I’m not an academic ‘commenter’ on such subjects, but I am intrigued by what this political animal Liz Truss says, when and to whom.
It’s as if she’s been given an agenda - and even a script - when she ‘speaks’. She’s so wrong, at so many levels. In my humble opinion of course.
The ‘Trumpian’ influence is interesting in itself. Her focus on ‘Deep State’ is an indicator but her definition is somewhat off-beam.
Her concern about excessive government could be a genuine one of course, but her reasons don’t stack up.
One could argue that if we had MORE talented and performance-driven civil servants in strategic roles, we could enable the country to implement long-term strategies that have a greater chance of success, and also prevent nutcases getting into positions of Government and acting in a totally illogical or irresponsible manner.
I’m for fewer ‘elected MPs’ and stronger government. Might sound a tad ‘lefty’ to her and her conspirators, but I’m actually speaking as a right-centre, tech business owner.
I still don’t think she knows what she’s doing, but I think someone else knows what they WANT her to do.
Applying such aims to the civil service is down to the demands of ministers and will rarely survive a change of government, possibly not just a change of minister and there are too many changes by far. Recent PMs prioritise political jockying and loyalty, over knowledge and ability. We are terribly badly governed.
Starmer is serious and means well now, but when under pressures of power, will he resort to using the present system to re-enforce his position over doing the jobs?. We need many reforms
You could argue that there is a deep state, actually much of the establishment, disparate elements little changing and with their own interests. Top civil servants, heads of quangos, heads of the armed forces and security forces, Director Generals of regulators and so on. In a former life I worked in some of these bodies. But they are not a conspiracy, pulling the strings together behind a curtain to achieve some dastardly outcome that subverts government or the people's will.
If anyone confronts you with a conspiracy theory, ask them where the evil participants meet and how do they communicate?
What is even more ludicrous is that this supposed deep state is working together to defeat right wing neoliberalism, of which Truss is a true believer, regardless of fact or experience, blindly removed from any exposure to scrutiny or expertise. Truss goes further by roping into her Deep State thesis, private sector Financial Traders located anywhere in the world. The kind of people who have made huge sums out of betting for and against currencies within free markets, a group of people who overwhelmingly vote for free market right wing and conservative parties around the world.
Truss's imagined conspiracy of wicked powerful. people working behind the scenes against her, runs counter to the way neoliberal ideas have seeped in deep into the top of the Civil Service, into heads of quangos, regulators and agencies. They also underpin the work of financial market traders and provide the bedrock of economics thinking of all opposition parties, now that Corbyn's Bennisms are defeated.
Truss's conspiracy might just about stand up in a conference of right wing nut jobs in American La La Land but topple over on exposure to fresh air. Her £100k+ p.a as ex PM for "research" purposes will ensure that we will hear a lot more of this guff.
Neoliberalism had it's peak in terms of globalisation in 2019. The Pandemic set that into reverse. The Ukraine war and sanctions further halted it and Biden's Inflation Reduction Act is a protectionist measure, to invest in American companies to develop domestic production, technology, green stuff and energy, re-shoring work from Asia in vast amounts. Biden has definitively said no to a UK USA trade deal. This also looks effectively impossible with China and India. Meantime, USA and UK have shrunk their navy's and are no longer able to police the world to enable safe trading everywhere. They cannot seem to stop Syria's attacks on shipping or small scale pirates, so sea freight is having to go via long, expensive re-routing. Big tech is replacing traditional capitalism with incredibly profitable rentier platforms that take off most of the cream, while the old Corporations lose out.
Will our neoliberal deep state establishment adapt to the changes or just plough on offering more bad governance? This was the absolutely perfect time to create maximum damage from Brexit, within about 1 month. You couldn't make it up. An incompetent, rushed attempt to break free from Europe to chase globalisation of trade that is rapidly going into reverse, whatever nonsense Truss speaks.
There is a clothing factory in Cotton growing southern USA territory, run by robotics and a handful of software engineers, that takes the raw cotton in at one end and finished clothes come out of the other. Customisation of sizes is starting to happen. Costs and energy used are far lower than shipping the cotton to Bangladesh and shipping back clothes made by hand on Singer sewing machines. USA is on the way up again and China and most Asian countries will be on the way down. This is contrary to much of the Brexit philosophy.
Fine as far as it goes but I expected a rather deeper analysis, perhaps with a few academic references eg Lofgren or Fitzgerald - let alone a serious discussion about the strangely neglected subject of the STATE to which only Bob Jessop has done recent justice. Harold Laski must be turning in his grave!
I’m not an academic ‘commenter’ on such subjects, but I am intrigued by what this political animal Liz Truss says, when and to whom.
It’s as if she’s been given an agenda - and even a script - when she ‘speaks’. She’s so wrong, at so many levels. In my humble opinion of course.
The ‘Trumpian’ influence is interesting in itself. Her focus on ‘Deep State’ is an indicator but her definition is somewhat off-beam.
Her concern about excessive government could be a genuine one of course, but her reasons don’t stack up.
One could argue that if we had MORE talented and performance-driven civil servants in strategic roles, we could enable the country to implement long-term strategies that have a greater chance of success, and also prevent nutcases getting into positions of Government and acting in a totally illogical or irresponsible manner.
I’m for fewer ‘elected MPs’ and stronger government. Might sound a tad ‘lefty’ to her and her conspirators, but I’m actually speaking as a right-centre, tech business owner.
I still don’t think she knows what she’s doing, but I think someone else knows what they WANT her to do.
Applying such aims to the civil service is down to the demands of ministers and will rarely survive a change of government, possibly not just a change of minister and there are too many changes by far. Recent PMs prioritise political jockying and loyalty, over knowledge and ability. We are terribly badly governed.
Starmer is serious and means well now, but when under pressures of power, will he resort to using the present system to re-enforce his position over doing the jobs?. We need many reforms
You could argue that there is a deep state, actually much of the establishment, disparate elements little changing and with their own interests. Top civil servants, heads of quangos, heads of the armed forces and security forces, Director Generals of regulators and so on. In a former life I worked in some of these bodies. But they are not a conspiracy, pulling the strings together behind a curtain to achieve some dastardly outcome that subverts government or the people's will.
If anyone confronts you with a conspiracy theory, ask them where the evil participants meet and how do they communicate?
What is even more ludicrous is that this supposed deep state is working together to defeat right wing neoliberalism, of which Truss is a true believer, regardless of fact or experience, blindly removed from any exposure to scrutiny or expertise. Truss goes further by roping into her Deep State thesis, private sector Financial Traders located anywhere in the world. The kind of people who have made huge sums out of betting for and against currencies within free markets, a group of people who overwhelmingly vote for free market right wing and conservative parties around the world.
Truss's imagined conspiracy of wicked powerful. people working behind the scenes against her, runs counter to the way neoliberal ideas have seeped in deep into the top of the Civil Service, into heads of quangos, regulators and agencies. They also underpin the work of financial market traders and provide the bedrock of economics thinking of all opposition parties, now that Corbyn's Bennisms are defeated.
Truss's conspiracy might just about stand up in a conference of right wing nut jobs in American La La Land but topple over on exposure to fresh air. Her £100k+ p.a as ex PM for "research" purposes will ensure that we will hear a lot more of this guff.
Neoliberalism had it's peak in terms of globalisation in 2019. The Pandemic set that into reverse. The Ukraine war and sanctions further halted it and Biden's Inflation Reduction Act is a protectionist measure, to invest in American companies to develop domestic production, technology, green stuff and energy, re-shoring work from Asia in vast amounts. Biden has definitively said no to a UK USA trade deal. This also looks effectively impossible with China and India. Meantime, USA and UK have shrunk their navy's and are no longer able to police the world to enable safe trading everywhere. They cannot seem to stop Syria's attacks on shipping or small scale pirates, so sea freight is having to go via long, expensive re-routing. Big tech is replacing traditional capitalism with incredibly profitable rentier platforms that take off most of the cream, while the old Corporations lose out.
Will our neoliberal deep state establishment adapt to the changes or just plough on offering more bad governance? This was the absolutely perfect time to create maximum damage from Brexit, within about 1 month. You couldn't make it up. An incompetent, rushed attempt to break free from Europe to chase globalisation of trade that is rapidly going into reverse, whatever nonsense Truss speaks.
There is a clothing factory in Cotton growing southern USA territory, run by robotics and a handful of software engineers, that takes the raw cotton in at one end and finished clothes come out of the other. Customisation of sizes is starting to happen. Costs and energy used are far lower than shipping the cotton to Bangladesh and shipping back clothes made by hand on Singer sewing machines. USA is on the way up again and China and most Asian countries will be on the way down. This is contrary to much of the Brexit philosophy.
Thanks - some good stuff there!
Fine as far as it goes but I expected a rather deeper analysis, perhaps with a few academic references eg Lofgren or Fitzgerald - let alone a serious discussion about the strangely neglected subject of the STATE to which only Bob Jessop has done recent justice. Harold Laski must be turning in his grave!