Larry's Lunchette

A bombastic, narcissistic and scatty old Etonian called Boris Johnston, is likely to become our next PM; this can only be understood in the light of a deep English (not British) deference for posh boarding schools – and the imagined, unchanging past they proclaim. George Orwell explored this theme in a 1940s essay called ‘Boys Weeklies’:

Orwell wrote: “You are at Greyfriars, a rosy-cheeked boy of fourteen in posh, tailor-made clothes, sitting down to tea in your study…There is a cosy fire, and outside the wind is whistling. The ivy clusters thickly round the grey old stones. The King is on his throne and a pound is worth a pound. Over in Europe, the comic foreigners are jabbering and gesticulating, but the grim, grey battleships of the British Fleet are steaming up the Channel and at the outposts of the Empire the monocled Englishmen are holding the natives at bay…Everything is safe, solid and unquestionable. Everything will be the same for ever and ever”.

Oldies like myself, will recognise the Greyfriars narrative, as the lifelong work of Frank Richards (excellent Wikipedia article). If you read the Billy Bunter books, you’ll also recognise that Boris has modelled himself on the Greyfriars ‘cad and bounder’, Herbert Vernon-Smith. In public school folklore, a ‘bounder’ disregards the norms of propriety and gets into ‘scrapes’; unsuitable to become a PM. Over many years, I’ve enjoyed nostalgic English yarns, about PG Wodehouse’s comic toffs – Frank Richards boarding school japes; Tories from the shires think Boris will bring that world back – for ever and ever.

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Last week, the actor Mark Rylance resigned from the Royal Shakespeare Company over its sponsorship by BP. This George Monbiot article, Snake Oil, says that ‘Shell is not the green saviour it claims to be – but a planetary death machine’. All the giant fossil fuel producers know their future depends on ‘sustaining a societal licence to operate’ – which they purchase through sponsorships. I live close to the giant Ineos refinery at Grangemouth; driving past on M9 you’ll smell it. The Ferret reports this week that Scottish Govt have moved to renew Ineos’ fracking licence – for which there is no societal consent.

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Shoshana Zuboff, author of ‘The Age of Surveillance Capitalism’, has a piece in the Guardian called ‘It’s not that we failed to rein in Facebook and Google – we’ve not even tried’. This is a very useful briefing for outsiders like myself, on what this industry is capable of – its threat to democracy. Surveillance Capitalism thrives on the absence of Law; our societies successfully confronted destructive forms of capitalism in the past through regulation. Zuboff thinks ‘warriors for democracy under threat’ will shape the next ‘great regulatory vision’. An optimistic article – with practical suggestions for Lawmakers.

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CommonSpace, the digital media site, also hosts forums on the last Thursday of each month, at Glasgow’s Kinning Park Complex; on 25^th July, at 7.30pm, the topic will be ‘Social Security in the age of AI and Robots’. The discussion will explore several ‘universal’ options like a basic wage.

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Last year, Philip Alston, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights, investigated the UK – found that in one of the world’s richest countries – 14 million people are living in poverty. This week, Alston says that, in response to his Report, all the UK Govt has done is sidestep the issues and try to discredit him. Todays end piece is a quote from the short summary of his report – a devastating indictment of Tory ideology.

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“The social safety net has been badly damaged by drastic cuts to local authorities’ budgets, which have eliminated many social services, reduced policing services, closed libraries in record numbers, shrunk community and youth centres and sold off public spaces and buildings. The bottom line is that much of the glue that has held British society together since the Second World War has been deliberately removed and replaced with a harsh and uncaring ethos. A booming economy, high employment and a budget surplus have not reversed austerity, a policy pursued more as an ideological than an economic agenda.”

Interesting article in this week’s SCA Briefing on ground-breaking work taking place in Inverclyde where local communities are offering services based on the simple premise of showing compassion towards fellow citizens. This is a further reflection of the range of community initiatives addressing many of the health inequalities that exist across Scotland. Over the last year, Senscot has highlighted the contribution of social enterprise in addressing many of these issues through our regular Briefings – one, in particular, touching on public health reform. Other areas covered have included Dementia; Mental Health and Wellbeing; Loneliness and Social Isolation; Social Prescribing; and Diet and Obesity. With a new national agency for public health being set up in April 2020 – Public Health Scotland – to tackle Scotland’s public health challenges, it will be important that they take cognisance of and look to support the vital work and contributions already taking place – under the radar – in local communities across the country. Senscot will be responding to the Govt’s consultation document inviting views on proposals for Public Health Scotland.

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