For those picking through the political rubble for ideas on how to fix Broken Britain, “Anglo-Futurism” might be one answer, argues Aris Roussinos in today’s UnHerd.
The neo-liberal model which we’ve all relied on these past forty years is coming to an end, he says, and the reason is very simple. It isn’t working.
“The British state’s inability to provide the most basic of functions — stopping crime; providing adequate healthcare, housing and functioning utilities like energy and water — are the central plank of political discussion.”
The irony will be lost on no-one.
‘Labour isn’t working’ was the campaign slogan which propelled Margaret Thatcher to power in 1979 with an ideology to replace the failed post-war consensus. Today, that very model is itself now heading for the knacker’s yard and the reasons are clear for all to see:
“Instead of shoring up the state’s resilience to the pressures of an increasingly unstable world, the reliance on market forces has left the Government increasingly unable to impose order, provide functioning healthcare, keep the lights on or put roofs over people’s heads: a state that cannot provide these basic functions is really no state at all.
We are witnessing the death spiral of the world created after the Seventies crisis; even conservatives now understand that things cannot continue as they are. To argue in favour of the current system is now the marginal and eccentric position: half the ideological battle has already been won.”
So what is the alternative?
“We must demand a wartime level of mobilisation focused on state resilience: we are now far beyond nudges and quick fixes. This is a campaign for the basic functions of the state: streets that are safe to walk, homes to live in, healthcare for those in need, universal access to food, warmth and shelter.
Of necessity, in a world without a convincing successor ideology, this new model of politics must be pragmatic and non-ideological. Centred on restoring the basic functions of statehood, it must unite Labour voters as well as Tories, socialists and conservatives. It is a call, I propose, for Anglofuturism.
Anglo-Futurism – a definition
“Anglo”, because Britain should survive as an entity focused on the health and prosperity of the people, and not merely as a theme park for international capital.
The “futurism” is for the understanding that unlike our current political class, this approach looks beyond the electoral cycle. It is the idea that the state, and the nation, have interests to be safeguarded over the course of generations, and that infrastructure should be built now to secure the lives and prosperity of our descendents.
“Futurism” also because it harnesses the optimism and high modernism of the post-war era, a vanished world of frenetic housebuilding and technological innovation where British scientific research could lead the world, and produce higher living standards through its fusion with well-paid, high-skilled labour."
The full article can be read below with a link to the original here:
UnHerd
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