Previous Message

Political education of the population is terrible and political journalism is equally terrible and increasingly cozily sycophantic. 24/7 media and social media mean all sorts of crackpot ideas find a platform and repetition makes them seem less unacceptable. Others actively see benefit to themselves in undermining established institutions and processes.

Politics by focus group and spin has become increasingly principle free propaganda and that only plays into the hands of those trying to perpetuate distrust and disillusionment.

Funding of politics is an opaque free-for-all ripe for corruption. Global finance in the online age is filled with murky characters who prioritise personal gain above all. Regulators are largely toothless and ineffective.

Global conflicts and criminal gangs have together created a substantial increase in migration by ‘unconventional’ means at a time when even conventional migration was causing localised social and economic issues in some disproportionately hit, often poorer, communities (even if the national impact was positive).

The laws and legal structures we rely on are less robust than many believed having been drafted from the flawed assumption that people would be honest/honourable.

Lots of people are struggling and they/their families have been largely failed by business as usual politics for generations. They have no faith in mainstream politics and are easy-pickings for outsider ‘politicians’ offering up scapegoats and simple ‘solutions’.

We could keep going but in essence there is much wrong across so many aspects of our societies that our political systems are increasingly unstable. Things got worse from 2010 in a UK but I think many of the issues date back much further.

It would take a massive, sustained, sincere, widely supported principles-led anti-corruption purge to even begin to reset things. That is as likely as a Dyche team having 90% possession over a season.