Looking Beyond Britain's Post "Blair Babe" Politics

Image: Stylish fifty something Christine Lagarde, French Minister for Economic Affairs.

News this weekend that Brazil is likely to have a sixty something woman President put in to perspective the election of Miliband Junior as UK Leader of the Opposition. It was also a shame that Diane Abbott apparently lost out to the politics of envy over the choice of a private education for her son, just when I thought such "Old Left" hang-ups had lost out to New Labour.

In the run up to the General Election, I lamented the absence of the "Herd Matriarch" in British politics, as distinct from those "Folletted" women politicians struggling to look forty something when now nearer sixty than fifty. As someone a lot nearer fifty than forty herself, I am actually being cruel to be kind when I say this.

Unfortunately for we more mature ladies looking "ten years younger" has been one of the great aspirations since the Blair Babe years. Indeed, it is now a requirement for "the boys" as well, with baby-faced male politicians like Cameron, Clegg and the Milibands all doing better than their more mature (looking) colleagues.

Poor "old" Alistair Darling had to point out, as in the BBC interviewer's words, he handed over to "the next generation" of Labour politicians that he did not yet have "one foot in the grave". How did British politics arrive at this advanced state of ageism, I wonder, and how can the body politic be restored to a more sensible demographic ?

Were it not the case that European politics still looks like a relatively mature state of affairs, I might have deduced that politicians become younger as their populations age, and younger countries have older leaders, based on the experience of Britain and Brazil, for instance. However, this would not explain the enduring success of "Mother Merkel" in Germany.

No, I think the cult of youth in UK politics must be the new "British Disease", reflecting a society dictated to and dominated by its visual media, including the British Broadcasting Corporation. Something needs to be done about this. Maybe it's high time we more mature women staged a continental-style coup, ejected those hair dye fascists, and sported French-style grey hair.

OH DELHI ! - The Commonwealth Games Fiasco

Like the rest of what I suspect is the world's great silent majority, I do wonder what all the fuss is about sport; and I'm fed up with hearing about the problems of pampered elite athletes, particularly Australian ones and footballers....but that's another story.

So on one level, the Indian Commonwealth Games fiasco is almost welcome: a timely reminder that this a country struggling with development issues of far greater importance than the delivery of yet more world-class sporting facilities.

On the other hand, I very much support the idea of a Commonwealth Games, and hope that this one ultimately delivers a beneficial legacy and the next goes to Glasgow and does the same.

However, a more sensible perspective on sport is essential. People are increasingly comparing the current global obsession with the last days of the Roman Empire, providing a timely reminder to London's classicist Mayor, Boris Johnson, of the wider challenges facing his own country.

BRITAIN'S ECONOMIC SECURITY & FREEDOM

In a week when Britain is "Doing God" with a visit by a Pope who once belonged to the Hitler Youth, it was a timely reminder this lunchtime from one UK military man that our country's economic security should be uppermost in the hearts and minds of every citizen, even if this means less expenditure on high tech weapons.

I'm probably not alone in wondering whether Tony Blair has long term Papal ambitions, even if New Labour "didn't do God", when Alastair Campbell was around anyway. Unfortunately, it did - and didn't do - rather a lot of other things which have potentially compromised the country's economic self-determination.

For a nation which prides itself, rightly or wrongly, on an independent political system, our present predicament should be a concern to all free-thinking people. I believe the Coalition Government is genuine in its aim to deliver economic security, even if I happen to disagree with some of its policies, which - thank the gods ! - I can do freely.

SHRINKING THE STATE OF CUBA

It is interesting that the 2010 TUC Conference should co-incide with an announcement that Cuba is to reduce the number of state employees by around 20 per cent, or 1 million. Apparently, independent enterprise and self-employment are to be encouraged.

I have to say that my recollection of working with public employees in Slovakia shortly after the fall of Communism suggests that these people were better prepared for market realities than some of their British counterparts in 2010.

With hindsight it also seems that some countries in "The New Europe" have made a better job of governing themselves in the period since the collapse of the former Soviet Block, even in the absence of an equivalent of the British media class: or perhaps because of this.

UK TRADE UNIONS: THEY'RE NOT EQUAL TO IT

I'm just reaching the denouement of a superb psychological thriller by the Labour Peer Ruth Rendell, writing as Barbara Vine, called "The House of Stairs". One of the book's central characters, Bell, often uses the expression "I'm not equal to it", although she is quite up to the job of murder.

In addition to being excellent genre fiction, "The House of Stairs" is also a fine novel whose story reflects on the excesses of the 1960s and the perspective of the more sombre 1980s. This is the time frame in which I now want to reflect on the role of trade unions, although my starting point will be the so-called "New Austerity" of 2010.

I began with a literary reference because one of the most sensible comments on "Unequal Britain" came recently from another Labour supporting writer, and former local councillor, Jonathan Myerson. Now I do not usually have much time for Myerson, but when he described the "New Poor" as people who have of necessity more than one low-paid job at the same time, he hit the nail on the head.

Most of these people will not be members of UK trade unions, nor will the comrades meeting this week in Manchester take very much interest in their plight. This is not to deny, however, that the unions have improved the lot of women working in low-paid jobs in the public sector, comprising a key part of its workforce, during New Labour's period in office.

The election of a Labour government in 1997 followed those "wilderness years" of the 1980s when the Party was widely regarded to be unelectable largely because of perceived trade union excesses in the 1970s, culminating in a "Winter of Discontent".

In fact, such excesses went much further back in to the post-war period, and were satirised in that brilliant film "I'm Alright Jack". Even the left leaning comedian, son of Communist parents, and now esteemed writer himself, Alexei Sayle, could acknowledge this in a rather good BBC Radio 4 "Archive Hour" retrospective, which humorously described his own experience of trade union conferences during the 1960s.

Nevetheless, the follies of the British trade union movement are by no means the whole story, nor are strong unions inevitably the enemy of economic productivity, as shown in Germany, even if this narrative has dominated their modern history in this country.

My own response to this narrative has however come full circle. I was skeptical of the movement by the late 1970s, a supporter during the 1980s, sympathetic when New Labour came to power in 1997, and skeptical again by the mid-noughties.

For the election of a Labour Government, with an unprecedented three terms in office, turned out to be a profound missed opportunity for the trade unions, who in turn contributed to the underlying problem of New Labour's lack of a viable political economy for government. In essence, both sold out to unsustainable market-fixing policies which enabled equally unsustainable levels of public expenditure: a political double-whammy if ever there was one !

Thus all the rhetoric currently directed by trade union leaders, and people like Labour Party leadership contender Ed Balls, at the Coalition Government's proposals to manage the economy and public finances sound extremely rich coming from a partnership which, aside from the speculative investment industry, have done most in recent years to create the very problems about which they now most vociferously complain. Talk about trying to get away with murder !

Green Party MP Job Share Proposal

I very much support UK Green Party Leader Caroline Lucas's proposal for MP job shares. Like her, I would like to see much more sharing of powerful and well paid positions. Unfortunately, it's not just amongst Britain's over-bonused bankers that greed continues to be good. Listeners to BBC Radio 4's "Any Questions" this week will have heard Labour Party leadership contender Ed Balls's reluctance to acknowledge the possibility of sharing the position of shadow chancellor with his wife, Yvette Cooper. This greedy couple of class warriors - yes, there's still plenty of them around - both held Cabinet positions in the previous government, and were leading lights in promoting the kind of policies that contributed to the country's present financial and economic problems. I therefore find myself in the unlikely position of agreeing that two Balls would be even worse than one in this instance, notwithstanding my general support for the Green Party proposal.

A SHORT STORY ABOUT SAUSAGE ROLLS

A couple of weeks ago, the Saturday edition of "The Times" carried a double-page spread on Lord Prescott. The article ended on the subject of sausage rolls, and our former Deputy Prime Minister's seduction by the offer of half a dozen from a girl at Greggs the Bakers in Hull.

The article also covered the issue of shipping, a favourite with the erstwhile hero of the Kyoto Agreement, and onetime Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions.

In short-crust - or puff for that matter - pastry terms, there is a lot more shipping these days, a source - or should that be sauce -not only of major direct impacts upon the environment, but also those nasty embedded emissions, a bit like hidden calories, with which BBC Radio 4's "Uncertain Climate" will deal this evening at 9.30pm. *

On the more mundane matter of food miles at home, it should be noted that around one in four lorries on British roads are involved in food distribution, and over half of these are empty, a reminder perhaps of pies that are all puff pastry and no filling.

Happily, this isn't true of Greggs', purveyor's of "The Nation's Favourite Sausage Roll". Sadly, the same cannot be said for British politics and its thick coating of media pastry during the Silly Season, to whose lack of content we should now all bid a not-so-fond farewell.

I, for one, shall be making a submission to the House of Commons Communities and Local Government Select Committee's Inquiry into the "Abolition of Regional Spatial Strategies". This will seek to separate the "phoney war" - or puff pastry if you prefer - around housebuilding targets for the English Regions, from the more meaty issues at stake.

* Please see also http://janetmackinnon.wordpress.com

UK HOUSEBUILDING: THE PHONEY WAR

As Summer draws to a close, and with a new government now in place, the resumption of what can only be described as a "phoney war" by the UK's large scale housebuilding sector, and its adherents, has once again gathered momentum.

Historically, the big beasts of the UK housebuilding industry have enjoyed some of the highest profits in their sector, based upon international comparisons. This has led to calls from the wider development business, as well as consumer groups, for the industry to be better regulated.

However, whilst some anti-competitive practices amongst major housebuilders and construction groups have been identified, notably with regard to price fixing in public procurement, much of the sector remains, quite simply, unreconstructed.

One of the main reasons for this is the industry's unrivalled public affairs infrastructure, which is supported by organisations like the Institute for Housing and the National Housing Federation, who have a remarkably uncritical relationship with commercial construction interests.

Both these reputable organisations should know full well that commercial house builders are not going to develop more houses than they can construct, sell or rent at a profit - notwithstanding any affordability or social subsidy component - for the market.

The fact that the UK market is delivering an all time low number of dwellings at present is, to put it simply, "the nature of the beast", or more accurately, "the nature of the big beasts"; and all the rhetoric around this reality little more than a phoney war.

PLEASE END FERTILITY CULT POLITICS

It must surely be testimony to a profound lack of content - and perhaps sheer boredom factor -in Blair's autobiography and the Labour Party leadership contenders' debate, published and broadcast yesterday, that the media should choose to focus instead on William Hague's sex life.

In adopting the cost-saving measure of sharing a twin-bed hotel room with a young male adviser during the recent general election campaign, the Foreign Secretary has fallen prey to prurient minds, of which there are indeed a very great many, and a general presumption of something untoward in this arrangement. Surely, if Mr Hague had been having an affair with his young adviser he wouldn't have been so blatant about it !

However, the Foreign Secretary's response to allegations of an affair have touched the heart of the matter: Mr Hague's failure to pro-create with his wife, or anyone else, and thereby fulfill the requirements of the fertility cult which has dominated British politics in recent years.

The fact that Mr Hague has been forced to make "a detailed and emotional statement" (Metro) to explain the situation is testimony again to the low levels to which politics, and wider political commentary, in this country has sunk.

As for the propriety of the young adviser's appointment, our corridors of power would surely be empty if everyone was up to the job, as anyone who encountered the political entourage of former London Mayor - and Phallus-in-Chief - Ken Livingstone will be aware.