the theme was ‘Mirkwood Forest’
Performances, a variety of theatrical entertainments organised by Shire Productions
‘The Tolkien Tent’, an educational resource with representations from local historical groups, readings, quizzes and stalls.
More volunteers are needed for the Middle-earth weekend in 2013. To make next year’s weekend happen, the organisers need additional willing, enthusiastic and above all, committed volunteers. Preparations for the weekend start in the New Year and if you would like to make a contribution to the running of this unique event, please contact Viv Wilkes or Stevie Prior via middleearthweekend@gmail.com.

Lording it Over Us?

The last week has seen the effective demise of proposals to reform the House of Lords. After a century of promises, papers, reports and commissions this was very disappointing. The 21st Century is surely time for a more democratic second chamber - but please don't call it a 'senate'!

There can be no justification for half of our parliament being appointed through the patronage of party leaders to lifetime terms of office – an arrangement that we have the doubtful pleasure of sharing with Belize, Burkina Faso, and Jordan. There's also no excuse for supporting a system that allows some lawmakers to inherit their office – an arrangement that we currently share only with Lesotho.

Nearly 800 years after Magna Carta, as George Monbiot recently put it, unrepresentative power of the kind familiar to King John and the Barons still holds sway. There is no excuse for more than half of the country's lawmakers to sit in Parliament without an electoral mandate from the people.

I know that there are arguments to the contrary, but whatever happens, some things do need to change. Some of the more reasonable arguments relate to the value of experience, so that, for example, someone who has sat in the Commons would at least know the Westminster ropes and hopefully have acquired a degree of judgment.

While there may be some truth in this, it did not stop an earlier government from abolishing the role of Aldermen (retired, former long-serving councillors) from their role in council decision making. So if this is right for local government I'm sure that it should also be applied to national government. Forgive me for seeking consistency here.

There is also the question of business experience - all well and good so far as it goes (bankers, financial services, insurance, much of the legal profession and certain security firms excepted) but how many of the Lords would have experience of living on the minimum wage or surviving on benefits and about which they approve life-affecting legislation? A lopsided set of experiences may not lead to overall good decision making - as I'm afraid we know to our cost.

In addition to all of this there are some disconcerting features about the larger half of Parliament. For example, in the present House of Lords:

40% of members were educated in just 12 private schools

Seven out of ten members are party political appointments

Half of the members come from London and the South East

More than a quarter are former MPs

Only one in five are women

As is clear from these facts, while its debates often have a reasonable tone and behaviour is undoubtedly better than in the Commons - it could hardly be worse  - the House of Lords as presently constituted does not, in its composition, reflect the country that it helps to govern.

It is surely preferable for lawmakers to hold their place in Parliament through the directly expressed will of the people. This would give them greater legitimacy in standing up to a Cabinet and a Commons that can become obsessed with failing agendas and detached from reality and the best interests of the country.

Sign up for Alan Turing

Alan Turing, the centenary of whose birth was celebrated on the 23rd of June was an inspired mathematician fully deserving of the description 'genius'.

Turing was, through his undaunted code-breaking at Bletchley Park, one of the hidden heroes of the Second World War who by his brilliance and dedication saved countless allied lives. The official bigotry he received in return and the conviction and chemical mutilation that led to his premature death was utterly tragic.

There have been quite a few tributes to Turing and piecemeal recognitions here and abroad and also pieces concerning his pardoning or 'rehabilitation' - but of course it is the government at the time that needs the pardoning and the attitudes of those days towards sexual orientation that need the rehabilitation if that were possible.

Despite an official Government apology in 2009 by way of a statement in the House of Commons there remains a strong case for a full hearted and unequivocal recognition of Turing's contribution not only to cryptanalysis but to computing science, mathematics and wider inspiration that is evident to the population as a whole.

So I was delighted to discover that there is an e-petition to feature Turing on the £10 note. You can sign it at epetitions.direct.gov.uk The petition is open until the 21st of March 2013 and there are some 20,000 signatures so far - so there is a good chance of reaching the crucial figure of 100,000 by that time.

While it is the Bank of England that decides who is featured on banknotes, they could hardly ignore a positive vote in Parliament in a debate triggered by the requisite 100,000 signatures from members of the public. Let's hope that we can get there - Alan Turing's memory deserves no less.

Towards the Common Good

The present position of society both in its economic and social aspects is increasingly dysfunctional and ill-served by many institutions as they now stand. This is the damaged state that we are now in. We are faced with choices that we do not want but if, in the longer term, we want to see an end to austerity, anxiety, inequity and lost esteem then I believe that measures need to be taken (set out in earlier postings) entirely different from those propounded by what is turning out to be one of the worst governments in living memory. These measures - Keynesian, interventionist and equitable will take time - a long time - to have full effect but they are urgent and the consequences of not taking action are severe. These steps are needed to form a bedrock upon which a Virtuous Economy can be founded and enable the rebuilding of national morale, and the personal and mutual self respect and security that contribute to the Common Good.

Good governance is desperately needed. Active and positive engagement is a necessary virtue, aiding and abetting the achievement of common goals with Government setting aside timidity and doctrine, releasing itself from nefarious influences providing its political funding and involving itself proactively in the process of building a wider and lasting prosperity. Prosperity itself is by no means an ignoble goal, but it is important to bear in mind that affluence is a condition and not a value. The true worth of an economy is found not in measures of monetary worth or league tables, but in the achievement of a broader well-being and the underpinning social and moral values.

At the individual level, in contrast to this exploited, deceived and litigious age when good people are rendered fearful for their future and that of their families, a Virtuous Economy, a citizenry of good intent with commonly held moral values, and the concept of stewardship more than the overhyped 'leadership' will make possible the creation of a Good Society cleansed of these negative qualities. A desire to do good - in other words to behave virtuously - should become second nature. This is the basis of the Virtuous Economy and the enhancement of the Common Good.

All of this could be done if the commitment was there. Outside of the governing class, the viperous press and the commercial elite, I believe that it is. An economy is not an abstract entity to be revered - rather it is what we choose to make it. The Common Good can be enhanced with or without economic growth - if we decide to do so. Perspectives can be changed, commerce can be reformed, Government can be engaged, exemplar institutions with a public service ethos can be created and moral re-education undertaken. Time, commitment and patience are required but the journey this time will be towards the Common Good rather than our decades long journey away from it and the likelihood of 'bumping along the bottom' for two more decades.