It Could Be Said Newsletter #4
A Miracle Made In America, Brexit Forever, Class Warfare, BBC's Future and MUPPETS!
Apologies everyone for my usual post-Christmas cold preventing me getting a newsletter out last week. It’s a unremarked benefit of the various anti-Covid measures we’ve all been following that we’ve had one of the quietest flu seasons in years, a sign that much good can be achieved through continued public information campaigns to wear masks in public (at least when sick), wash hands thoroughly, etc.
Of course there is only one story that anybody is talking about the moment…
A Miracle Made In America
In scenes that were both horrifying and absurd, a grotesque mob of pro-Trump agitators stormed the United States Capitol, forcing Congress to temporarily abandon certifying the results of the US Presidential Election. One of the insurrectionists was shot dead whilst trying to attack the Vice-President and a police officer later died due to injuries sustained during the riot.
Hopefully the criminals involved will be identified and prosecuted, whilst the President who repeatedly incited them will at the very least be impeached a second time before he leaves office. But I want to look at something that the Canadian-American journalist David Frum has been asking for awhile - why do Americans talk about “the uniquely American miracle of the peaceful transfer of power”? Frum argues that such boasting about something that today is commonplace across the developed world, demonstrates how fragile America peace and democracy truly is. I feel this pleasingly cynical answer ignores a grander truth.
It is hard to grasp what a radical concept democracy was after the American War of Independence – it’s why it took the Americans two attempts to write a working constitution. Obviously that (some) people should have representation and a say in the laws that governed them was not a new idea - the House of Commons was already nearing its 500th Birthday at the time Britain lost control of America. The key challenge that had bedevilled all attempts to form republics in Europe had been how to create a durable system for selecting Heads of Government. The inclination towards monarchy meant that attempts at republics in England, Netherlands and (later) France had morphed into monarchy by another name.
It was the Americans that made the idea of a national vote to elect the Head of Government work. It was the Americans that established the practice that their term of office should be limited and subject to explicit renewal. And with George Washington retiring after only eight years, it was the Americans who established the idea that a good leader should not overstay their welcome.
Compare to the practice in Britain. Whilst we had entered the era where parliamentarians rather than members of the royal household were the King’s chief minister, the monarch was still the most powerful politician in the land, with almost absolute freedom to hire or fire his Prime Minister. Early Prime Ministers incidentally showed none of Washington’s grace, with the first ruling for twenty-four, the next three clinging on even as they died in office and then later Pitt the Younger managing to both rule for almost twenty years (on-and-off) and die in office. It was an odd simulacrum of our democracy with general elections somewhat determining the composition of parliament but not even having an indirect impact on who governed the country. It would not be until the mid-1830s that you could say that even enfranchised Britons helped choose their Prime Minister and Government by voting in General Elections. By contrast the Americans had their first contested election in 1796, and four years later, would complete the even more revolutionary step of successfully voting out the incumbent.
Obviously that democracy was a deeply flawed institution in all sorts of ways. But the defeat of John Adams firmly established the idea that the people could not just hire their leaders, but fire them as well. The Americans would refine that idea over the next 165 years, and its example would serve as an inspiration to democrats all over Europe, and later the world.
So no, today it is not a uniquely American miracle for a peaceful transfer of power to occur. But it is a miracle that the Americans gave the world. Let’s hope over the coming years they maintain the strength to preserve it for themselves.
This Week’s Top Five…Resolutions to Britain’s Relationship With Europe
It’s been an astonishing two weeks with my plans to write about the new Brexit deal knocked off by illness, then the latest coronavirus developments, and finally the terrible scenes from America. But one thing I have been struck by is the cheerleading on the Eurosceptic right about how Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal finally provides resolution to Britain’s troubled relationship with Europe. And I could have sworn I had heard that before….
1. Henry V signs the Treaty of Troyes in 1420 that makes him Charles VI’s regent and paves the way for him to marry the French King’s daughter. It would have taken something crazy like Henry dying just two years later to stop England and France being permanently united.
2. Benjamin Disraeli returns from the Congress of Berlin in 1878 celebrating “Peace with Honour” after reaching an agreement with Germany and Austria-Hungary that resolved the Turkish Crisis to Britain’s satisfaction. This would herald an era of unprecedented cooperation with the Germanic powers that I’m sure didn’t end in the 1890s.
3. Charles De Gaulle delivers his second “non” to Britain joining the European Economic Community in 1967, meaning that he had rejected overtures from both major parties in quick succession. Given his dominance of French politics, and France’s pivotal role in the Community, this ended Britain’s hopes of joining the “Common Market” for six years.
4. Harold Wilson and Jim Callaghan successfully renegotiate Britain’s membership of the European Economic Community, with the new terms endorsed by the public in the country’s first ever referendum so overwhelmingly that it would take one whole election before Britain started demanding to renegotiate its terms of membership again.
5. John Major’s celebrates a negotiating triumph at Maastricht that saw him secure opt-outs from the single currency and social chapter. The result is heralded as “Game, Set and Match” by the press and with anti-European sentiment at a historic low in the early nineties, it looks Britain has truly taken its place at “the heart of Europe”.
Here’s A Law Labour Prepared Earlier
I praised Liz Truss in the last newsletter so I guess I should criticise her in this one to maintain balance. The Minister for Women and Equalities delivered a keynote speech before Christmas where she lambasted the tendency of public bodies to focus on characteristics such as race and gender that are protected under the Equality Act rather than socio-economic status.
Now not for me to accuse a Tory minister of dealing from the bottom of the deck when it comes to equality and diversity, but if they actually want more emphasis on socio-economic status then they could just activate the latent provisions in the Equality Act 2010. Back in 2010 the outgoing Labour Government had to water down the provisions related to socio-economic status for the Tories to allow the Act to proceed through the pre-election “wash up” where laws are swiftly passed by unanimous consent. The compromise left a socio-economic duty in the text that after ministerial guidelines had been issued would commit all public bodies to consider how they can work to reduce socio-economic inequalities when deciding how to deliver their services. Coincidentally the Government has refused to issue the guidelines that would bring this duty into force, thereby leaving the Equality Act solely focused on all those trendy issues Truss decried. Strange that.
Call for Birt
A lot of people embarrassed themselves this week by shrieking with horror at the idea that the wicked Tories would appoint a former Goldman Sachs Banker and long-time Party Donor as the new BBC Chair. Can you imagine Tony Blair doing a thing like that?. I also listened to a rather fun segment of the New Statesman Podcast where Stephen Bush was forced to acknowledge the value of the BBC’s hegemonic role but only after giving Auntie a damn good thrashing.
I’m actually a big proponent of the BBC Licence Fee – it’s created a broadcaster with a bigger budget and greater sense of independence than if it was funded from general taxation. That does not just mean that we get better quality programming than comparable countries, but also a bigger international reach. It’s true that its business model is under threat as young people switch away from television, but show me a business model that isn’t under threat in the media today. It’s also not difficult to tweak - you could gradually replace the TV Licence Fee with one that is incorporated into people’s mobile internet or home broadband contracts.
The bigger thing I think the BBC needs to start seriously thinking about is how does it better support media pluralism in the digital age. Both through its text articles, news alerts, and “podcasts”, the BBC is a behemoth that risks crowding out private providers of content.
The Cameron Government’s answer to this problem was to shrink the scope of the BBC’s online offer, forcing the corporation to close whole sections of its website. There were two problems with this. Firstly the BBC’s output is not static, so unless the Government is willing to diligently police what it can and can’t do, the mission creep resumes. Secondly a lot of the removed content could not easily be replicated by private providers on a free-to-air basis given the general weakness in online advertising.
There is however an alternative. Back in the eighties and nineties the Tories were similarly concerned that the BBC was unduly dominate in television production. The then Director-General, John Birt, came up with the rather ingenious solution of establishing quotas for how much of the BBC’s programming had to be produced by independent studios. This offered the best of both worlds - a strong BBC that helped finance and promote a vibrant ecosystem of independent production studios.
Of course back then, Radio was considered an old fashioned backwater that the BBC was doing everyone a favour by continuing to subsidise. The 90s revival of commercial radio, and the growth of internet podcasts make that notion seem rather quaint today. There’s no reason that the BBC couldn’t be required to open up its website, podcast app and radio stations to specialist production studios or rival outlets that the BBC commissions to produce content. As with TV it would offer the best of both worlds - a strong BBC that offers a wide range of services without subscription payments or advertising that also supports a diversity of voices by sharing its government funding with a variety of studios and outlets.
Podcast Plugs
Listen to me, Simon Alvey and Dr Luke Middup discuss the Brexit Deal at https://www.buzzsprout.com/96109/7063183-it-could-be-said-151-it-s-brex-mas. Me and Luke were quite giddy.
I also joined Martin Bushby and friends on his roundtable to discuss pro-wrestling superstar Kenny Omega at https://www.postwrestling.com/2021/01/03/kenny-omega-roundtable/
Song of the Week
Sadly it’s too late for me too share one of the many wonderful songs from A Muppets Christmas Carol, as they’re now out of season. So hopefully this alternative song proves to be an equally welcome piece of muppety brilliance and an olive branch to my Remainer readers…