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The Failure of the Political Class

by Toby Young
12 March 2021 6:29 PM

We’re publishing a fantastic original essay today by James Moreton Wakeley, a former Parliamentary researcher with a PhD in History from Oxford. For him, the Government’s response to the Coronavirus crisis is an indictment of the entire political class and, in particularly, its prioritising of rhetoric, grand narratives and media management over coming up with evidence-based solutions to practical problems. Here’s an extract:

The uniformity of the new ruling class, and the games that one must play to enter it, explains the consensus on lockdown. The political class is naturally drawn to power, meaning that its members are often keen to signal how ‘on board’ they are with elite projects. This distorts the line between those responsible for policy and those who should critique it. It is evident in the tendency of mainstream journalists to discuss the pandemic within the framework set by lockdown rather than to think outside of the box, or in their total failure to ask probing questions of ministers and state scientists. They can further tell one another that they are being ‘responsible’ by refusing to question a Government policy designed, of course, to ‘save lives,’ but this means that they partake in the state’s management of society rather than in holding power to account. Many journalists will also avoid criticising lockdown because a lot of those who do are political class undesirables, notably Donald Trump, with whom they do not want to appear associated. It often appears to be a political class article of faith that frequently unreasonable people cannot, in fact, say reasonable things.

It is, moreover, hardly irrelevant to note that lockdown is also more congenial to the political class than to most people in the country. They have secure, well-paid, often interesting and usually public-sector jobs that generally just require a computer and an internet connection. They are also less likely to know personally the kind of people working in private sector service or physical jobs who have suffered the most from the societal shutdown. Home-schooling is similarly less of a problem for those with the financial means or educational attainments to tutor effectively. Lockdown can mean leisurely late breakfasts and bicycle rides.

This one is very definitely worth reading in full.

Tags: ExpertsPolitical ClassPPE

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RickH
RickH
4 years ago

“Dr James Moreton Wakeley is a former parliamentary researcher with a PhD in History from Oxford.”

I’m afraid it shows.

I think it’s necessary to be able to stand a bit more outside the box of the political class to present a more penetrating observation of it.

Not “a fantastic original essay”. It just doesn’t get to the essence. More a missed target, if correct in parts.

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PhantomOfLiberty
PhantomOfLiberty
4 years ago

Yes, but the question begged is who are the political class dancing around. Moreton Wakeley is quite funny about their victimhood but how about Gates, Schwab, Soros, Bezos, GAVI, GM food, digital surveillance etc. These are what Boris Johnson with his limited vocabulary would say are making “fantastic” progress while the rest of us are under the cosh

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-4th-industrial-revolution

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/prime-ministers-speech-to-un-general-assembly-26-september-2020

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/pm-call-with-bill-and-melinda-gates-19-may-2020

https://www.gavi.org/investing-gavi/resource-mobilisation-process/gavis-3rd-donor-pledging-conference-june-2020

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-uk-digital-identity-and-attributes-trust-framework/the-uk-digital-identity-and-attributes-trust-framework

https://www.anhinternational.org/news/close-the-back-door-to-unregulated-gene-edited-foods/

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peyrole
peyrole
4 years ago

Not bad, but I agree with Rick and Phantom, I have read better in LeftLDS and Iain Davis and in Off-Guardian where the authors felt able to be more decisive and specific.
However it makes good points about group-think , this applies to a wider London metro set than just politicians of course and in my mind is fundamental to the problems in the UK. It applies to ‘climate crisis’ as much as covid. There is a set of people who hated that Brexit and Trump delayed their imperious movement to a global hegmony. They are using covid to ‘get their own back’ in as unpleasant a way as possible.
But this is not a conspiracy with a capital ‘C’, its just the confluence of forces that want to make a lot of money and gain a lot of power by unleashing a resource constraint capitalism , using a fairly mild virus and 1degC/century of ‘heat’ as the means to pump fear into the populace and create a regime with them on top.

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PhantomOfLiberty
PhantomOfLiberty
4 years ago
Reply to  peyrole

http://www.nommeraadio.ee/meedia/pdf/RRS/Rockefeller%20Foundation.pdf

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Steve Hayes
Steve Hayes
4 years ago

Mr Wakeley is right about the preference for computer models over empirical evidence, but to explain it as the result of the education of the political class is mere labelling, a non-explanation. I have no doubt they would prefer empirical evidence in a micro second if it suited their purposes.

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