Economic woes and despair

As a war baby I grew up in an era of rationing and shortages but it was largely a happy time, as I recall, only marred by the premature death of my mother.  Finally in the early fifties the last vestiges of rationing ceased with sweets and bread freely available.  The country and economy was prospering and blooming as disposable income grew.  It grew to the point that in the early sixties the then Prime Minister Harold Macmillan, aka 'Supermac',  famously declared in an election campaign that "you've never had it so good".

From that perceived highlight of postwar Britain it was only a few short years until 1964 when the Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson who was under great economic and political pressure devalued the pound sterling by twenty five per cent overnight whilst proudly proclaiming that the pound in your pocket was still worth one pound.  From thereon it was on the slippery slope to 1967 and the 'Sunny' Jim Callaghan administration where interest rates soared to an astonishing twenty seven per cent and the country was under the rigid control of the International Monetary Fund, suffering all manner of harsh industrial action and social deprivations.

The country gradually clawed its way out of this economic and social hell with yet another change of government, this time led by Ted Heath only to disappoint as further economic woes followed shortly and he was replaced by Margaret Thatcher. She was but a humble grocer's daughter from middle England, trained as an industrial chemist and thus apparently eminently qualified to oversee UK plc and its people.

Thatcher wanted change and espoused the theory of monetarism as propounded by one Alan Walters, not an elected representative of the people but a 'personal adviser' to her.  His vision of the future was enthusiastically implemented by the Iron Lady with wholesale privatisations, the destruction of British industry, the emasculation of trades unions and ever greater political divides between right and left political factions.  All on the whole proudly proclaimed claimed as progress towards a more equitable society.

Suddenly there was another national economic crisis in the early eighties leading to yet another damaging and divisive recession from which the country slowly and gradually staggered to recovery.  All this economic, social and personal misery gradually gave way to an air of quiet optimism fromthe  political masters and population in general.  Only a short ten years later there was yet another damaging recession which to some extent caused Thatcher's downfall and the election of the much promising John Major.  Unfortunately like many of his predecessors he promised much and returned very little  positive outcome, in fact yet another triumph of aspiration over reality.

Eventually the country at large grew disenchanted with right wing politics and elected a new and seemingly bright shining star, Tony Blair.  Under his patronage came a new Chancellor of the Exchequer who reigned for some ten years or so promising the end of the boom and bust cycle for the British economy, a truly Utopian ideal.

You do not need to guess what comes next do you?  That's right, yet another recession under Brown's stewardship of the nation's finances and then as Prime Minister.  Not just any ordinary recession but one of hugely destructive proportions nationally but globally due to the coincidence of financial meltdown in America.  This latest economic holocaust was generally deemed to be as bad if not worse than the Great Depression some eighty odd years previously.

If governments are to be believed then currently things are gradually improving and within a few years all in the garden will be rosy again.  The question inevitably is for how long this time?  From all of the commonly available indicators it is looking increasingly likely that a further recessionary period is imminent despite political reassurances as to the contrary.

It should be pointed out that this is not intended in any way shape or form as a political rant decrying one wing of political dogma in favour of another, hopefully this is an objective and apolitical comment.

The principal question that all of the foregoing raises, apart from why should ordinary citizens continually and cyclically suffer the misery and despair that these economic upheavals bring,  It is more than blindingly obvious that the current and pre-existing regimes do not work, they are totally dysfunctional.  Other systems have been tried and largely failed, witness communism in all of its various manifestations, dictatorships of various degrees and brutality, in fact it would seem that most political systems are at best ineffective and somewhat lackiing in respect of the wishes and aspirations of ordinary people, the very people that in many cases have placed these machines in power!

My whole life has been subjected to these violent, disturbing politcal and economic forces never much more than a decade apart.  The impact just on my own financial, social life and work has been enormous in many cases totally negating any attempt at some form of planning for the future to bring security and stability to my little world.  Multiply this effect to include the entire population and the effects made and it must truly devastating on a national scale.  Obviously the macro economic situation suffers even worse. 

There must be, surely there has to be a better way then the seemingly never ending seesawing, roller coaster cycle which bedeviled the last century and would seem to be about to promulgate more of the same for this epoc.  Please do not ask what I foresee as a new way forward to a new world, there are far superior intellects in life who cannot devise a suitable solution.  What is certain that the old ways have failed and that change is sorely needed.

There is a quote that comes to mind that 'Britain is the mother of all parliaments', by very extension surely it is therefore the home of democracy.  If this be the case then perhaps Britain should look to the past, learn from history and return democracy to where it belongs in the very hands of its citizens because apart from every general election democracy is blatantly ignored by those in power who were put ther by the people.  Perhaps it is time time to remind those in power that they hold that very power to carry out the wishes of the people, not for those in power to force the people to fulfill their political aims and ideals.