Government badly needs to hear just how much plain fear there is around such questions at present. It isn’t enough to respond with what sounds like a mixture of, “This is the last government’s legacy,” and, “We’d like to do more, but just wait until the economy recovers a bit.” To acknowledge the reality of fear is not necessarily to collude with it. But not to recognise how pervasive it is risks making it worse. Equally, the task of opposition is not to collude in it, either, but to define some achievable alternatives. And, for that to happen, we need sharp-edged statements of where the disagreements lie.
The uncomfortable truth is that, while grass-roots initiatives and local mutualism are to be found flourishing in a great many places, they have been weakened by several decades of cultural fragmentation. The old syndicalist and co-operative traditions cannot be reinvented overnight and, in some areas, they have to be invented for the first time.
This is not helped by a quiet resurgence of the seductive language of “deserving” and “undeserving” poor, nor by the steady pressure to increase what look like punitive responses to alleged abuses of the system.
Hairy Marxist guest edits publication for hairy Marxists.
In the Anglican Communion I haven’t much heard the ABC acknowledge the reality of fear nor do I see anyone being encouraged to come up sharp edged statements of disagreement let alone “achievable alternatives”. Why is civil political life reflected upon so differently than ecclesial political life?
This is pretty close to the official policy of the central Communion bodies at the moment, as far as I can see.
It is rather bemusing to contrast Rowan Williams’ direct comments on political affairs in England, with his less-than-direct leadership in Anglican Communion affairs.