Comic Book Politics

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As a boy I read comic books such as The Rover, The Rover and Adventure and The Rover and Wizard. (I, obviously, liked The Rover!) The Commando comic book started around the same time I had taken an interest in these and became essential reading too, along with comics like The Hornet and The Victor. A common theme running through them all was the supremacy of the plucky Tommy, the British explorer and the British athlete. No matter how bad the odds “we” always won through, even if it involved only half a dozen of our brave soldiers against a horde of screaming Zulus or Afghan tribesmen. Our “Wilson”, “Bernard Briggs” or “Alf Tupper” (The Tough of the Track) would always beat the foreigners, even if they had a one lap start in a 2 lap race. (Incidentally, women did not exist in this world!)

At the same time our newspapers and black and white televisions told us that our lives were far superior to those in foreign places. We had better food, higher standards of safety, better wages; we built better ships, aircraft and motor cars and constructed better buildings, bridges and roads.

It was only when I moved into my teens and began to read more than comic books that I realised that the picture painted by our media was not quite true. It turned out that our standards were not as high as we were being told, our working conditions nowhere near approaching those of other countries. When we joined the then Common Market in 1973 we were forced to improve many of our standards in health, gender equality, safety and employment legislation. Workers gained rights that they would not have had were it not for our membership of the European Union.

Successive UK governments and business have fought tooth and nail against implementing EU legislation that “costs money”. The end result is that they have got away with the bare minimum to stay within the law. Here are some statistics that are truly shocking:

The UK

(a) is the fourth most unequal country in the developed world;
(b) has the biggest wealth gap in Western Europe;
(c) shows the worst productivity record in the developed world;
(d) works the third longest hours in the EU;
(e) has the second lowest wages in the OECD countries;
(f) has seen real wages fall fourth fastest in the EU over the past 10 years;
(g) has the fourth lowest state pensions in Europe; and
(h) has the highest infant mortality in Western Europe.

Less subjectively measured is “happiness”, but study after study reveals our children to be the “least happy” in the developed world.

It is no coincidence that 40% of all privatisation in the developed world over the past 30 years has been in the UK, as governments, both Conservative and Labour, sold off our national assets. (Thanks for the gold reserves sale, Gordon Brown, as well!)

Now, we approach leaving that European Union and throwing out even the basic legislation that has forced government and business to improve our working and living standards. The policies of cute hoorism, always present with a Tory government, look set to last indefinitely whilst the Labour Party continues to implode and suck itself into its own black hole.

Here in Scotland, despite the odds, we have a higher level of public services than elsewhere in the UK. This is not because we have more to spend on them but because we set our priorities differently to the rest of the UK. Politically this makes for a sore in the face of the UK government as people in England, Wales and Northern Ireland realise the truth as to how Scotland manages to show a better performance in its National Health Service, how it manages to supply free prescriptions and to be able to give its 0ver-60s free bus travel and its under-5s nursery care. Rather than howl at the scrounging Scots for having more money than they do, they are slowly beginning to question the priorities set by their own local authorities and the UK government.

But where does Brexit leave us? It pushes us into a world where we no longer have even the basic of basic legislation forcing the UK government and business to provide their citizens and workforces with the standards they should have to live and work.

However, Scotland does not need to go down this route. Within the next 2 years we will all have the option of choosing a different path that looks to the welfare of people first and not career politicians, lords in waiting and big business. We can also continue to be members of the family of nations that is the EU and work with our fellow members to continue to improve standards within our countries.

As a postscript, I would say that in the longer term Scotland’s independence will benefit the rest of the UK. Brexit will be a disaster in terms of the rUK economy, its health and welfare provisions, its pensions, its social obligations (or lack of them) and its wages. Hopefully we will see plucky Tommies, Wilsons and Bernards appearing to take on, not these dratted foreigners, but those who have led them into the dire straits they find themselves in. Whether this comes through a revival in the Labour Party, the Greens or a new party, remains to be seen. As long as it happens! We may even see an application to rejoin the family of European nations.

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3 thoughts on “Comic Book Politics”

  1. ‘The policies of cute hoorism’ ; love it. I too hope an independent Scotland will finally, finally wake the rest of the UK up to get with the 21st. century. Their electoral system (and Parliament) is long overdue for overhaul.

  2. One wonders who they will blame when Brexit goes pear shaped? With hard Brexit we are about to throw vast resources of effort and capital into a reckless gamble which is set to make things worse on almost every level. The question on every sane person’s lips is WHY?

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