tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44866418770267781052024-03-19T09:00:56.388+00:00All That Is Solid ...Look what A Very Public Sociologist melted intoPhilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.comBlogger4479125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-76243124534356773992024-03-17T21:41:00.003+00:002024-03-17T21:41:41.106+00:00The Pitiful Penny-for-Leader Plot<div class="image"><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/3Jkwrry0/Mordaunt-Vs-Sunak.jpg" /></div><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">If you've been following <i>The Times</i> reporting on the crisis in the Conservative Party, it has decided that this week was the week when everything changed. Despite the Tories being convinced tax cutting can only win votes, <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/03/jeremy-hunts-last-budget.html" target="_blank">Jeremy Hunt's budget</a> has done nothing to reverse their abysmal polling figures. <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-demise-of-lee-anderson.html" target="_blank">Lee Anderson's abandonment</a> of the party that afforded him a pseudo-celebrity status has convinced the paper that Rishi Sunak can no longer hold this most motley of crews together. And the delay followed by the special pleading excuses over Tory donor Frank Hester <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/03/the-political-uses-of-racism.html" target="_blank">racist attack</a> on Diane Abbott was pathetically half-hearted as they were seen to be desperate for more of his money. Evidently, it won't be long before the Murdoch stable declare for Keir Starmer.<br /><br />
But also according to a variety of outlets, moves for ditching Sunak ahead of the general election are multiplying. The easily dismissed nonsense about a Boris Johnson return <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/03/rumours-of-another-johnson-comeback.html" target="_blank">has done the rounds</a> again, but so has the outline of another plot that was mooted a few months ago: get rid of the Prime Minister, and coronate Penny Mordaunt in his place. Might this be a go-er? It <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/rishi-sunak-plot-tories-penny-mordaunt-b2513919.html" target="_blank">goes like this</a>. "Allies" of Suella Braverman have talked to "friends" of Mordaunt about getting her to stand as a stalking horse. Sunak would be deposed, and she would lead the party into the next election. But isn't she the wokest of the woke as far as they're concerned? Their reasoning is she polls much better than any other Tory and would ensure the result at the ballot box would be a rout, not a massacre. Then after she has discharged her responsibility, a right winger would swoop in, turn the party's fortunes around because what the public are gagging for <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-tory-politics-of-immigration.html" target="_blank">is more racism</a> and more culture war, and the Tories will win again in five years after Starmer disappoints.<br /><br />
It says everything about our low effort press that this bollocks is given credence. There is no way Sunak will lose a no confidence vote, for starters. Tory backbench criticisms, even when they're hyped <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/11/suella-bravermans-feeble-revenge.html" target="_blank">fall flat more often than not</a>. Rebellions barely make double figures. And every time the anti-woke racist right have a public outing, they show themselves completely estranged from what's happening in the country. If every vote against their own government is an occasion for their humiliation their chances of toppling Sunak are nil. But what of their putative alliance with Mordaunt and her supporters? She might be many things, but a fool she is not. How credible is a secret scheme where the plotters boast from sundry front pages that they want to support Mordaunt so she can take the fall, leaving their faction unblemished and Persil-white for the assumed Tory revival? The sheer absurdity of screaming aloud their Machiavellian subterfuge appears not to have warned our credulous hacks that the story hasn't got any legs.<br /><br />
Here's what has happened. Some on the right of the party have been chuntering about what a hash Sunak is making to <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/11/on-tory-briefcases.html" target="_blank">briefcase Tories</a> who think likewise. Someone texted the contents of this tearoom bellyaching to a journalist and here we are. More headlines than one knows what to do with.<br /><br />
Yet the story speaks to essential truths. The Tories are doomed and Sunak is digging the grave deeper, and everyone in the party knows this. Likewise, Mordaunt would make for a harder opponent for Labour, especially as she has occasional flashes of charisma compared to the colourless mediocrity on the opposition benches. And she could stymie the collapse and the party not be reduced to an impotent, right wing rump. Except she has no wish to captain a sinking ship, nor be remembered as the first Prime Minister to lose their seat at a general election. And so they're stuck with Sunak, and with October now supposedly the date for the general election there's going to be many more stories like this before the Tories are put out of their misery.<br /><br />
<a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/penny-mordaunt-ally-held-talks-with-rishi-sunak-as-no-10-turmoil-grew-75ht8m0rj" target="_blank">Image Credit</a></span><br />Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-83163885620097235642024-03-13T22:26:00.005+00:002024-03-14T09:07:52.515+00:00The Political Uses of Racism<div class="image"><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/FzvhJMSg/Diane-Abbot-not-impressed.jpg" /></div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">Another day, another awful day in the Commons. Having disgraced himself and his office during the SNP's opposition day <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/a-reliably-loyal-servant.html" target="_blank">to spare Keir Starmer's blushes</a>, as those reading this know cringingly loyal Hoyle has done it again. Following the widely publicised remarks of Frank Hester, the moneybags filler of Tory coffers (and who, completely by coincidence, profited nicely from Covid procurement and other government contracts), Rishi Sunak tied himself in knots during Prime Minister's Questions. Hester's comments, in which he said Diane Abbott makes him want to hate all black women and that she should "be shot", was "wrong and racist" according to Sunak. But that the Tories wouldn't be returning the money because he has made a proper apology and that's that. Starmer rightly attacked the Tories, as did the SNP's Stephen Flynn and several other MPs for giving Hester a free pass. However, the one voice we didn't hear from was Diane Abbott herself. Despite indicating her desire to speak on at least 46 occasions during questions.<br /><br />
Having lately broken procedure to "defend MPs", during this tumultuous PMQs Hoyle was the very picture of propriety. At least according to the feeble defence <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68556911" target="_blank">proffered by his office</a>. Abbott was neither on the order paper, which has to be prioritised, and the session only has so many minutes on the clock, and so <i>couldn't</i> be called. The Speaker was chapter and verse by the book, and he's bound by convention to discharge proceedings by those rules. Except this doesn't wash for two reasons. When a member is the subject of a controversy, <i>it is customary</i> to call them. For example, if a white woman MP was the object of similar comments would Hoyle have denied her the right to speak or let sundry men speak on her behalf instead? I very much doubt it. And second, if the order paper is so precious why was Ed Davey called to ask a question when he wasn't on it?<br /><br />
There's no need to don a tin foil hat to explain his decision-making. Because past behaviour is the best guide to present and future behaviour, Hoyle again abused his position to defend Starmer's leadership. This is not because of straightforward partisanship. Hoyle would never allow such crudities to intrude on the "neutrality" of his judgement. He committed a procedural violation in the service of his unstated constitutional role: upholding the authority of the state. As per the SNP's motion, Hoyle did not call Abbott to speak because she wouldn't just attack the Tories over their appalling and unjustifiable defence of their position, but raise the racist attacks she has sustained from her own side. Above all, what was said in <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/03/forgetting-forde.html" target="_blank">in the Forde report</a> about anti-black racism in generally and what was directed at her personally by employees of the Labour Party. A point she reiterates in her post-PMQs <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/diane-abbott-racist-sexist-tory-party-donor-frank-hester-labour-starmer-b2512016.html" target="_blank"><i>Independent</i> piece</a>. Hoyle wants to oversee a smooth transition from the chaos of the Tories to Starmer's briefcase government, and if he can help this by seeing off divisions or preventing racist blemishes from adhering to the incoming administration, he will.<br /><br />
But this episode on Starmer's side reminds us of what racism is in bourgeois politics. For the labour movement, racism is an evil. Among other things it justifies exploitation and is employed by bosses and right wingers to divide and rule. It is immediately, viscerally a class issue. But in the rarefied halls of Westminster, racism is a weapon to be wielded for one's own ends. And that was typified in Starmer's attacks on Sunak. In four years he and his allies have gone from using accusing their opponents on the left of racism for factional ends, to ignoring it when their own side was <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2020/04/keir-starmers-falkirk-moment.html" target="_blank">on the hook</a>, to gleefully exploiting it when sundry Tories <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/jamming-tory-party-sewer.html" target="_blank">openly tout</a> their racist wares. Starmer and friends might <i>occasionally</i> find the expression of racism distasteful and <i>bad manners</i>, but they're not interested in addressing it let alone getting to grips <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2017/07/race-and-surplus-value.html" target="_blank">with its roots</a>. Because it is and will always be a handy stick for bashing political opponents with, whether on the Conservative benches - as per Wednesday's PMQs - or (ostensibly) on their side. Labour has to hold the space open for <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/03/cultivating-labours-scapegoats.html" target="_blank">scapegoats of its own</a> too, just in case.<br /><br />
Which brings us back again to the old-fashioned but no less true insight that politics is not about ideas, <i><a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/a-rude-reminder.html" target="_blank">but interests</a></i>. And in mainstream politics that applies to the fielding of or batting away accusations of racism, as it does to everything else.<br /></span>Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-62915890237908297762024-03-11T22:28:00.001+00:002024-03-11T22:30:44.910+00:00The Demise of Lee Anderson<div class="image"><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/L6ybYFBm/30p-Lee.jpg" /></div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">You can't say Lee Anderson looked terribly thrilled as he announced his defection to Reform at a press conference on Monday morning. "All I want is my country back", he whinnied like a broken legged horse. But instead of taking a shot gun to him, his new backers are hoping another foray <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2022/12/the-rights-walking-wounded.html" target="_blank">into grievance politics</a> will boost the "party" into the big time. After all there are rumours that nine other Tory MPs are in defection talks. Of course there are.<br /><br />
Of Anderson, we can confidently say we're on the final page of the chapbook of his career. His performance at the press conference was begrudging and uncomfortable. There was zero enthusiasm, no personality, nor a frisson of charisma. The surliness in friendly interviews that have won him a handful of fans among the far right looked like barely syllabic chuntering in front of the TV cameras. Richard Tice gave every impression he was out taking his pet prole for walkies. The one thing that did provoke actual words was the question asking him whether he would call a by-election. After all, previous floor crossers to Nigel Farage's vehicle - namely Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless - had the decency and the political courage to call one each when they took up UKIP membership. And Anderson himself has signed an unsuccessful EDM making by-elections compulsory in the event of defections. This time however, he wanted to save time and expense because there's "going to be an election in May." True, soaraway tax give aways <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/03/jeremy-hunts-last-budget.html" target="_blank">in the budget</a> were made to butter up the electorate for a contest soon, but Rishi Sunak would have to call it this Friday if he wants the traditional second-week-in-May slot. Alas, there is a more prosaic explanation for our hero's reticence: Anderson is scared of losing his seat.<br /><br />
In the event of a by-election, Reform would do well to look to Rochdale. They might hope for <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/03/politics-after-george-galloways-victory.html" target="_blank">a Galloway-style result</a>, but in all likelihood Anderson's would share the fate of <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/03/why-reform-failed-in-rochdale.html" target="_blank">Simon Danczuk's</a>. For one, the political dynamic is heading away from the radical right. It is a tide that is ebbing, not rolling in. Then there is no Anderson groundswell in Ashfield. He got in because he was the Conservative Party candidate on the back of the 2019 election's Brexit referendum rerun. He might severely erode the Tory vote, but like in so many <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-more-they-stay-same.html" target="_blank">other Tory seats</a>, a win for Labour is the likeliest outcome, with a strong challenge from the local independents. Anderson knows this as well, and no amount of pretending that red wall seats voted Tory in 2019 because they're bigots will alter this arithmetic. Likewise come the general election, the seat will be between Labour and the independents. Anderson might save his deposit, but he'll have to get used to subsisting on his GB News presenter's salary. Until they have no use for him any more and he spends the next few years earning peanuts from the pantomime circuit of Britain First rallies.<br /><br />
Over the last couple of years, we've had occasion to discuss the <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-rise-of-lee-anderson.html" target="_blank">rise of Anderson</a>. His move from the right wing of Ashfield Labour Party to the right wing of the Tories was one of the smoothest defections in politics. And that's because the unsubtle racism of Anderson's person is an unwelcome reminder that Labourism's broad church has room for the small-minded and the backward in its congregation, the inescapable complement to an <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/10/imperialism-old-labour-tradition.html" target="_blank">awful history</a> it's rather proud of.<br /><br />
By ditching the Tories for Reform, Anderson has sealed his own demise and it won't be long before he becomes nothing more than an unpleasant memory. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for those who would come after him. They are there, encouraged and promoted within the bowels of the Labour Party, and when well remunerated if episodic opportunities arise in time, there will be one, two, many Lee Andersons more than happy to walk a mile in his scabby shoes.<br />
</span>Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-11989255933311630192024-03-10T22:05:00.000+00:002024-03-10T22:05:27.685+00:00Rumours of Another Johnson Comeback<div class="image"><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/mrtD1hrb/Boris-Johnson-stupid-face.jpg" /></div><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif">With the Tories staring down the barrel of certain doom, everything they do has an air of unreality about it. Rishi Sunak taking to the steps of Downing Street to denounce <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/03/politics-after-george-galloways-victory.html" target="_blank">George Galloway's election</a>. Jeremy Hunt <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/03/jeremy-hunts-last-budget.html" target="_blank">dishing out tax cuts</a> for the better off as the state continues to crumble. And now the latest Tory story: hopes of a Boris Johnson comeback.<br /><br />
According to the <i>Mail on Sunday</i>, senior Tories alarmed by catastrophic polling are "plotting to replace" Sunak with the former Prime Minister. This is based on private surveys commissioned by Judith McAlpine, which suggests only Johnson can save the Tories from <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/10/forecasting-future-of-tories.html" target="_blank">total devastation</a>. She was able to get 50 MPs at a private meeting where the results were unveiled. It's worth noting that nowhere does the article suggest the Tories are in with a chance of winning: they are faced with a choice of bumping around with 200 or so MPs with Johnson and far fewer with Sunak.<br /><br />
How likely is a comeback? Even more meagre <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-return-of-boris-johnson.html" target="_blank">than the last one</a>. The piece excitedly talks of getting Johnson back into the Commons as if it's a minor trifle. McAlpine is influential in Henley, which would be the favoured seat, and the current party candidate is an ally. But assuming she was to stand aside to let the boorish bombshell have another crack that won't get him into the Commons before the election. So a bit of a flaw in the plan. And there are more. As Sunder <a href="https://x.com/sundersays/status/1766861992659149224?s=20" target="_blank">rightly notes</a>, where are the Tories in a position to win a by-election? It's not as if safe seats <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-more-they-stay-same.html" target="_blank">are safe any more</a>. And a Tory candidate needs the leader's writ to run, which Sunak is not about to extend to a Johnson candidature determined to depose him. And there's a third consideration. For the first time in his life, Johnson is making money faster than he can spend it. Why would he give that up to lead his former party to certain defeat and then five years in boring opposition? It's not going to happen.<br /><br />
But when things are desperate and providence is mocking the party to its face, <a heref="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-tory-politics-of-immigration.html" target="_blank">anything and everything</a> that might promise salvation will be grasped at. Yet there is a glimmer of rationality beneath the cope. The Tories, or rather the Tories pining for Johnson's return haven't completely lost it. Getting him back would almost certainly see the threat of Reform off. By-elections are a <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/03/why-reform-failed-in-rochdale.html" target="_blank">better gauge</a> of support than the polls that continually flatter them, but the right flank would be shored up and the damage of split voting negated. And those Tory supporters electing to stay at home when the election drops would come out for the man who, a short time ago, was happy to see <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/09/a-note-on-tory-carelessness.html" target="_blank">their bodies pile high</a>.<br /><br />
It's just unfortunate for the Tories that their would-be saviour has better things to do than save the party that has provided him with a very fine living and a place in the history books as one of the worst Prime Ministers this country has ever seen.<br /><br />
<a href="https://www.theaustralian.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=TAWEB_WRE170_a_GGL&dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theaustralian.com.au%2Fcommentary%2Fclever-clown-who-turned-downing-st-into-circus-of-shame%2Fnews-story%2Ff0c5c68ede5796ecf5189a765ecd1261&memtype=anonymous&mode=premium&v21=GROUPA-Segment-1-NOSCORE&V21spcbehaviour=append" target="_blank">Image Credit</a></span><br />Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-63244270701712027232024-03-06T22:00:00.000+00:002024-03-06T22:00:21.023+00:00Jeremy Hunt's Last Budget<div class="image"><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/tTyWj69x/Hunt-s-budget-team.jpg" /></div><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">The curtain falls on Jeremy Hunt's final budget, and as such this was the most explicitly political of statements. And looking tonight at the BBC's website, it has dished up the message the Tories are hoping to fill the front pages on Thursday: <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-68465603" target="_blank">Jeremy Hunt cuts National Insurance and extends child benefit</a>. A headline speaking of munificence and "getting it", designed for the low information punter who catches it in the side eye. As with all things Tory, they're hoping most won't bother with the detail.<br /><br />
And they're right, most won't. Stealing Labour's feeble flagship policy of abolishing nondom status, but then giving moneybags new arrivals four years of tax-free life won't get a negative write up in <i>The Sun</i>. The flat rate cut to National Insurance will see low paid workers save barely £150/year while those who are better off can look forward to pocketing thousands. The extension of child benefit by raising the income threshold might be welcome to some enjoying a higher household income, but it does not match the rise in the cost of living - leaving most parents with zero extra help. Public services will continue to rot as pleas for more resources fell on deaf ears. Apart from the <i>Graun</i> and <i>Mirror</i> and sundry internet-based outlets, none of this shall get coverage. And because they're shielded from critical coverage, the Tories will think they've pulled a blinder.<br /><br />
To be a bit contrarian, they have and they haven't. By re-emphasising their <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2022/11/the-tory-politics-of-small-statism.html" target="_blank">politics of doing bugger all</a>, Labour's tepid response - Keir Starmer took Hunt to task <i>for not cutting income tax</i> - only serves to reconfirm that the Tories' political project since Covid, of downplaying the state's capacity to do anything, has become a consensus the shadow front bench has embraced. As <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/03/a-cynical-case-of-fiscal-dishonesty.html" target="_blank">reiterated by Rachel Reeves</a> on Sunday. It also means that Labour's capitulation to their agenda means the measures announced today are so many potential rakes for a new government. When Labour comes to reverse National Insurance cuts, claw back child benefit from better off families, increase fuel duties again, unfreeze booze taxes, spend more on public services, and start taking the green transition seriously, the surviving MPs of the coming wipe out will sit there on the opposition benches reeling off gotcha after gotcha. As if anyone will care for what they say.<br /><br />
The Tories have remade the political terrain in their image, but they're not in a position to profit from it. The <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/06/starmer-and-reeves-have-played-a-blinder/" target="_blank">triumphalism of John McTernan</a>, writing in the <i>Telegraph</i>, underlines this basic truism. Among the professional middle class, the opinion formers, and the personnel of the state, the recklessness of the Tories have destroyed their reputation as a serious party of government. And among the wider layers, those who have traditionally formed the backbone of mass conservatism, no amount of <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-tory-politics-of-immigration.html" target="_blank">anti-immigration posturing</a> or pledges to <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-anatomy-of-tory-tax-and-mortgage.html" target="_blank">bear down on tax</a> are going to win them back. And the reason why is simple. Despite her pathetic <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/jamming-tory-party-sewer.html" target="_blank">efforts at rehabilitation</a>, Liz Truss gets the blame for hiking up interest rates and crashing the economy. And Sunak cops the flak for doing absolutely nothing to shield the core Tory support from the effects of their folly. Both have used their leadership to slam their feet on the accelerator and driven their party hell for leather down the highway to oblivion.<br /><br />
What will seemingly be the last Tory budget for a very long time doesn't change a thing. By-election disasters for <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-more-they-stay-same.html" target="_blank">both</a> <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/03/politics-after-george-galloways-victory.html" target="_blank">parties</a> have only reaffirmed rather than challenged their strategies, and the budget's political reception won't change that either. The Tories are doomed and Labour will win. And the rest of us? If we want anything out of the next government we're going to have to fight for it, as has always been the case.<br /><br />
<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/uks-hunt-set-help-flagging-conservatives-with-pre-election-tax-cuts-2024-03-05/" target="_blank">Image Credit</a></span><br />Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-4581492905234512112024-03-03T22:27:00.004+00:002024-03-03T22:28:53.259+00:00A Cynical Case of Fiscal Dishonesty<div class="image"><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/L4LjP83g/Rachel-Reeves-dishonest.jpg" /></div><p><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">In an incredibly soft ball feature for <i>The Telegraph</i>, Rachel Reeves <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/0/shadow-chancellor-rachel-reeves-labour-interview/" target="_blank">told the paper</a> she learned all about balancing the books at her mum's kitchen table. I wonder if mum taught her that copying other's people's work was wrong, because <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/10/rachel-reevess-plagiarism-scandal.html" target="_blank">the evidence suggests not</a>. Not that the <i>Telegraph</i> were rude enough to mention it, and so Team Reeves will be happy with the results of their handing the Tory house journal "unprecedented access". They wanted to show the human side of our tinny voiced shadow chancellor, and something that would endear her enough to the readers that they might give Labour a punt - and once again assure the interests that circulate in the paper's political orbit that contrary to some of its more excitable articles, there is absolutely nothing to fear. Keir Starmer is as committed to Britain's sacrosanct class relations as Rishi Sunak is.<br /><br />
But because this is the <i>Telegraph</i>, the <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/12/embracing-thatcher.html" target="_blank">heavy Thatcher allusions</a> were there. Reeves said she wanted to be known as the "iron chancellor", simultaneously invoking the blessed Margaret <i>and</i>, for those readers who prefer to life in the 19th century, the wily but tough Otto Von Bismarck. And the kitchen table anecdote with mum, her calculator, and the notepad famously recalls Thatcher's brilliant but wholly misleading reduction of government spending to household budgeting. This builds further on the consistent messaging coming from Labour: don't promise, don't ask. Unfortunately, if social media and earnest think pieces are anything to go by too many people think Reeves is genuinely mistaken about how state finances operate. When she attacks the Tories for maxing out the credit card, and Labour now has to be "disciplined" with its spending you can see why anyone with half an understanding about how the state makes money and the way economics works feel like they're banging their heads against a wall. My advice? Relax. It's not you, it's Reeves.<br /><br />
The shadow chancellor is not a stupid woman. She knows the British government can't bankrupt itself. Rather, her fondness for the household metaphor is driven entirely by politics. Cynical politics. It helps Labour bat away the tax and spend attack lines customarily deployed by the Tories and their favoured journals. By caving without a fight to right wing framing, the editorial offices might be flattered into thinking that it is <i>they</i> who will get to set the agenda for the incoming government. Not the members, and not the unions. Which helps explain why we've yet to see much bellyaching about extending workers' rights that, theoretically, Reeves and Starmer remain committed to.<br /><br />
The second reason is central to <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-labour-rights-political-strategy.html" target="_blank">their political strategy</a>. With Reeves affecting the countenance of a robotic disciplinarian whose commandments are programmed by "the economy", this is a concerted effort to <i>depoliticise</i> economic questions and spending decisions. Hospitals in crisis? Sorry, growth is sluggish - let's <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2022/12/wes-streeting-vs-nhs.html" target="_blank">get business</a> to help. Below inflation public sector pay rises? There is no money because the Tories sunk the economy. Kids getting taught in crumbling RAC classrooms? Can't replace them any faster because of the fiscal rules. Cut social security? Not my fault guv'nor, not enough tax receipts. It suits Reeves to misrepresent the budgetary position and how state cash really works, so Labour is off the hook when things don't change as fast as they should or don't change at all. And when they condescend to do something, they can toot the over-delivery tune when a public service is patched up. They want to control the agenda and the pace of <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/03/a-bureaucrat-first-and-foremost.html" target="_blank">authoritarian modernisation</a>, so is there any better way of setting up some spurious objective rules that they say they are powerless to change, and must obey come hell or high water? It's a deliberate effort to obfuscate, distort, and make snoring boring the most fundamental political challenges of the day.<br /><br />
Reeves is playing a deeply cynical game as all the Labour right have done. And they can get away with it for now because the election is in the bag. But as we <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/03/politics-after-george-galloways-victory.html" target="_blank">saw on Thursday</a>, when there are controversial issues Starmer <i>et al</i> have no answer for, they will be punished for it. And as these are going to multiply once they're in government, it won't be long before the rust clings to Reeves's steely projection and chews great gaping holes in what the Labour leadership believes is a clever-clever strategy.</span><br /></p>Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-68430041766542197942024-03-02T22:34:00.004+00:002024-03-02T22:37:00.426+00:00Why Reform Failed in Rochdale<div class="image"><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/gkHKqvxC/Danczuk.jpg" /></div><p><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Another reason why mainstream politics is tearing its hair out over the <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/03/politics-after-george-galloways-victory.html" target="_blank">Rochdale result</a> was its refusal to follow the by-election script the media had written for it. It goes something like this: Labour wins, the Tories get a pummelling, and Reform does well enough to get touted as a challenger both parties would do well to take seriously. This gives the <i>Mail</i>, <i>Telegraph</i>, etc. license to offer this <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2019/05/case-studies-in-political-atavism.html" target="_blank">private company</a> (remember, the "party" is constituted as a business in which Nigel Farage is the majority shareholder) free advertising and to carry on pushing politics further to the right. At the outset, none of the official scribblers or high foreheads at campaign HQs believed Galloway was going to win, or that the independent candidature of David Tully would blow the main parties out of the water. For its part, Reform thought they were in with a shout of scooping up the votes of the disaffected. They were just as much part of Westminster's groupthink.<br /><br />
By selecting Simon Danczuk, the former UKIP-while-Labour, <i>Sun</i>-loving noted sext pesterer MP, the "party" was hoping to capitalise on his name recognition. Buoyed by the decent results in the <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-more-they-stay-same.html" target="_blank">previous week's by-elections</a>, they had in fact taken the campaign seriously. Activists were bussed in, a professional campaigning operation was set up, Richard Tice was frequently present. And you could be forgiven for thinking the background ratcheting up of <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/jamming-tory-party-sewer.html" target="_blank">Islamophobic rhetoric</a> and more immigration scaremongering would have played to their advantage. But they got considerably less bang for their buck. I suppose Danczuk might be happy that Reform found 1,100 more people to vote for him this time than at his feeble independent challenge in 2017, but overall Reform fell for their own hype.<br /><br />
Having confused being backward and reactionary with "working class" - a category error common among Westminster elites - to find their usual anti-immigration/stopping the boats/abolish tax rubbish falling on deaf ears must have come as a shock. In the end Reform saved its deposit, but came in at 6.3%. This was behind the Liberal Democrats whose campaign didn't extend beyond their candidate and a few local members. The fancy battle bus and glossy leaflets amounted to a heap of crushed expectations. It's little wonder then, failing to find the electoral Red Seas parting for his party, that Tice has been moaning to any media outlet who'll listen that there was "intimidation" and "death threats" on the campaign trail. And, that old canard, there being something iffy about the postal votes.<br /><br />
While Galloway's campaign was a disgrace for pushing cheap anti-trans arguments, it is doubtful if anyone came in behind his campaign because they found his brand of scabbing on this more convincing than the bilge issuing from the Tories or Reform. Rather, "social conservatism" played little to no role in Galloway's win. His victory capitalised on local disaffection about being a forgotten town - hence it was wise for him to reach out to Tully in his victory speech. And because of Gaza. This wasn't just a first order issue for local Muslims. Polling suggests over 70% of people in this country want to see a ceasefire. Even if you're a non-political person, scenes from the atrocities Israel are committing against civilians are making it onto social media feeds across multiple platforms. The latest outrage often makes in onto the news and, yes, the unwillingness of the Tories and Labour to do anything about Israel's behaviour drives their reputations lower, and lower, and lower. To the point where, what a shocker, is affects voting patterns. Who could've thunk it?<br /><br />
If Reform has a purpose, apart from securing seats at the trough for Farage, Tice, and other select hangers-ons, it is to channel anti-political establishment disaffection into the safety of right wing populism. Which happens to present the interests that structure politics in this country zero threat. The same cannot be said of Galloway with his trenchant critique of the international power politics all sections of the establishment are wedded to. That's why they hate him. And having been the first to be elected against the background of an active, mass Palestinian solidarity movement, that's why they fear him too. Reform? They weren't even on the pitch in Rochdale.</span><br /></p>Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-58296775195349082422024-03-02T11:43:00.004+00:002024-03-02T11:46:56.662+00:00Local Council By-Elections February 2024<div class="image"><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/YCC37D9R/Liberal-Democrat-Win.jpg" /></div><p><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">This month saw 32,120 votes cast in 24 local authority contests. All percentages are rounded to the nearest single decimal place. 11 council seats changed hands. For comparison with January's results, see <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/12/local-council-by-elections-december-2023.html" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
</span></p><table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoTableGrid" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: medium; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-insideh-themecolor: text1; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid black; mso-border-insidev-themecolor: text1; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid black; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-padding-alt: 0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 191;"><tbody>
<tr style="height: 14pt; mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;"><td style="border: solid black; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 78.3pt;" valign="top" width="78"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Party<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-left: none; border: solid black; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.85pt;" valign="top" width="69"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Number of Candidates<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-left: none; border: solid black; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 1cm;" valign="top" width="28"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Total Vote<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-left: none; border: solid black; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 42.55pt;" valign="top" width="43"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">%<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-left: none; border: solid black; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 29.5pt;" valign="top" width="30"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">+/- </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">Jan<br /><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-left: none; border: solid black; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 29.5pt;" valign="top" width="46"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">+/- Feb 23<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-left: none; border: solid black; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 32.7pt;" valign="top" width="33"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Avge/</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Contest</span></div>
</td><td style="border-left: none; border: solid black; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 26.65pt;" valign="top" width="27"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">+/-<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Seats</span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 14pt; mso-yfti-irow: 1;"><td style="border-top: none; border: solid black; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 78.3pt;" valign="top" width="78"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Conservative<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.85pt;" valign="top" width="69"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> 19<br /></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 1cm;" valign="top" width="28"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> 9,950</span><br />
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 42.55pt;" valign="top" width="43"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> 31.0%</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 29.5pt;" valign="top" width="30"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> +1.8</span><br />
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 45.8pt;" valign="top" width="46"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> -0.9</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 32.7pt;" valign="top" width="33"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> 524</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 26.65pt;" valign="top" width="27"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> 0</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 14pt; mso-yfti-irow: 2;"><td style="border-top: none; border: solid black; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 78.3pt;" valign="top" width="78"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Labour</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.85pt;" valign="top" width="69"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> 20<br /></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 1cm;" valign="top" width="28"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> 6,812<br /></span></td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 42.55pt;" valign="top" width="43"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> 21.2%</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 29.5pt;" valign="top" width="30"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> -7.7</span><br />
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 45.8pt;" valign="top" width="46"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> -7.1</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 32.7pt;" valign="top" width="33"><div class="MsoNormal"> <span style="font-size: x-small;">341 <span><br /></span></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 26.65pt;" valign="top" width="27"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> 0<br /></span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 14pt; mso-yfti-irow: 3;"><td style="border-top: none; border: solid black; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 78.3pt;" valign="top" width="78"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Lib Dem<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.85pt;" valign="top" width="69"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> 19<br /></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 1cm;" valign="top" width="28"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> 9,270<br /></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 42.55pt;" valign="top" width="43"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> 28.9%</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 29.5pt;" valign="top" width="30"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> +1.1</span><br />
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 45.8pt;" valign="top" width="46"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> +9.3</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 32.7pt;" valign="top" width="33"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> 488</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 26.65pt;" valign="top" width="27"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> +2<br /></span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 14pt; mso-yfti-irow: 2;"><td style="border-top: none; border: solid black; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 78.3pt;" valign="top" width="78"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Green</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.85pt;" valign="top" width="69"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> 15<br /></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 1cm;" valign="top" width="28"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="font-size: x-small;">2,250<br /></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 42.55pt;" valign="top" width="43"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> 7.0%<br /></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 29.5pt;" valign="top" width="30"><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> -0.4<br /></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 45.8pt;" valign="top" width="46"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> -1.8</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 32.7pt;" valign="top" width="33"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> 150<br /></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 26.65pt;" valign="top" width="27"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> +1<br /></span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 14pt; mso-yfti-irow: 2;"><td style="border-top: none; border: solid black; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 78.3pt;" valign="top" width="78"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">SNP*</span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.85pt;" valign="top" width="69"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> 1<br /></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 1cm;" valign="top" width="28"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> 410</span><br /></td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 42.55pt;" valign="top" width="43"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> 1.3%<br /></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 29.5pt;" valign="top" width="30"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> -2.5</span></td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 45.8pt;" valign="top" width="46"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> -4.1</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 32.7pt;" valign="top" width="33"><div class="MsoNormal"> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> 410<br /></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 26.65pt;" valign="top" width="27"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> -1<br /></span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 14pt; mso-yfti-irow: 11; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"><td style="border-top: none; border: solid black; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 78.3pt;" valign="top" width="78"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">PC**<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.85pt;" valign="top" width="69"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> 2<br /></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 1cm;" valign="top" width="28"> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> 623<br /></span></td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 42.55pt;" valign="top" width="43"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> 1.9%</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 29.5pt;" valign="top" width="30"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> +1.9</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> </span></td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 45.8pt;" valign="top" width="46"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> +0.5</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 32.7pt;" valign="top" width="33"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> 312</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 26.65pt;" valign="top" width="27"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> 0 </span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 14pt; mso-yfti-irow: 11; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"><td style="border-top: none; border: solid black; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 78.3pt;" valign="top" width="78"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Ind***<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.85pt;" valign="top" width="69"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> 15 </span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 1cm;" valign="top" width="28"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> 2,343<br /></span></td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 42.55pt;" valign="top" width="43"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> 7.3%</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 29.5pt;" valign="top" width="30"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><span style="font-size: x-small;"> +5.8</span><br /></td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 45.8pt;" valign="top" width="46"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> +3.0</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 32.7pt;" valign="top" width="33"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> 156</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 26.65pt;" valign="top" width="27"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> -2<br /></span></div>
</td></tr>
<tr style="height: 14pt; mso-yfti-irow: 11; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;"><td style="border-top: none; border: solid black; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 78.3pt;" valign="top" width="78"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;">Other****<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 68.85pt;" valign="top" width="69"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> 5<br /></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 1cm;" valign="top" width="28"><div class="MsoNormal">
</div> <span style="font-size: x-small;"> 462<br /></span></td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 42.55pt;" valign="top" width="43"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> 1.4%</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 29.5pt;" valign="top" width="30"><span style="font-size: x-small;"> +0.0<br /></span></td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 45.8pt;" valign="top" width="46"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> -0.5<complete id="goog_1878966886"></complete></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 32.7pt;" valign="top" width="33"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> 92</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td><td style="border-bottom-color: black; border-color: currentcolor black black currentcolor; border-left-color: initial; border-right-color: black; border-style: none solid solid none; border-top-color: initial; border-width: medium; height: 14pt; mso-border-alt: solid black; mso-border-bottom-themecolor: text1; mso-border-left-alt: solid black; mso-border-left-themecolor: text1; mso-border-right-themecolor: text1; mso-border-themecolor: text1; mso-border-top-alt: solid black; mso-border-top-themecolor: text1; padding: 0cm 5.4pt; width: 26.65pt;" valign="top" width="27"><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: x-small;"> 0<br /></span></div>
</td></tr></tbody></table><p><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><br />
* There was one by-election in Scotland<br />
** There were four by-elections in Wales<br />
*** There were two Independent clashes<br />
**** Others this month consisted of Eco Federation (25), Putting Crewe First (128), Reform (50, 237), Women's Equality Party (22)<br /><br />
The plus/minus councillor tallies mask for a scrappy month. Both Labour and Conservatives gained some and lost an equal amount, there was a rare Tory gain from the Liberal Democrats, and the Independents got a thumping. If there are stories to be told, despite the crises afflicting the government it seems its local government base has weathered the worst and is turning in a strong performance. The Lib Dems are not so afflicted, and are also doing well. Labour? At least where by-elections are concerned, the performance is poor. While I am the first to talk about Keir Starmer's shallow support, it's unlikely this is evidence of anything other than just the way the by-elections are landing. Also bear in mind electorates are more likely to turn out in Lib Dem and Tory-held seats than Labour seats for reasons well known and well-studied by political scientists. What may also be of note is the very low score the SNP achieved in a seat defence.<br /><br />
Next month there are only 13 by-elections to look forward to (not counting the mayoral contest in Lewisham). Two of them in Scotland and another three in Wales.<br /><br />
1 February<br />
City of London, Candlewick, Ind hold (unopposed)<br />
City of London, Cheap, Ind hold (unopposed)<br /><br />
8 February<br />
Blaenau Gwent, Ebbw Vale South, Ind hold<br />
Cheshire East, Crewe Central, Con gain from Lab<br />
Gwynedd, Criccieth, PC gain from Ind<br />
West Northamptonshire, East Hunsbury & Shelfleys, LDem gain from Con<br /><br />
15 February<br />
Dacorum, Tring West & Rural, LDem hold<br />
East Hampshire, Four Marks & Medstead, LDem hold<br />
Kingston-upon-Hull, Avenue, LDem gain from Lab<br />
Neath Port Talbot, Briton Ferry East, Lab gain from Ind<br />
Neath Port Talbot, Rhos, Ind gain from PC<br /><br />
22 February<br />
Buckinghamshire, Farnham Common & Burnham Beeches, Con hold<br />
Buckinghamshire, Hazlemere, Con hold<br />
Derbyshire Dales, Bakewell, Lab gain from Con<br />
Derbyshire Dales, Norbury, Con hold<br />
Folkestone & Hythe, Romney Marsh, Con hold<br />
Milton Keynes, Loughton & Shenley, Lab hold<br />
Scottish Borders, Jedburgh & District, Con gain from SNP<br />
Wiltshire, Calne Chilvester & Abberd, LDem gain from Con<br /><br />
29 February<br />
East Riding of Yorkshire, Minster & Woodmansey, LDem hold<br />
East Riding of Yorkshire, Tranby, LDem hold<br />
Horsham, Henfield, Grn gain from Ind<br />
Horsham, Southwater North, Con gain from LDem<br />
Great Yarmouth, Central & Northgate, Lab hold<br /><br />
<a href="https://www.northdevonlibdems.org.uk/" target="_blank">Image Credit</a></span><br />
</span></p>Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-652476335534601192024-03-01T22:55:00.003+00:002024-03-02T16:42:54.629+00:00Politics after George Galloway's Victory<div class="image"><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/kXgx0qQB/George-Galloway-Wins.jpg" /></div><span face=""arial" , sans-serif">Following George Galloway's emphatic win in Rochdale on Thursday, a lot of excuses have got thrown into circulation. There were the unique set of circumstances after Labour <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/from-rochdale-to-botchdale.html" target="_blank">disowned its candidate</a>. There was the strong local independent. Reform had toured the town's gutters and dredged up the late career of mobile phone sex pest Simon Danczuk. The Greens disowned their candidate too, and the Galloway circus had rolled into town. We're led to believe that had Azhar Ali not made his ill-judged comments, the Labour campaign machine would have steamrollered the opposition and another by-election victory chalked up by Keir Starmer would have been the assured result.<br /><br />
This is fanciful nonsense. As Galloway noted in his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u_cZ-7WyB4&t=329s" target="_blank">victory speech</a>, this is the first time since the war that neither of the dominant parties made it into the top two positions. Labour's vote fell by a record amount, and the Tories also saw a new record set for the largest vote share fall in a Labour-held constituency. A history maker all-round then. There was some faint hope in Labour circles that their erstwhile candidate would sneak through because his suspension came after the postal votes dropped, and he would still be appearing on the ballot with the party name. Hopes that were shredded like so many unread Labour leaflets. With Galloway now sitting on a cushion of 6,000 votes, or an effective majority of 10,000 if you take Labour's hopes of winning it back at the general election into account, there is a distinct possibility he could be around to annoy Starmer for the next five years.<br /><br />
Starmer has seen the polls and been told in no uncertain terms that there would be political consequences <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/10/abandoning-muslim-supporters.html" target="_blank">for supporting the massacre</a> in Gaza. Indeed, the alarm went off loudly and clearly early last month when Survation reported <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/labour-starmer-muslim-voters-poll-election-b2490652.html" target="_blank">a collapse in Muslim support</a>. But Starmer has brushed it off. Toeing the US line on Israel is more important to him than responding to loyal supporters that have put him on the doorstep of Number 10. And given his entire project represents the take over of the state <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/03/a-bureaucrat-first-and-foremost.html" target="_blank">by the state</a>, this shouldn't come as much of a shocker.<br /><br />
But what, if anything, does Galloway's galloping victory mean for politics? In the first instance, there will be some fretful Labour MPs out there. The chances of independent left challenges with a similar pro-Gaza, anti-genocide message can't be discounted. Nor can the window of opportunity for the Greens. It could <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/01/on-green-partys-four-for-24-strategy.html" target="_blank">help them secure</a> the retirement of Thangam Debbonaire, and perhaps scoop up Sheffield Central as well. But while it's squeaky bum time for Labour MPs in "exposed" seats, Starmer is determined to press on as is. The reasoning is as straightforward as it is pigheaded. The polls show Labour is on for a thumping majority, therefore dropping a handful of seats at best to the Greens, Galloway, and the odd independent left is something Starmer can live with. For every Rochdale, there are three, four, many <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-more-they-stay-same.html" target="_blank">Wellingboroughs and Kingswoods</a>.<br /><br />
The business-as-usual approach was reasserted this evening. In what looked like a panicky press conference, Rishi Sunak got out the Downing Street lectern to denounce division and hate in Britain. No, he wasn't talking about <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/jamming-tory-party-sewer.html" target="_blank">his own party</a> but those evil protesters who refuse to quieten down about Britain's complicity in an ongoing massacre. It's a feeble attempt to try and cohere Tory unity around an enemy all wings of his fractured party hate - the Palestinian solidarity movement. Thus Galloway is invoked as a divisive bogeyman, a symbol of the non-existent no-go areas and the nudge, nudge, wink, wink Islamist wave the Tories <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/why-tories-wont-confront-islamophobia.html" target="_blank">cynically pretend</a> is sweeping Britain. The protests have to stop. They are a threat to democracy.<br /><br />
Actually, what these complaints about the protests signal are deep anxieties among some sections of the establishment that they represent an unforeseen and unwelcome outbreak <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/10/establishment-politics-vs-palestine.html" target="_blank">of mass political volatility</a>, of which Galloway's election is a symptom. And Starmer agrees with this. As cabinet member after cabinet member have been talking up the threats of terrorism and the "intimidation" of MPs this last week, he's said Labour would back government measures to crank the handle of authoritarianism some more. As if we hadn't had enough <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2021/03/the-tory-attack-on-right-to-protest.html" target="_blank">from Boris Johnson</a>. But here we encounter a potential problem for Starmer. <a href="https://x.com/angelaeagle/status/1763636361104343298?s=20" target="_blank">His own MPs</a> see this as a feeble overreach by Sunak, and so do some of his supporters among the <a href="https://x.com/philbc3/status/1763666846719377506?s=20" target="_blank">centrist commentariat</a>. In other words, he's badly misread the politics of the moment and runs the risk of damaging his standing among those who are his natural base. Which isn't good when it was looking <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/08/keir-starmers-divided-base.html" target="_blank">a touch shaky</a> even before he gave his blessings to Israel.<br /><br />
Going back to Galloway's victory speech, he talked about his victory being the beginning of a movement that could shake up politics. In this he's wrong. What happened in Rochdale is a moment in the shifting plates political struggle whose latest episode began in October. With both party leaders demonstrating their weakness by recourse to authoritarian laws and tone deafedness with regard to the message the protests and the electorate have sent, this is a process that has a long road to run yet.<br /><br />
<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/18262972-f121-4fad-a6d6-ca5875695a9a" target="_blank">Image Credit</a></span><br />
Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-74355192973776213832024-03-01T08:49:00.002+00:002024-03-01T08:50:42.151+00:00Five Most Popular Posts in February<div class="image"><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/1XqNDJph/Shadcab.jpg" /></div><span face=""arial" , sans-serif">It's that time again. What did the business last month? Let's find out ...<br /><br />
1.<a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-labour-rights-political-strategy.html" target="_blank">The Labour Right's Political Strategy</a><br />
2. <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/a-rude-reminder.html" target="_blank">A Rude Reminder</a><br />
3. <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-many-problems-with-three-body.html" target="_blank">The Problems with <i>The Three-Body Problem</i></a><br />
4. <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/from-rochdale-to-botchdale.html" target="_blank">From Rochdale to Botchdale</a><br />
5. <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/a-reliably-loyal-servant.html" target="_blank">A Reliably Loyal Servant</a><br /><br />
If there's an iron law in politics right now. It's that the Labour leadership are compelled to select a (progressive-sounding) policy and see how far they can roll back on it. So frequent is this event that it barely raises an eyebrow any more. Instead, I thought it might be fruitful to look at this internally - from the standpoint of the rubbish they tell themselves. There are three components to their "theory", and it does make logical sense. Albeit in the thin, path-of-least-resistance way we've come to expect from Keir Starmer and crew. Coming in second was the viral-for-five-minutes clash between Jacob Rees-Mogg and Lewis Goodall at the misnamed Popular Conservatism conference. Rees-Mogg lashed out after our intrepid hack broke the cardinal rule of politics: he dared suggest there was a relationship between what politicians do and the interests they serve. Shocking. In third comes my comment on <i>The Three-Body Problem</i>, my first SF post of the SF turn to do quite well. Pleasing! The debacle in Rochdale following Labour's disowning of its candidate came next, and bringing up the rear is another mess: the fixing of the SNP's opposition day to prevent a big split in Starmer's rank over Gaza. Where the protection of establishment power is concerned, Lindsay Hoyle is always your man.<br /><br />
Because I'm writing at reduced capacity, there's comparatively little left to afford a second chance. But I'm going to offer a couple of posts more time to shine. As, by the time you're reading this the result of the Rochdale by-election will be known, let's look back at February's two catastrophic <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-more-they-stay-same.html" target="_blank">by-election losses</a> (for the Tories) and the <i>stabilising</i> effect this will have on Conservative and Labour strategy. And the second is off the science fiction pile, mainly because no one read it. Which is fair enough: it's a review of <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/hello-america-by-jg-ballard.html" target="_blank">an obscure book</a> after all.<br /><br />
Next month, there might be a comment on a <i>theory book</i> (what?), and the usual diet of politics and SF. There are sure to be things to write about. As ever, if you haven't already don't forget to follow the monthly <a href="https://www.patreon.com/AllThatIsSolid" target="_blank">free newsletter</a>, and if you like what I do (and you're not skint), you can help support the blog. Following me on <a href="http://twitter.com/philbc3" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/solidblog" target="_blank">Facebook</a> are cost-free ways of showing your backing for this corner of the internet.<br /><br />
<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/rachel-reeves-liz-kendall-sue-gray-hilary-benn-northern-ireland-b2405032.html" target="_blank">Image Credit</a></span><br />Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-85387693026067361862024-02-28T21:41:00.000+00:002024-02-28T21:41:11.389+00:00Why the Tories Won't Confront Islamophobia<div class="image"><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/Nft66wxn/Tory-ghouls.jpg" /></div><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">We know the Conservative Party is institutionally Islamophobic. And now there are hard numbers that add to the charge. According to Hope Not Hate's <a href="https://hopenothate.org.uk/2024/02/28/conservative-party-an-appetite-for-a-radical-right-agenda/" target="_blank">survey</a> of the Tory membership, 58% thought Islam was a threat to the British way of life and 52% believe there are "no-go areas" for non-Muslims in European cities. Which also happen to be governed by Sharia law. Only 19% of members polled had a positive view of Muslims (40% were negative). Others weren't left out of the oh-so predictable results. 45% were negative toward immigrants in general, and 49% weren't keen on Roma. 72% thought immigration was a bad thing for Britain. 45% also believed there was a secret plot by "global elites" to undermine European identity through immigration. There were some differences between age. I.e. The more elderly, the more extreme. And 55% would welcome Nigel Farage into the party.<br /><br />
This makes a mockery of claims that <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/jamming-tory-party-sewer.html" target="_blank">Lee Anderson's rant</a>, and Suella Braverman's lies about antisemitism and Islamist hate marches - repeated at <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/11/suella-bravermans-feeble-revenge.html" target="_blank">every opportunity</a> - are isolated incidents. When leaks from Tory MP WhatsApp groups feature members saying how they've got a full inbox praising Anderson's racism, what they don't tell you is most of them came from members of the local association. You can only conclude that "moderate" Tories, like Sayeeda Warsi (who happily dished out glib distortions <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2010/11/between-protest-and-parliament.html" target="_blank">when she was in government</a>), don't go to meetings much.<br /><br />
HnH have showed <i>another</i> reason why the Tories won't take Islamophobia seriously. The Conservatives are thoroughly compromised by racism. Rishi Sunak and the contenders for the post-catastrophe leadership know that if they pressure wash the party stable, all the vermin that thrive in the filth will stream out of the yard and scurry into the cesspit Nigel Farage and the Reform Party have set up over the road. And so Islamophobia and anti-immigration posturing isn't just a strategy the Tories have fooled themselves into <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-tory-politics-of-immigration.html" target="_blank">thinking is a go-er</a>, they <i>need it</i> to keep their increasingly unhinged party from falling over.<br /><br />
As <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/3851-falling-down" target="_blank">someone wrote somewhere</a>, the Tories have two big problems if they want to remain a viable party of government. The cohorts of voters opposed to the Tories have this thing called memory. The right wing press often reminds its diminishing audiences of the winter of discontent, but that cuts both ways. The racism, the cuts, the crumbing public services, the strikes, the inflation crisis, fuel bills, Covid mismanagement, these are going to ensure there's a solid block of anti-Tory voters for decades to come. And second, the values, outlooks, and interests of the rising generation of voters have time and again been attacked by the Tories. The party's only way back to government is not doubling down on right wing politics, as bizarrely <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/10/forecasting-future-of-tories.html" target="_blank">some on the left also think</a>, but a thorough detox. The racists, the climate change deniers, those who rail against "globalists", they need to be got shot of. And more than that, the Tories have to curb the propensity to rip everything up. Only then when, ironically, they approach <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/02/sybil-or-two-nations.html" target="_blank">conservatism</a> will they make inroads into the people who spurn them today.<br /><br />
This is the choice the next leader has. Lean into the hate and bigotry and secure the continuance of the party as it stands, albeit without much of a future. Or go for a split and recompose the Tories around a moderate centre right politics. Them's the breaks, as Boris Johnson said on the occasion of his defenestration. Whichever way the Tories go, a great deal of pain awaits.<br /><br />
<a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/uk-tories-tear-themselves-apart-over-islamophobia-lee-anderson/" target="_blank">Image Credit</a></span><br />Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-58324539292540620432024-02-25T23:02:00.007+00:002024-02-26T09:23:31.380+00:00The Problems with The Three-Body Problem<div class="image"><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/fbLQWzYx/Three-Body-Problem.jpg" /></div><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">"They are coming. And there is nothing you can do to stop them." The trailer for the Netflix adaptation of Cixin Liu's (Liu Cixin's) <i>The Three-Body Problem</i> superbly conveys a sense of existential dread. Scientists dead after a crop of mysterious suicides? Count downs (counting down to what?) imposed on the vision of leading physicists? The star field flickering in the night sky, as if portending some hideous, monstrous evil? At a glance Netflix has done a good job capturing the terror that stalks the novel during its best moments. Unfortunately, all of them are crammed into the first 80 or so pages.<br /><br />
<i>Spoilers below</i>.<br /><br />
After eight millions copies sold, plenty of people have said plenty of things about <i>The Three-Body Problem</i>. I'm no different. The seriousness with which the <i>trilogy</i> begins sits uneasily with its daft premise. We open during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Ye Wenjie witnesses her astrophysicist father get beaten to death by a troupe of Red Guards after refusing to condemn the basics of the physical sciences as bourgeois. Dubbed the daughter of a class traitor, she is forced to join a labour brigade felling forests in Inner Mongolia. An accomplished scientist herself, she is betrayed by a close comrade and is found in possession of Rachel Carson's <i>Silent Spring</i>. Given the choice between a trial and getting drafted into a secret project, Ye chooses the latter. It's gradually revealed that this is part of an effort to leapfrog the West and the USSR by being the first to contact an alien civilisation. And, using the sun to amplify her signal, Ye becomes the first human to communicate with an alien world.<br /><br />
The first section of the book is very good at ramping up the tension as it flits back and forth between Uncle Mao's SETI efforts and the present day mystery of our suicidal scientists. The main guy in the 21st century is Wang Miao, a nanotech specialist working on super strong materials. While taking photos he discovers that, no matter what camera he uses, a count down is imprinted on them. And this only happens when he's the one taking the picture. Spooky. Terrifying. What's happening? And this is when the great pacing stumbles into a drunken stagger. Wang is invited to play a new video game called <i>Three-Body</i>. This is an immersive puzzle solving game in which the player has to save civilisation by predicting the orbital dance of the three suns its planet orbits around. The three-body problem in physics believes this is impossible to compute with certainty as the interaction of the gravitational dance between three objects can only result in a chaotic system. The game ends when one of the suns scorch the surface, seemingly sterilising the world, or when it's thrown out on a long freezing orbit. Wang is able to make some partial breakthroughs in the game and is invited to become part of a select group of players who are on a mission.<br /><br />
There are some real issues with <i>The Three-Body Problem</i>. The writing is flat and the characters wooden. As Matt <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piNdNZBVtF4" target="_blank">rightly argues</a> this has more to do with Liu's style, informed by the influences of Clarke and Heinlein than the quality of Ken Liu's translation. The second issue is the physics. Some reviews have gone into great detail about the issues of using higher dimensions to fold a super computer into the size of a proton, which the aliens fire at Earth to disrupt our particle accelerators and harass our scientists. This should prevent humanity from progressing technologically so we could easily see off the colonisation fleet when it turns up in about 400 years. Fair enough, but there's one glaring physics problem that should be obvious to everyone, including those like me suffering from a Maths allergy. In trying to calculate the orbits, it seems Wang - and Liu - have forgot they're computing a <i>four-body</i> problem. The three suns and one planet because, though much weaker, its gravity would tug on all three stars and add to the overall complexity of the system. And if that wasn't bad enough, one particular alignment with the suns see the planet partially ripped apart, creating a small moon that now orbits the home world. We now have a <i>five-body problem</i>. For an author that prides himself on didactic flourishes, this is embarrassing.<br /><br />
The other issue is the aliens themselves. We don't have descriptions of them, save an ability to dehydrate tardigrade-style to wait out the heat and the cold. But we do get a sense of how their civilisation works and it turns out the initial suggestions of eldritch terror was a waste of time. In their communications with us, in the scenes in which their fleet and their multi-dimensional computers are constructed, Liu imagines them no different to us. Their government is a quasi-feudal/totalitarian regime with Bond villain-esque qualities. Via their proton-sized computers, which are quantum entangled with machines on their own planet, the aliens - dubbed the pulpy-sounding 'Trisolarians' - can keep real-time tabs on what the governments of the Earth are doing. I guess because the colonisation fleet is out of sync due to its travelling at a tenth of the speed of light that time dilation and discrepancy between human and Trisolar time, and fleet time will become something the future volumes play with.<br /><br />
<i>The Three-Body Problem</i> has come in for a lot of stick for being an apologia for Chinese authoritarianism as well. Liu has publicly been supportive of the government, and in his <i>The Supernova Era</i> faithfully reflected the party's (then) view of video games as promoters of violence and anti-social behaviour. But such hackish loyalty is not present here. You might say his obvious distaste for the excesses of the Cultural Revolution are very party line, but who - apart from hard Maoist hold outs - would celebrate that as a glorious episode? You could make the case Trisolar civilisation survived cycles of disaster by building an authoritarian regime and forcibly subordinating the individual to the collective. And in the <i>Three Body</i> game (which, you might have guessed, is based on the scenario faced by the Trisolars) there are North Korean mass game-style displays of totalitarian power, but their collectivism is shown to be monstrous and other. Indeed, Liu's critical take on the Cultural Revolution, which got published because in the Chinese edition these scenes were located in the middle of the book and censors were too lazy to read that far, fits in with the tone of his other work. For instance, 2005's <i>Ball Lightning</i> has China losing very badly to the United States in a war and is devastated when it accidentally unleashes a weapon that completely shreds its electrical infrastructure. Liu may publicly toe the party line, but his work, at least what I've read of it, is ambiguous.<br /><br />
That isn't to say <i>The Three-Body Problem</i> isn't a morality tale. You could say it is two. The first is an extreme exploration of the law of unintended consequences. Because of her experiences, Ye nurtures a nihilistic grudge against humanity in general. So when she receives a reply from a lowly pacifistic Trisolar radio operator urging us to not reply because of the danger his species poses, she goes ahead and does so anyway hoping they'd turn up and wipe humanity out. Who knew the Cultural Revolution set our species on the road to subjugation and extinction? The second is an SF staple, and one we've <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-anomaly-by-herve-le-tellier.html" target="_blank">recently encountered</a>: the defence of rationalism. Unlike Le Tellier for whom the threat to reason comes from within, for Liu it's the aliens' computers playing tricks with us by creating nonsense results in particle accelerators, and enveloping the Earth in a two dimensional screen to screw with our perception of the cosmic microwave background. The traitors recruited through <i>Three Body</i> also run disinformation and anti-science campaigns to lower the general intellect. A comment on foreign, and particularly Western (American) cultural imports to China and their dumbing down effects? A warning where anti-intellectual culture could lead? Liu is far from the the first to <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2013/12/2121-by-susan-greenfield.html" target="_blank">make such warnings</a>.<br /><br />
For a nowhere-near-as-clever-as-it-wants-to-be novel, there are lots of interesting threads worth picking at. Just be aware that the literary quality isn't great, ignore the laughably bad treatment of one of physics most famous problems, and the aliens are as unimaginative as anything you'd find in the dullest <i>Star Trek</i> episode. If you can overlook these excruciating issues, you might enjoy it.</span><br />
Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-76413945950966292172024-02-23T21:56:00.002+00:002024-02-24T08:53:04.918+00:00Jamming the Tory Party Sewer<div class="image"><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/cLQBR1x7/Lee-turd.jpg" /></div><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Every so often, the speed at which politics moves is stunning. In the fall out from the Speaker's unconstitutional blocking of the SNP's motion on Gaza <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/a-reliably-loyal-servant.html" target="_blank">to spare Labour's blushes</a>, a straightforward vote on stopping Israeli committing war crimes morphed into an issue of Commons procedure. From there, we went from a constitutional dispute into being very, very concerned about the safety of honourable members. It was then a hop, skip, and not much of a jump into criticising "intimidation". Or, to you and me, bravely speaking out against demonstrating outside Westminster and protest activity aimed at morally bankrupt MPs. And from there, targeting the supposed culprits of this ghastly behaviour - activist "thugs" and "bully boys". But some just can't stop themselves from going overboard.<br /><br />
In a clunky effort to capitalise on Wednesday's parliamentary mess, Suella Braverman <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/02/22/islamists-are-bullying-britain-into-submission/" target="_blank">penned an article</a> arguing that Islamists and far left had taken over Britain. "The truth is that the Islamists, the extremists and the anti-Semites are in charge now. They have bullied the Labour Party, they have bullied our institutions, and now they have bullied our country into submission", she says. You might ask what she's talking about, because all this exists entirely in her head. If she really believes it at all. As we've seen with Braverman, it falls into a pattern of behaviour. Say things that are categorically untrue, <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/11/after-bravermans-bovver-boys.html" target="_blank">whip up a hate mob</a> if it suits, and try and ride the wave of shit into the Tory leader's office.<br /><br />
Not to be outdone, Lee Anderson took to <i>GB News</i> Friday evening and took matters further. Disagreeing with Braverman, <a href="https://x.com/AdamBienkov/status/1761102075167953197?s=20" target="_blank">he said</a> "He’s [Sadiq Khan] given our capital city away to his mates ... I don’t actually believe that the Islamists have got control of our country, but what I do believe is they’ve got control of Khan, and they’ve got control of London." He might not be deputy chair of the Tory party any more, but Anderson is still fulfilling <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-rise-of-lee-anderson.html" target="_blank">the duties of the job</a>.<br /><br />
From crowing about "nasty" protests against dropping bombs on children to stirring up hatred toward Muslims, the pair of them are absolute filth. And coming in the week where hate crime figures show reported attacks on/abuse against Muslims are up 334% since October, it's fair to say BNP membership is too good for them.<br /><br />
Yet there's still more. Fresh from making a fool of herself at the <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/a-rude-reminder.html" target="_blank">somewhat overshadowed</a> Popular Conservatism conference, Liz Truss popped up this afternoon <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68376802" target="_blank">palling around</a> with Steve Bannon. She said it was the "deep state" that brought her government down. We've heard this drivel before. How the Bank of England is "woke", and that the Treasury employs more communists than the old Gosplan offices. Nothing to do with her own political stupidity, and the interests she so <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2022/09/liz-truss-and-hedge-funds.html" target="_blank">slavishly championed</a>. While not as egregiously cracked as Braverman and Anderson to be explicit in stirring up racist hatred, the far right tropes are there in Truss's language. As if to underline this, the cover of the US edition of her coming book, <i>Ten Years to Save the West</i>, has "globalism" on its cover - as much of an antisemitic dog whistle as "Cultural Marxism" is.<br /><br />
These are manifestations of the Tory party's death throes as every day brings it closer to electoral oblivion. <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-tory-politics-of-immigration.html" target="_blank">With no way out</a> of their predicament, the Tories are going with their basest instincts and hoping - and some no doubt genuinely believing - that anti-immigration, anti-Islam and openly racist politics is going to save them. As the polls have shown, their adventured in hate and scapegoating are having no effect whatsoever in restoring their fortunes. So they double down even more. To them it makes sense, seeing as past triumphs could (unconvincingly) be read through a right wing lens and taken as signs of these wretched policies having popular purchase. For everyone else, it looks like the party is having a full on nervous breakdown.<br /><br />
Today's disgraceful display, however, is different. On this occasion all three of these horrors have transgressed the niceties of bourgeois politics. It's one thing to mimic the language of the far right, but quite another to hang around with American far right figures and strongly imply your successor was part of a globalist deep state plot to overthrow them. You can talk all kinds of shit about Islam and Muslims because of this country's <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/10/a-united-front-for-barbarity.html" target="_blank">hierarchy of racism</a>, but to suggest Sadiq Khan has turned London into a fundamentalist-run hellhole is beyond the pale. And lastly, Braverman can do her unhinged lying turn in the Tory press as much as she likes. But when she says she was sacked because Rishi Sunak is soft on Islamist terror, that more or less draws a far right target on the Prime Minister's head. Will Sunak do anything about these electoral turds, or will he continue to let them jam an already disgusting sewer with a never ending flood of effluent?<br />
</span>Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-72253003164850963802024-02-22T22:03:00.004+00:002024-02-22T22:25:14.130+00:00A Reliably Loyal Servant<div class="image"><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/7Y1w477r/Loyal-Hoyle.jpg" /></div><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">What is the point of political commentary? <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/08/a-comment-on-political-commentary.html" target="_blank">In my view</a> it should try to explain what's going on in politics, explain the stakes, the tactics and strategies deployed, tear asunder its <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/a-rude-reminder.html" target="_blank">self-serving <i>illusio</i></a>, and make plain the interests that work in and through politics. A million miles away from the stenography of establishment-friendly "analysis", but one that might become increasingly redundant. For as the shenanigans in the House of Commons on Wednesday have shown, politics is relaxed about operating in the open. By that I mean its pursuing of vested and minority privileged interests, and being brazen about the arm twisting and unconstitutional tricks pulled to ensure they're served. If there is no mediation, if the truths of politics are immediately visible to anyone who glances at them, we return to the opening question. What's the point of political commentary?<br /><br />
Obviously, there is still a point because even now the naked contempt for democracy is too much to bear for those paid to write and talk about politics. How the SNP's <i>correct</i> and genuine motion calling on Israel to stop bombing civilians cowering in tents became a seemingly arcane dispute about Commons procedure shows how the institution works to blunt the pointedness of politics when it is aimed against the interests of British state power. A useful lesson for anyone working and hoping to bring about radical change in this country.<br /><br />
What happened was a disgrace, but it was what we should expect. Lindsay Hoyle is not an impartial speaker, he's one that has always kowtowed to power. When Boris Johnson was the ruler of all he surveyed, Hoyle worked the Commons <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2021/06/cringingly-loyal-hoyle.html" target="_blank">to his benefit</a>. Now the Tories are heading for a deep dark hole and Keir Starmer <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-more-they-stay-same.html" target="_blank">can look forward to</a> a mega majority without much extra effort, his loyalties naturally gravitate toward the centre of coming power. Whether Hoyle was threatened with defenestration after the election if he didn't select Labour's amendment to the SNP's opposition day motion, or if he was moved by pressure exerted by Starmer about dubious but politically convenient terror threats to MPs is, in one sense, significant. Because it was, in full public view, seen to ride roughshod over parliamentary procedure it means the independence of the Speaker was also seen to be fatally compromised. Whereas John Bercow's twists and turns over Brexit were driven by his own concerns, Hoyle has given every impression of caving in to a mix of persuasion and threats. Exactly the carrot and the stick the whip's office forces on the party's would-be rebels.<br /><br />
However, given Hoyle's pedigree it's likely he would have made the same decision even if there were no dirty tricks, and Starmer hadn't dropped by his office for a personal visit. As a loyal servant of establishment politics and beneficiary of Labour nepotism, there was absolutely no chance he would have allowed the next government to be torn apart before it had even taken office. Starmer's project - <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/03/a-bureaucrat-first-and-foremost.html" target="_blank">authoritarian modernisation</a> - requires a concerted if not cross-party effort at restoring trust in state institutions whose popular legitimacy is under question. It's not a totally ridiculous proposition. The <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2022/09/the-queue.html" target="_blank">death of the Queen showed</a> there is something of a constituency who want to believe and are comforted by the presence of a strong but fair state. Hoyle's job is to see this succeed because his first and only loyalty is to the state in which he sits as an exalted functionary. If this means ignoring parliamentary conventions as well as rubbing the SNP up the wrong way and annoying our pitifully weak government, that's a small price to pay if it secures stability and the politics of business-as-usual in exchange.<br /><br />
<a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tories-fear-anger-at-speaker-will-let-keir-starmer-off-the-hook-j7p9spc7c" target="_blank">Image Credit</a><br /></span>Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-21190903790255044582024-02-17T22:19:00.004+00:002024-02-17T22:19:41.625+00:00Hello America by JG Ballard<div class="image"><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/FFj5FTd8/Ballard-Hello-America.jpg" /></div><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">As far as <i>Hello America</i> is known, it's commonly regarded a minor Ballard. Theoretically, it should be of interest what with this post-apocalyptic tale being his last pure science fiction novel. The premise sees North America abandoned after an energy crisis, social breakdown, and changed weather patterns that sees the Sahara come to the East coast. A century later an intrepid group of European explorers in their steamer, the <i>Apollo</i>, chug into New York harbour to investigate anomalous radiation readings. According to measurements from the other side of the pond, they are consistent with atomic explosions of some description. Is someone testing nuclear weapons in this empty continent? Are long-dormant reactors spewing their poisons into the air? What's going on?<br /><br />
Despite Ballard's deserved reputation as a serious writer, a keen sense of the absurd suffuses his most celebrated novels. His classic slipstream of the 1970s all feature it. The far-fetched subculture of car smash fetishists in <i>Crash</i>, the feral descent of nice middle class people trapped in their ultra modern skyscraper in <i>High-Rise</i>, and the Robinsonade survival of a man stranded on the liminal wasteland between busy highways in <i>Concrete Island</i> demand suspension of disbelief, and they work. <i>Hello America</i> initially reads as if it could be considered as part of their feted piece. That the United States would wind itself up is a nonsense, but no dafter than other conceits in the Ballardian <i>oeuvre</i>. And this works for half of the book.<br /><br />
The descriptions of dunes spilling between Manhattan's towers, the sand blasted suburbs, and New York's animal residents observing the arrivals fresh off the boat are pitch perfect. This is the ultimate Ballardian terrain: the imagined desolation of the world's most famous skyline. For example, describing city life smothered by desert and reclaimed by nature,<br /><br />
<blockquote>On all sides was a secret but rich desert life. Scorpians twitched like nervous executives in the windows of the old advertising agencies. A sidewinder basking in a publisher's doorway paused to observe Wayne approach and then uncoiled itself in the shadows, waiting patiently among the desks like a merciless editor. Rattlesnakes rested in the burrow-weed on the window-sills of theatrical agents, clicking their rattles at Wayne as if dismissing him from a painful audition (p.35)</blockquote><br />
We are quickly introduced to the <i>new</i> native Americans - the few thousand left behind after the scramble for the boats. All are hunter/gatherer tribes modelled on Americal archetypes. The Executives ride around on their camels bedecked with ties. The Gangsters carry guitar cases, while its female members apply peroxide in imitation of the molls. The Divorcees are reputed to be a tribe of women occasionally partial to the odd, unwary young man. And of the Executives our explorers meet, they're all named after brands. All very silly and not the most subtle commentary on the US. But if the novel stayed in this vein as the characters started making their way into the dust bowl interior, it could have been another triumph. But then, just as we reach <i>the jungle</i> around Las Vegas, <i>Hello America</i> goes completely off the boil.<br /><br />
It's hard to put a finger on what goes wrong. The changing pace from road narrative to sitting around and waiting for things to happen? The abrupt resolutions of two complex and potentially troublesome characters. The self-proclaimed president of the USA styling himself as Charles Manson. Theatre performances of robot Frank Sinatras and Dean Martins in front of mechanical audiences. A parade of androids of presidents past leading an assault on a casino. And the revelation bombs are getting exploded over deserted American cities to keep the contagion of people away. Taken together it's too clunky and too on the nose. Yes, we know the office of the American presidency is structurally psychotic so why not have a noted sociopath in the chair? But more than this, it commits a sin one does not normally associate with Ballard's books. <i>It becomes dull</i>. Expertly written, but tedious. <i>Hello America</i> left me wanting to say "goodbye America".<br /><br />
Perhaps he got fed up writing the book. Perhaps it was too much a purist throwback to his genre roots. Or that he had an engaging premise, was able to go to town on the scorching desertification of America's suburbs, but not much of an idea to do with the rest of the tale - not unlike what happened with <i>Lost</i>. And lost <i>Hello America</i> certainly is. Technically, there's a lot to like in the first half. But when all's said and done, there's a reason why this book is something of a forgotten Ballard.<br /></span>Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-52053096982018421752024-02-16T22:06:00.005+00:002024-02-16T22:18:05.921+00:00The More They Stay the Same<div class="image"><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/dVF9m65b/Wellingborough-Labour.jpg" /></div><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">There was a lot of cope around the Tory party today. Reflecting on the largest collapse of an incumbent party's vote in 90 years and the biggest swing from Conservatives to Labour since before the war, all Jacob Rees-Mogg could do was pretend Keir Starmer is not on track for a big general election win by pointing to how Labour did not win more than 50% of the vote in Wellingborough. Likewise the Tories were brushed aside with ease in Kingswood too. The loss of these seats, which are as Tory as Tory can be, exposes the rot that's eaten away at the Conservatives' support base. If only someone had been <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/3851-falling-down" target="_blank">banging on about this</a> for years.<br /><br />
Labour's triumph and the Tory catastrophe reinforces the existing trends in establishment politics. These results can only have a <i>stabilising</i> effect on the strategies, rhetoric, and positions takings of both parties between now and the general election.<br /><br />
For the Tories, the old excuses have come out. Their supporters "stayed at home". This is the line of <a href="https://x.com/DavidGHFrost/status/1758450023824601584?s=20" target="_blank">Lord David Frost</a>, who has never been near an election and can almost be forgiven such naivete. Or Tory supporters are lending protest votes to Reform UK. This is what the so-called New Conservatives <a href="https://x.com/breeallegretti/status/1758469376116760765?s=20" target="_blank">are saying</a>, and this finds a reasonable echo on the Tory benches. Calling for Rishi Sunak to resign (again), Andrea Jenkyns <a href="https://x.com/andreajenkyns/status/1758425423631753592?s=20" target="_blank">sums up the right wing position</a>: stop immigration, strafe the boats that brave the Channel, double down on anti-woke politic, and push back against the green crap. This is the path to electoral success. <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-tory-politics-of-immigration.html" target="_blank">It obviously isn't</a>, but there is an infantile logic at work here. Tot up the Tory vote, tot up the Reform vote. Unite the right and Labour wouldn't have won. At least not in Kingswood. Unfortunately for our back bench factions, it's <a href="https://x.com/edhodgsoned/status/1758436735359263113?s=20" target="_blank">not as simple as that</a>.<br /><br />
How is this going to play out for the government? More Tory bellyaching and impotent grandstanding from <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/a-rude-reminder.html" target="_blank">yesterday's people</a>. And Sunak? A pretence that everything is fine, that he's delivering for Britain - despite falling short of his own <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/01/rishi-sunaks-cant-be-arsed-speech.html" target="_blank">meagre targets</a>, and hoping Rwanda and dumping on trans people in the earshot of a murdered girl's mother can swing it for him. Have the Tories ever been in as abject a position?<br /><br />
Labour, as we know, has had its <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/from-rochdale-to-botchdale.html" target="_blank">own difficulties this week</a>. Support among Muslims and other sections of its core electorate have taken a dive and it's looking increasingly likely that George Galloway will rub Starmer's nose in the political consequences of <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/10/a-united-front-for-barbarity.html" target="_blank">his depravity</a> over the ethnic cleansing in Gaza. And so those who fancy themselves the political brains of the Labour operation are going to be over the moon with these results. No blowback for being soft on Israeli genocide. And no sign of a revolt over Labour's <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/the-labour-rights-political-strategy.html" target="_blank">scaling back</a> of its green ambitions. Though it's worth noting the Green vote increased enough in Kingswood to save the party's deposit - their best ever result in the seat. Their obvious take home is going to be that while Labour's core support are unhappy, jettisoning popular policy while advertising one's moral vacuity are no barriers to winning seats in Tory areas. Why not move on and water down those awkward pledges on workers' rights to win more of them over?<br /><br />
Here are the contours of the dying months of the Tories' 14 year stint in power. They have boxed themselves in to thinking policies that are the priority for a small minority of the electorate is the key to victory, when all it can do is <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/12/scorching-earth-on-immigration.html" target="_blank">hold a rump together</a>. And despite Starmer's exhortations that Labour "shouldn't take anything for granted" and needing to "fight as if we're five points behind in the polls", never before has a party approached an electorate so sure of victory that its politics are shot through with the laziest complacency.<br />
</span>Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-27607040261731397622024-02-13T21:56:00.003+00:002024-02-13T21:59:26.414+00:00From Rochdale to Botchdale<div class="image"><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/cCJRyQpv/Roshdale-oops.jpg" /></div><span face=""arial" , sans-serif">Labour has got itself into a spot of embarrassing bother over the Rochdale by-election. With news breaking at the weekend that the party's candidate, Azhar Ali, was recorded at a meeting making "antisemitic comments", leading lights on the Labour right, such as the Jewish Labour Movement's Mike Katz, and recent returnee Louise Ellman took to the media to defend him. And, having done so, the party turned around on Monday evening and disowned Ali's candidacy. If he's elected on the 29th Labour have said he won't ever take the whip. A mess, certainly, and one that has provided the Tories some cheer while boosting George Galloway's chances of taking the seat.<br /><br />
And then Tuesday took a turn for the worse. Graham Jones, hoping to get back his old seat in nearby Hyndburn, was recorded at the same community meeting that nobbled Ali saying that British citizens fighting for Israel should get locked up. The JLM said this was <a href="https://x.com/JewishLabour/status/1757441517562548391?s=20" target="_blank">unacceptable and antisemitic</a> and, like clock work, the party handed down a suspension. At about the same time, <i>The Times</i> scooped on <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/labour-staff-left-in-tears-by-sue-grays-leak-inquiry-fq7pf73rz" target="_blank">complaints against Sue Gray</a>. You'll remember the frisson of impropriety <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/03/a-bureaucrat-first-and-foremost.html" target="_blank">on occasion of her appointment</a> and recall how the rules about employing former senior civil servants didn't apply to Keir Starmer because she was the best of Whitehall. Turns out she undertook an investigation into leaks surrounding the leadership's dithering over the £28bn/year green new deal commitment, and did not afford staff their right to union representation or respect for the rules of workplace conduct. Phones were confiscated and searched for incriminating messages without following procedure. The GMB branch representing party workers are unhappy and have lodged an official complaint. And to think Gray was the woman brought in to <i>professionalise</i> the Starmer operation.<br /><br />
Apart from the <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-sun-s-attack-on-starmer.html" target="_blank">occasional criticism</a>, rare are the Labour leaders who've enjoyed such a benign press climate. In fact, Starmer is doubly fortunate that as the Tory party heads down the tubes, their key institutional supports are facing <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2022/12/the-sun-s-anxious-apology.html" target="_blank">crises of political influence</a> too. And yet Labour are all over the place, determined to compete with the Tories for the mantle of the most disarrayed. Of course, the Labour right have only themselves to blame for their predicament. As the Starmer-commissioned <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/03/forgetting-forde.html" target="_blank">Forde report found</a>, the Labour Party operates with a hierarchy of racism and accusations of antisemitism were peddled for nakedly factional reasons. A point underlined by Labour initially protecting Azhar Ali, because what matters is not tackling racism but the politics of those so accused. The problem is if you promote a politics based on falsehood and hypocrisy, you yourself will get poisoned by its legacy. With the Tories <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/02/a-rude-reminder.html" target="_blank">badly flailing</a>, if the Labour right turns a blind eye when its people make dubious comments the government are going to seize the weapons they fashioned and used against the left. It's obvious. <i>It was always obvious</i>.<br /><br />
Does this really matter as far as the general election is concerned? Not really. Labour's difficulties in Rochdale aren't about to swoop down and save the Tories from their oblivion. Even if Galloway does win the by-election, the mood is resolutely against the Conservative Party. Likewise, the slate of independent left candidacies hoping to give voice <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/10/abandoning-muslim-supporters.html" target="_blank">to disaffected supporters</a> - as well as they might do when the general election swings round - aren't going to change the outcome. But what does matter and what this episode of ineptitude is indicative of is how Starmer's Labour behaves in government. If their operation is thrown into chaos thanks to unforced error, how will Starmer manage when faced with the inevitable lobbying scandals, cash-for-access scandals, and donations-for-favours scandals? Because if the party behaves as it has these last couple of days - try to tough it out, get the ministers and senior MPs to burn political capital defending the indefensible, and then screeching to a panicked u-turn - then the authoritarian government Starmer wants to lead will rapidly discard its authority.<br /><br />
<a href="https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/labour-stands-rochdale-election-candidate-28614073" target="_blank">Image Credit</a></span><br />Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-27789084922450540252024-02-11T22:43:00.001+00:002024-02-11T22:43:30.845+00:00A Rude Reminder<div class="image"><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/zBy1mXKF/Goodall-Vs-Rees-Mogg.jpg" /></div><span face=""arial" , sans-serif">I watched some proceedings of last week's Popular Conservatism conference as part of my duty to the labour movement. And it was a dull affair. Nothing different was said that we hadn't already heard at 2023's <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/05/what-is-national-conservatism.html" target="_blank">National Conservatism conference</a>. Or at the virtually identical contemporaneous gathering of the <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/05/the-biggest-bellyachers-in-politics.html" target="_blank">Conservative Democratic Organisation</a>. Or any of the other overlapping and interlocking Tory factions multiplying like rabbits on the back benches. It was the convinced serenading the converted, as we heard about the evils of wokeism, unelected bureaucrats, the left's long march through the institutions (if only!) and how, as far as Lee Anderson was concerned, coal is a renewable resource because it comes from plants. Not even Liz Truss's third stab at the pitch she gave during her last two <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-return-of-liz-truss.html" target="_blank">comeback</a> <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/02/the-delusion-is-strong-with-this-one.html" target="_blank">speeches</a> ticked the worthy-of-attention box.<br /><br />
What did, however, was a viral exchange between Jacob Rees-Mogg and former <i>Newsnight</i> journalist, Lewis Goodall. After giving a speech railing against elites Goodall asked whether, given his millions, Rees-Mogg was part of the same wealthy out-of-touch elite he had just been attacking. <a href="https://x.com/lewis_goodall/status/1756312619990860031?s=20" target="_blank">He exploded</a>. Goodall was shook by Rees-Mogg's furious reply that denounced him as a "left wing journalist" whose impartiality was in question. <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/comment/2024/02/the-tory-rights-radicalisation-should-trouble-us-all" target="_blank">Reflecting in a piece</a> for the <i>New Statesman</i>, he mused this was symptomatic of the Tory love-in with Trumpian "post-truth" politics. While that describes the contours of the PopCon/NatCon/ConDem alphabetti spaghetti of Tory factionalism, it does not, in fact, provide a satisfying explanation for why Rees-Mogg's studied politesse came apart after a relatively innocuous question. What does is the fact Goodall unwittingly broke the golden rule of politics.<br /><br />
Writing about the dynamics of cultural production, Pierre Bourdieu argued that it's best to understand music, art, film, the theatre, and literature as fields structured not unlike economies. Participants compete with one another over the stakes, accolades, and economies of recognition particular to them. In other words, what is at stake is the accumulation of cultural capital. The more one has, the greater their clout within that field, the greater their interests are synonymous with the continued legitimacy of that field, and - sometimes - the greater the possibility of converting cultural capital into economic capital. That is to say, in the non-Marxist sense, money. For Bourdieu, each field has an ideology that goes with it. This is the <i>illusio</i>, which determines what can and cannot be said and done. Transgressing the <i>illusio</i>, such as suggesting writers of literary fiction owe more to (and have an interest in) the commercial imperatives and viability of their work than disinterested concerns with artistic fashions is about the biggest <i>faux pas</i> one can commit. Art for art's sake as an explanation for the writerly preoccupation with auratic works remains as much the <i>illusio</i> of middlebrow and high literature today as it always has.<br /><br />
It applies to British politics as well. The Westminster <i>illusio</i> has it that parliamentarians are motivated by service to their constituents and their country. Regardless of their views, everyone is united by their respect for the constitution and that they will do what is best for those who voted them in. When you look at the career of someone like Rees-Mogg, we (ostensibly) see a preoccupation with parliamentary sovereignty. Indeed, that was the topic of his turgid speech that prefaced his snapping at Goodall. We can disagree with him, but - as the <i>illusio</i> goes - one cannot question his sincerity or integrity. He's motivated purely by public service. Goodall's question inadvertently pressed a pin into this balloon of pompous nonsense. British politics, like all politics, is a struggle between interests. The reason so many wealthy business people, like Rees-Mogg and like the Prime Minister enter into politics is not for something to do in their dotage. It's a case of securing their <i>class interests</i>.<br /><br />
Despite his landed gentry countenance and the baubled family tree to match, Rees-Mogg's money comes not from the exploitation of 15th century serfs but the financial alchemy of hedge fund management. He is a creature not of the country sets and the boxing day fox hunt, but more properly of the City. And it's this, just like Rishi Sunak, that overdetermines his politics. The firm he co-founded, Somerset Capital Management, specialises in 'global emerging markets' - a euphemism for leeching off some of the poorest and most exploited workers on the planet. This was preceded by a career in the City. Given this pedigree, is it any wonder he's long lined up with that section of finance and commercial capital that was (and is) <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2022/11/the-bourgeois-politics-of-brexit.html" target="_blank">enthusiastic about Brexit</a>? And that for all his seemingly archaic concerns with parliamentary sovereignty, this specious rhetoric is nothing more than a cover <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2020/12/the-tory-sovereignty-fetish.html" target="_blank">for an authoritarian politics</a> that brooks few checks on the executive by the courts, by subordinate state institutions, and by supranational organisations and treaty obligations. There is a direct line between Rees-Moggs's politics, filtered through his webs of archaisms, and his very capitalist class interests. There is not one thing he has ever done nor will ever do that might compromise his understanding of doing right by those interests.<br /><br />
And this is why Goodall had to be shot down without the usual etiquette. The profusion of Tory factions might seem mad from the standpoint of what he calls the ""unthinking" centrism in politics", but it's tied both to a particular interpretation of where the Conservatives <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-tory-politics-of-immigration.html" target="_blank">see themselves now</a>, and the fact the party has allowed itself to become tied to the most backward sections of the British ruling class. A fraction whose hyper consciousness can't stop them worrying about what Keir Starmer and Labour <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-sun-s-attack-on-starmer.html" target="_blank">might lead to</a>, are concerned they're not going to have significant political power for a <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/3851-falling-down" target="_blank">very long time</a>, and are flailing about in despair as their politics lose purchase on the minds of the electorate. But even now, these class dynamics have to be denied. The <i>illusio</i> of politics must remain in play because if it's suggested that Rees-Mogg, the PopCon farce, and all the ferment on the right of the party is rightly seen as the last gasp of a discredited and diminishing class fraction, <i>it could be</i> the last gasp of a discredited and <i>diminished</i> class fraction.<br /><br />
<a href="https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/watch-jacob-rees-moggs-awkward-on-camera-clash-with-journalist-368363/" target="_blank">Image Credit</a></span><br />
Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-21345364898728165742024-02-09T22:40:00.004+00:002024-02-09T22:40:58.094+00:00The Anomaly by Herve Le Tellier<div class="image"><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/L8PFkMvG/Twins-convention.jpg" /></div><span face=""arial" , sans-serif">Many things have been written about Herve Le Tellier's <i>The Anomaly</i>. One of those pesky science fiction novels passing itself off as a mainstream literary novel, it has attracted flattering remarks over its originality, its fidelity to the Oulipo school of French writing, and for being a good read. While quibbling the claims to newness - doppelgangers have been an SF staple since Poe's <i>William Wilson</i> - Le Tellier's scratching of an old groove produces a melodious work. It has the page turning quality of a Michael Crichton, centring the scientific/military inquiry into/protection from the unknown with small character studies of everyday folk thrown into an unbelievable situation. But what reviews and other commentary has tended to neglect is <i>The Anomaly</i>'s polemical thrust.<br /><br />
<i>Spoilers below</i>.<br /><br />
In March 2021, an Air France airliner lands at JFK airport. The passengers and crew disembark and go about their lives. In June 2021, the exact same plane with the same crew and passengers appears in US air space and is escorted by fighter jet to a US Air Force base. What's going on? The duplicates (or are the ones who landed in March the duplicates?) have experienced no lost time, and have to come to terms with a world where their niche is inhabited by their other selves. This poses a problem for Blake, a hit man, who has no intention of surrendering his shadowy life to a double. But not so much for struggling novelist Victor, whose <i>alter ego</i> finished writing a book of aphorisms - entitled <i>The anomaly</i> - and promptly took his own life. This catapults the book to the top of the best seller charts for Victor to more or less pick up where he left off. What duplication means for relationships, for people's standing in society (or at least those who come out publicly), and the arrangements some characters arrive at to assure their co-existence is all deftly done.<br /><br />
How to explain what happened? Eventually, the leading hypothesis is that our world is one of many simulations ran on an inconceivably vast computer by a super advanced civilisation for reasons unknown. The duplication of Flight 006 is a test of some kind, the insertion of an unknown variable to see how us little computer people would go about reacting to it. There is some suggestion it could be existential. If our response is wrong then our simulation will get turned off. The White House invites representatives of several religions for their take on what happened and where the creation of over 200 duplicated people might sit theologically. A consensus of sorts is arrived at that if they were abominations, then God would not have given them life. The Devil, after all, cannot create.<br /><br />
For my money, <i>The Anomaly</i> is a polemic against what Le Tellier sees as the <i>real</i> anomaly - the <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2020/09/a-cultural-sociology-of-mass-stupidity.html" target="_blank">unending eruption of unreason</a> in culture and politics. The US President, who is never named but is obviously Donald Trump and has a deal of trouble following the explanations and recommendations offered by his advisors. Published in France in 2020, Le Tellier didn't have much faith in the American people cutting short the tangerine dream's bid for a second term. That's and his two-faced dealings with Macron are the light relief appetiser. The polemic hits hard toward the book's end. One of the young women from the flight appears on <i>The Late Show with Stephen Colbert</i> with her doppelganger. It's all wholesome with the sympathetic liberal audience. They're slightly gawky and awkward. The one who landed in March has embarked on her first hesitant romance with a boy. They couldn't be more unthreatening. But outside the studio is besieged by Christian fundamentalists drawn from America's religious redoubts. As the pair leave in a company car, they're caught up in a traffic jam caused by the protest. By chance one of the zealots spot the pair giggling in their seats, and convinced they're Satanic spawn he shoots them to death. The theological positions put out by at the government's behest count for nothing as his mind is consumed by religious ecstasy.<br /><br />
And then, the end. In October 2021 JFK airport is radioed by a <i>third</i> Flight 006 seeking landing permission. The action cuts to the cockpit of a fighter pilot querying his orders. They've come straight down from the President himself. The flight must be destroyed. The missile streaks towards the helpless jet and in the seconds before impact, everything stops. The world feels a shudder, and the text breaks up and collapses to a point. The obvious implication being that we, or rather the unreasonable order of an unreasonable President have failed the experimenter's test and our simulation gets shut down.<br /><br />
The warning is clear. The anomaly of unreason is an existential threat, but not an insurmountable one. If the right people made the right decisions. If the crazed and the stupid were not encouraged and empowered, we might stand a chance.<br /><br />
<a href="https://www.helsinki.fi/en/news/life-sciences/new-leads-research-origin-identical-twins" target="_blank">Image Credit</a></span><br />Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-24242822290615436862024-02-05T20:50:00.000+00:002024-02-05T20:50:46.181+00:00Remembering Christopher Priest<span face=""arial" , sans-serif">Only just heard that science fiction author and literary giant Christopher Priest passed away on Friday. I'm sharing a couple of video interviews he had with his long-time friend Stephen E Andrews. He talks about his career, a modest appreciation of his role in new wave SF, his influences and, among other things, the success he had with <i>The Prestige</i>.</span><br /><br />
<iframe width="535" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/AssoL4lBqog?si=9vM1hV2eEpoKCd2y" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<iframe width="535" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vL_EnANahg8?si=Y_JxHDfeovpGFd-_" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-73148028623238002392024-02-04T21:40:00.002+00:002024-02-04T21:40:29.698+00:00The Labour Right's Political Strategy<div class="image"><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/HkjXBnwV/Shadow-Cabinet.jpg" /></div><span face=""arial" , sans-serif">Labour wants a "bomb proof" manifesto. In practice, that means junking anything a <i>Sun</i> editorial might find irksome. Today, Keir Starmer's <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2022/11/keir-starmer-and-house-of-lords-reform.html" target="_blank">earnest promise</a> to abolish the House of Lords is filed under the never never. Though to be fair to Starmer, I think this is about the third occasion he's announced his abandonment of the pledge. Then at the end of last week, the £28bn/year green transition fund has been scaled back following manoeuvrings and whispering campaigns. Rachel Reeves's arbitrary fiscal rules come first. And coincidentally, they repose in conformity with Bank of England/Treasury/City orthodoxy. The very nexus of class forces that have brought nothing but plenty to the people of this country.<br /><br />
Apart from a few nice-sounding policies around the edges, the only logical argument for supporting Labour is voting <i>against</i> the Tories. And millions undoubtedly will do so, despite Starmer offering much less than what Tony Blair promised. What a pitiful state of affairs. But what, if anything, do his latest slew of retreats signal? The analyses and comments doing the rounds about Labour's cowardice, the institutional capture of the party by the City tendency, and not wanting to scare the right wing press all have something to recommend them. But added to this is the internalised logic of the party's right wing establishment. Their capitulation is so craven because their strategy swims with the stream of bourgeois politics.<br /><br />
There are three "pragmatic" arguments to this, neither of which are separable from <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2022/09/royalism-and-labourism.html" target="_blank">Labourism itself</a>. Scaring the City, the bond markets, the international "investors", and upsetting "business confidence" are absolute avoidables in the Labour right's operations manual. Apart from inviting attacks from the right wing media when Labour is seen out of step with these interests (NB the Tory press will <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-sun-s-attack-on-starmer.html" target="_blank">do it anyway</a> - the clue is in the name), the reasoning goes that if the markets are becalmed Labour will have an easier time in office. It doesn't matter that the price paid is burying the chance of fundamental reforms, because the thought of implementing any never crosses the Labour right's imaginary.<br /><br />
This foregrounds the Starmerist "don't offer anything" strategy. If you don't offer anything, you can't be held to account for not following through. The proof of this "wisdom" was demonstrated when the Australian Labor Party <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2022/05/four-points-on-australian-election.html" target="_blank">won its election</a> a few years ago. Their manifesto said precious little, which gave the Coalition nothing to attack. Instead they jumped off the anti-immigration, anti-woke deep end. And they sank with nary a trace. It looks like history is going to repeat itself with the Tories, convinced as they are that their <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-tory-politics-of-immigration.html" target="_blank">right wing fetishes</a> will be a bit of what the electorate fancies. Why interrupt your opponent while they're tanking themselves?<br /><br />
But the other element of offering nothing is summed up by a mantra Ed Miliband was fond of during his leadership. At a party event in Birmingham early in his tenure, he said Labour were going to "under promise" but "over deliver". This is super clever politics for LOTO's galaxy brains. Your government isn't on the hook for anything but when it does something it can be trumpeted from the rooftops for its mould-breaking brilliance. The passive electorate will be suitably wowed by the policy largesse dispensed, accustomed as they are to nothing but Labour's very super serious pragmatist managerialism. Carry on like this and the second term is in the bag.<br /><br />
And there we have the contours of the Labour right's governing philosophy. Do nothing for most of the time, and bury themselves in laurels when some minor improvement rattles off the legislative conveyor belt. And, here's the best thing for those steering HMS Great Britain. Not only do they get to enjoy a decade's worth of dinners at the captain's table, there will be handsome launches waiting for them as thank yous for services rendered when the voyage pulls into harbour. Climate emergency? Demographic ageing? Care crisis? Crumbling public services? Falling living standards? Productivity lag? Decaying political legitimacy? With any luck they can get brushed under the carpet as our plucky Labour ministers strive with determination toward the gilded life awaiting them at career's end. Labour is the party of aspiration, after all. <i>Theirs</i>.<br /><br />
<a href="https://capx.co/what-does-keir-starmers-new-shadow-cabinet-stand-for/" target="_blank">Image Credit</a><br /></span>
Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-32337834948252684682024-02-02T20:45:00.000+00:002024-02-02T20:45:04.110+00:00Leigh Bowery on The Clothes ShowFor no reason whatsoever, here's Leigh Bowery doing his thing.<br /><br />
<iframe width="535" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/om0MrCOXPcE?si=SnyoG4-_5Wim8lUq" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen></iframe>Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-51690225052578353922024-02-01T09:19:00.000+00:002024-02-01T09:19:05.436+00:00Five Most Popular Posts in January<div class="image"><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/59TvpBdJ/Keir-Starmer-The-Sun.jpg" /></div><span face=""arial" , sans-serif">2024 has barely got underway and already we've burned through January. Mind you, as per December's announcement this blog has taken things at a more leisurely pace. But enough stuff appeared to make a round up of what was hot last month a go-er.<br /><br />
1. <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-sun-s-attack-on-starmer.html" target="_blank"><i>The Sun</i>'s Attack on Keir Starmer</a><br />
2. <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/01/stirring-up-apathy.html" target="_blank">Stirring Up Apathy</a><br />
3. <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-opposite-of-necessary.html" target="_blank">The Opposite of Necessary</a><br />
4. <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/01/the-tory-politics-of-immigration.html" target="_blank">The Tory Politics of Immigration</a><br />
5. <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/01/on-green-partys-four-for-24-strategy.html" target="_blank">On the Green Party's Four for 24 Strategy</a><br /><br />
Talking about Keir Starmer usually commands the numbers, and 2024 is showing no break from this tradition. In at one was the hatchet job <i>The Sun</i> did on him over his pre-politics record opposing the death penalty overseas. A rare highlight in a career marked by establishment obsequiousness, I asked why the paper - now Labour has pretty much capitulated to right wing common sense on all issues - is having a go. The second post is about his new year speech. It's all about the vibes, man. Coming in third was a small piece mocking Steven Moffat's desire to do a British <i>West Wing</i>. Hot on its heels is my take on why the Tories are tearing themselves apart on immigration, despite the fact you can't get a credit card between the two opposing camps. And lastly is the long-promised meditation on Green Party strategy ahead of the general election.<br /><br />
Second chance saloon? As I said in December, part of the blog wind down is a desire to write and think about different things. One of those is a turn into science fiction commentary and criticism. I offered up three such morsels, and here are two of them. A piece excavating conservatism in <a averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com="" conservatism-in-hyperion.html="" href="" https:="" target="_blank">Dan Simmons's <i>Hyperion</i></a>, and another on Frederik Pohl's award winning <a href="https://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/01/gateway-by-frederik-pohl.html" target="_blank"><i>Gateway</i></a>. Fill your boots!<br /><br />
What to expect for the month ahead? I still fancy writing something about <i>Socialist Appeal</i>'s "communist turn", and I'm sure there will be politics aplenty to think about. Expect a slice of skiffy to help it go down. As ever, if you haven't already don't forget to follow the monthly <a href="https://www.patreon.com/AllThatIsSolid" target="_blank">free newsletter</a>, and if you like what I do (and you're not skint), you can help support the blog. Following me on <a href="http://twitter.com/philbc3" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and <a href="http://facebook.com/solidblog" target="_blank">Facebook</a> are cost-free ways of showing your backing for this corner of the internet.</span><br />Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-41801151579146887122024-01-31T18:30:00.004+00:002024-01-31T18:30:47.153+00:00Starmerism Vs Immaterial Labour<div class="image"><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/jjFD9SrW/Immaterial-Labour-Picket-Line.jpg" /></div><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Here's an abstract for a paper I'll be delivering at the Midlands Critical Theory conference in the Spring. Long-time readers can pretty much recite the stuff I'll be talking about.
<blockquote>Italian post-Marxism's theorisation of immaterial labour has proven influential and has been the object of trenchant critique and spirited defence. However, its application to an understanding of political dynamics has tended toward abstraction. For example, Negri's (2018) pronouncements on cognitive capitalism, the city, and "exodus" confined itself to sketching out in theoretical terms the broad trajectory of the class politics of immaterial labour. Case studies Negri employed to illustrate the utility of this approach were relatively superficial. Using the British political scene, I operationalise this contribution of post-Marxist critical theory to address the contours of resistance in the 2020s. Drawing on previous work that has theorised the close relationship between values and the lived experience of immaterial/"social" workers to explain the rise and fall of Jeremy Corbyn and the long-term decline of the Conservative Party, it considers how the contemporary Labour Party is actively working against the new modes of political collectivity forged by immaterial labour and what kind of opposition Keir Starmer's leadership, knowingly or not, is cultivating.</blockquote>
Some more <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2022/04/immaterial-labour-and-its-discontents.html" target="_blank">here</a> and <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-class-struggle-vs-cognitive.html" target="_blank">here</a>.Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-90591634493528155222024-01-28T22:04:00.001+00:002024-01-29T14:35:21.179+00:00Gateway by Frederik Pohl<div class="image"><img src="https://i.postimg.cc/rwYfR7J8/Gateway-Frederik-Pohl.jpg" /></div><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">As the winner of a Hugo and Nebula award, Frederik Pohl's <i>Gateway</i> has its share of the highest honours organised science fiction can bestow. But time is often unkind to the works of the recent past, and that is true of this 1970s space opera. Not because the depiction of the technology is dated, or that the mores are old hat. What sits ill with the contemporary is the tension at the core of the novel: the uneasy wedding of world building and narrative.<br /><br />
The premise of <i>Gateway</i> piqued my interest. The exploration of Venus finds the planet honeycombed with tunnels left by a mysterious alien race dubbed the Heechee. The disappeared without explanation 500,000 years previously, leaving behind a smattering of artefacts but nothing resembling writing, or clues about their society, or how they looked. Eventually a ship is located, an autopilot is triggered and off it flies to a nearby asteroid. Except it's hollowed out and contains a thousand Heechee ships, most of them operational. A corporation independent of Earth's competing nations is formed to oversee Gateway and prospectors are invited to take flights out. The ship controls and how they work are a mystery, so it's a case of volunteering for a flight, activating a ship, and hoping it will take you somewhere safe and return you before the on board rations run out. Big cash awards are available for prospectors who take close readings of celestial phenomena, bring back evidence of alien biology, and/or serviceable Heechee tech for reverse engineering. But it's all about chance. Because the controls are inscrutable and are only slowly worked out over the course of the novel, every launch is a lottery. Only the exceptionally lucky make a strike big enough to set themselves up for life. For the unlucky, of which there are plenty, life is exactly what they lose.<br /><br />
There are always volunteers and our hero, Robinette Broadhead, is typical of the world's working class. He was condemned to a life of drudge in the Earth's proliferating food mines. Because the population has swelled to enormous proportions, fossil fuel production is the only means of sustaining the hungry tens of billions. Oil and coal are extracted to feed yeast, which provides the dietary staples for most. In this future, the entirety of Utah has become an open cast pit and Wyoming is being strip mined of its oil-bearing shale. The problem are these fuels are finite and when they run out billions will starve. The hunt for Heechee tech that can alleviate this crisis is a top priority. But this isn't Bob's problem because, as fortune would have it, he wins the lottery. With his quarter of a million he escapes the grind and buys a single ticket to Gateway in the hope that, Micawber-like, something wonderful will turn up. And so we're set up for an interesting tale of discovery.<br /><br />
There are three aspects to the book. There are Bob's adventures on the station and the experiences of shipping out, his later engagement of a Freudian computer to help him through the trauma of the trip that made him rich, and a selection of vignettes, notices, and corporate reports that build background and provide the necessary info dumps. It sounds good, but the problem is while the conceit stands up the narrative that explores it does not. Pohl proves unable to provide a story that makes the most of the premise.<br /><br />
Reviews regularly complain about how unsympathetic a character Bob is. He's selfish, bedevilled by anxiety, and has his big secret hanging over him. But that's not the problem. Character flaws are fine - the problem lies in <i>characterisation</i>. Reflecting on <i>Ringworld</i> (among other things), I said there was something <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2023/12/pondering-science-fiction.html" target="_blank">that didn't sit right</a> with my teenaged self. Different author and a few decades later, but same problem. There's a hokey thinness to its structure of feeling. Not quite Hanna Barbara with swearing, but a cartoonish quality that pervades Bob's thoughts and actions. We see it also in the academics who appear in the bulletin segments. These glimpses are marred by an awkward join of everyman befuddlement and jaded wiseacring, which I can only presume is an effort at overfamiliar endearment. The difficulties with pitch are evident in relationships, which are stunted and almost always imminently sexual. This is where we encounter a major problem with Pohl's characterisation.<br /><br />
In this supposedly sexually liberated future where bed-hopping is the norm and same-sex relations don't raise an eyebrow, Bob frets about his sexuality. From declaring he has no problems with gay men as long as they leave him alone to shamefully enjoying unspoken and alluded-to liaisons, his psychoanalytic sessions with Sigfrid (to whom he contemptuously appends "the shrink") contrive a singularly uninteresting suggestion that his denial of gay inclinations are one of his main drives. The problem is if the future doesn't attach any importance to sexuality <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.co.uk/2007/03/foucault-power-and-sex.html" target="_blank">as it does now</a> as an identity marker, therefore sexuality-based discrimination and oppression does not exist and it cannot work as a source of anxiety. The repression of desire and guilt has no material basis. There are no sanctions attending sexual activity between men, and therefore no costs of being found out. As motive it simply does not work because it cannot work, The second aspect of this sexuality tension, which is pretty insulting, lies in Sigfrid's location of Bob's repression. We learn that he was brought up by his mother alone and that they had a distant relationship without much tactile contact. The only time she showed any concern was when she took the infant Bob's temperature, which she did anally. His psyche defines this as intimacy, which explains the wellspring of his desire for men. This side narrative does offer an explanation about why Bob (or Robinette to give him his not-at-all coincidentally feminised full name) is annoying, but it is logically inconsistent and aits inclusions seems solely down to prurience - as if Pohl was trying to work out his own attitudes, but couldn't shake off what bothered him about homosexuality.<br /><br />
The depiction of women are of a type as well. They are up for going to bed with everyone at the drop of a hat, including married women. There are four female characters that become significant to Bob, and he ends up having sex with all of them. Klara is the most important and he forms a romantic relationship with her. She's impulsive, illogical, and beholden to horoscopes. Whenever there's some kind of intimate scene between the two star signs always come up, as if Pohl has trouble imagining his creation might have a complex internal life and be interested in other subjects. At least he doesn't keep talking about breasts. But in what is the book's most disturbing scene, after she hits Bob during a row he beats her up. Nowhere is this reflected on. Bob is aware that it probably means curtains for their relationship, but there's no guilt, or indeed much of a realisation that this is unacceptable. It's neutrally passed over and sealed with an apology once she returns after fleeing to Venus.<br /><br />
The politics of <i>Gateway</i> are ambivalent. The world is carved up into different power blocs, and each of them station their own cruisers by Gateway - presumably to keep an eye on each nation and their designs on the asteroid. As a hyper-marketised society, there is only one way out - the lottery of chance. Given how real world mining has bequeathed a rich tradition of worker militancy, it's difficult to conceive how a world dependent on tens if not hundreds of millions of miners would allow for a turbo-charged, semi-libertarian dog-eat-dog capitalist dystopia. It's worth noting that the world's power blocs, or at least the North American one, isn't groaning under the iron heel of dictatorship. Where there authority is represented in the text it stems from the Gateway corporation. As such, you could make the case that Pohl finds the society he's conceived repugnant and his use of the lottery to get Bob to the station and then treating every ship trip as a throw of the dice underlines a condemnation of the limits capitalism foists on human development. Or he's just noting that chance is a fact of life, fortune is tied up with risk taking, and all we can do is get on with it. Not explicitly neoliberal, but in concert with the <a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2016/12/individualism-and-neoliberalism.html" target="_blank">spirit of the times</a>.<br /><br />
<i>Gateway</i> does follow the conventional structure of introducing the new and then making what Steve Andrews calls the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXgdQI85igY" target="_blank">conceptual breakthrough</a>, whereby the world is turned on its head and everything is cast in a different light. That happens via the trauma weighing down on Bob, and is about the only part of Bob's character arc that works. Some might not think this shortfall matters given how compelling the setting is. And to a degree, I'm interested in what happens next (there are a slew of sequels and shorts set in the Heechee sequence), but it would undoubtedly swear others off the series and perhaps Pohl's volumes of other works. As a 1970s space opera it does not compare well to the New Space Opera inaugurated by Iain M Banks a decade later, which did and continues to pay attention to literary quality, character development, and believable and consistent world building. There's a stylistic chasm between this and <i><a href="http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2024/01/conservatism-in-hyperion.html" target="_blank">Hyperion</a></i>, for example.<br /><br />
Is it worth reading? As a historical artefact, yes. But it is untouched by the British and American new waves, so the health warning is in place for those expecting crafted characters and decent plotting. <i>Gateway</i> is not a good novel for anyone thinking about getting into science fiction, and I'm left wondering how many mainstream readers tried it on the strength of its award winning reputation and went on to give SF a lifelong body swerve. One for the curious, but its glaring deficiencies do not make for a great read today.<br />
</span>Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.com5