The so-called success of today’s politicians revolves around the use of soundbites, propaganda and manipulating people who trust them with partial or very selective truths.
It’s been a much bigger problem since the time of the New Labour Government of 1997-2010.
Under the Blairite regime, there was an identifiable shift from politics being about the end result (when at least some of our politicians had the wherewithal to get things done themselves), to becoming all about the message and the delivery of the message itself.
So bewildered were the Conservative Party by the (New) Labour landslide victory of 1997, the Tories decided the only way to beat the left was to play them at their own game.
As power has shifted back from the Blairite years (1997-2010) where the left-wing wolf dressed itself in right wing clothing, to the Conservative Party of the right that at the end of 2022 is even more left than the left, a new low in the meaninglessness of what our political classes do [to us] to retain their power in this Country has finally been reached.
One of the Johnsonian soundbites still in daily use by the Conservative Government is ‘Levelling Up’.
Regrettably the ‘Levelling Up’ agenda is being and has been pursued as a cynical way for the Tories to survive.
The element of truth that makes the term ‘Levelling Up’ feel valuable to anyone with ears to listen, is that our politicians do at least appear to know that there is a problem.
Meanwhile, for a quarter of a century and much more, Labour and the left have pursued an agenda and way of thinking that when manifested through change and implementation of public policy, achieve nothing but levelling down.
Levelling Up or levelling down; it doesn’t matter. Unless there is balance, fairness and justice in the form of a level playing field for every person at the point where we all step off, there will always be too many of us who lose out, whilst the same old few will end up winning.
Regrettably, the truth that sits beyond this knowledge, is none of the MPs sitting on the green benches in our Westminster Parliament know or understand the breadth and depth of the problems that the UK, Our Communities and Our People Face. They certainly have no will or desire to understand how they came into being, and what must really be done to sort them all out.
Self-preservation through avoidance is the real reason our politicians obsess over the messages you hear, rather than what they really do. That’s why they are playing around with the agenda they have called ‘Levelling Up’ that suggests the problems We face can easily be fixed.
This Blog was originally published as a part of the book ‘Levelling Level’, which was published in April 2022 and as a series of web pages and blogs soon afterwards. It has been edited and updated by The Author.
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