I’ve just been peaking at the Tories’ consultation website, going by the bossy title of Stand up! Speak up! Straighten that tie! (I made the last bit up).
On it is a stark video about Britain’s ‘broken society’ illustrating how the UK is such a mess. Some of the statistics are undeniable, and if the economy was on a downward spiral they might be causing us problems, but does Britain actually feel broken? It’s easy to say, but good marketing is only effective if it resonates. Does this?
Perhaps I’m showing my age, but in 1997, it did feel like that, and it did feel like it was time for a change. That was why, even though I wasn’t even tempted to vote tactically for Labour, I was celebrating as loudly as any Blairite on election night.
The bottom line is, civil libertarian and environmentalist though I may be, it is the economy, stupid. This new Tory narrative may work if we suddenly enter a recession, but I can’t see it working otherwise. Combined with the new Cameroon strategy of shoving dilettantes and top hatted buffoons down our throats, and finger waving about marriage, and I just don’t see them capturing the public imagination. At a time when they needed to realise we are living in the 21st century, they seem obsessed with making us believe we’re living in the 19th. Perhaps this explains their Dickensian analysis of the state we’re in.
It sure feels broken to me. No home of my own. The feeling that we are being kept in a constant state of near panic over terrorism in order to make us more amenable to an overbearing state that’s causing the terrorism in the first place. The feeling that a bunch of people in SW1 increasingly believe that only they can know what’s good for me and for the rest of the world. The feeling that wealth is being driven by exploitation and monopoly. And that those who play with money and playing with us.
The phrase that comes to mind is “managing decline”. And the despair is that all parties have signed up to that. Very depressing!
Well, as you indicate, your definition of ‘broken’ – and your prescription – is very different from Cameron’s. But even then, I guess I’m just too much of an optimist, it doesn’t feel broken to me. That could change pretty quickly however.
I understand where you are comming from (objectively what better time to be alive? ) but I think Britain does feel broken and what was interesting about the IDS report was it seemed to shoot at non traditional Tory targets. No immigration, terrorism, EU etc but addiction, debt and neighbourhood decline. I think “broken society” taps into peoples feelings of insecurity without the high negatives of hagues ” foriegn land” or ” save the pound”.