Post Pandemic/Lockdown

When I first thought of writing this blog, I thought it should be about my Post Pandemic/Lockdown Wishlist. However on reflection a longer piece is required given the amount of coverage (in the media, but particularly the visual News Media) of the issue(s).

Twenty four hour news has not always been with us! First we had Town Criers in Market Squares bringing news which could be days if not weeks old i.e. not this immediate stuff (they call it breaking news). Then the written word, letters and Journals, soon sped up with the coming of travel via trains. The radio followed by television. Now we have twenty four hour news. No there has not been an exceptional increase in human activity requiring all day and all night coverage, so how has this come about. My view is that this is part of the anxiety creating syndrome necessitated by commercial imperatives (profit) - the visual media persuades? people that they must have/know certain things and that if you do not then you are not a fully participating member of society. I know the counter argument is that advertisers and producers are only giving the customer what they want. Of course after seeing the adverts they really really want it whatever it is because "everybody" does. Such is the deceit/conceit of the visual media and advertisers. Which brings us back to the news. Why do we have so much. At the production end it is a classic case of work expanding to fill the time available. At the consumption end it is preying on inquisitive (?voyeuristic) tendencies. It is very much like calorie intake of so called advanced economies - we get far to much and not only is the excess not good for us but also the type of consumption (e.g. alcohol, chocolate) which previously were luxuries have now become regular daily (if not hourly) intakes. It is legitimate to ask are we better off with this excess of "news" as some would argue that they fulfill a necessary input to democracy. In part it does but laborious repetition and always seeking a new angle mitigates against rigorous intellectual analysis. Clearly the BBC is no longer what it was! It is simply not possible to have twenty Robin Day equivalents - dilution has occurred because there is too much dumbing and watering down!

Which brings me to my wish list:

a) re-visit Public Service Broadcasters news guidelines stressing the essential need for rigorous objectivity and proportionality;

b) the BBC should strenuously apply Lord Reith's dictum - Inform, Educate and Entertain - n.b. nowhere does it say engage in shameless self promotion and celebrity seeking;

c) avoid the tribal and thereby dysfunctional politics which are consuming the USA at this time (with hints it could happen here)(compare CNN and Fox News). This means, at the very least, all lobbying has to be public without any exceptions - if there are alleged commercially confidential problems a Judge of the High Court would decide but only to the limit of partial non-disclosure;

d) Labour has to end its croneyism and nepotism much of it through the SpAd system (you know those people who have never had a proper job nor lived in the real world);

e) probably a forlorn hope that the Conservatives regain a reputation for competence;

f) accept that Identity Politics is a poison where its claims to autonomy and exclusivity destroy any chance of significant reform (most people see this - correctly - as a demand for very special treatment.

But most important given where we are now we must have an Investment Boom a decade long to get people in good jobs, re-build the economy and facilitate reform.