#10 It’s not the economy, stupid, but the hubris
Politicians fail to
understand hubris. I remember Pete Birks once explaining that a successful
CEO needed to have the memory of a goldfish, since the slate was continually wiped
clean after every set of results. Sadly, for politicians, electorates tend to
have longer memories than shareholders. The recent past has to be accounted
for when making promises for the future. Is that really so difficult to
understand? Let me give you an
example. The leader of a party which has not been in power for over for many years
stands up at their conference and says they plan to build 200,000 houses
during the lifetime of the next government. We can all stand up and applaud a
sensible policy. However, when Ed Miliband stands
up at his conference and pledges the same thing, do we all applaud? Not I
think, until he answers some further questions, such as – why did the
last government, of which he was a part, build so few houses? What is going
to be different this time? How is this change going to happen? In fact, why
exactly should we believe him? My problem with the Labour
leadership is that they seem to assume we have completely forgotten about the
last government – which only ended three years ago after thirteen years
in office. If the policy is different now, why have they changed and how are
they going to guarantee that they really have changed? Is the Labour
government that was supportive of the uber rich now
a party that wants to hammer them? How has this happened and why should we
believe it? For 13 years labour has been the party of the market par
excellence, yet now they want to interfere with the market to freeze energy
prices. Why not nationalise the Energy companies? That would fix the prices
once and for all. Or inject new competition or put a stick of dynamite under
the regulator? Why a 20 month freeze? Where is the
logic of this position? Why should we believe it? Are Labour a party that is ‘green’ in
opposition, but not in government? Or have they given up on ‘green
policies’ altogether? Do they like immigrants or hate them? How are
they going to create apprentices this time when they signally failed to do so
last time? Have they put their overseas adventuring behind them? Are they
sorry about the excesses of the surveillance state or the outrageous nature
of RIPA? I don’t necessarily disagree with their new policies (where
they have them) but I need convincing that they are serious and really
represent a change from their recent past. Of course, it is a bit
different for the Tories. When Therese May stands up and says she wants out of
teh Human Rights Convention, we know she believes this; or when Osborne
declares that he is comfortable with the filthy rich, why would we question
it? So while policies are
good, and Labour certainly did need some, believability is even more important.
I need to see a bit more sackcloth and ashes from the Labour leadership
before I feel inclined to believe what they now say. |
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Blog #10 |
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