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Another Brave New World

New Ground 61
Summer 2001

Date: 1 June 2020
From: the Prime Minister

Dear fellow party member,

As you know, the President yesterday granted me a dissolution of Parliament. The general election will run from 21 to 28 June. You know, it's a very lonely moment whe

The economy has been this Government's top priority. Now at last we've got a bit of good news let's explo our long term policies are starting to pay off as we knew they would, I want to grab our best opport make sure our record is fully understood as we go to the polls. That's why I am writing to you today.

Let me start with the crisis which for the last few months has been such a bloo rightly occupied so much government and media attention: the proposed cutbacks at Mitsu-Daewoo-Peugeo-BMW's massive Dagenham-Luton plant. Now, thanks to my pers I must pay tribute to the tremendous effort everyone has put in to making a case that has finally persuaded the company's management to do what is best for the community. I am thrilled to be able to announce today a better outcome than we had thought possible: the plant will close totally and immediately. As a result:

Space and people will be freed for low-technology enterprises and community services which are desperately needed in the south east, and are still crowded out by the remnants of the global market-enslaved sector.

As workers move out of the traded cash economy and into mutual occupations, house prices will fall. This will allow key public servants to move back into London, further improving public services and reducing travel intensity.

These two changes together will help us improve London's Public Service Overstaffing Rate. Currently, there are only 1.1 public employees to each job in London. This is already a substantial improvement on the 0.98 which this government inherited, let alone the 0.85 which was believed acceptable - even, peculiar as it now seems, desirable - in Elizabethan times. But a mere 10% overstaffing is simply not enough to run reliable public services. People are still suffering operations cancelled, children sent home from school or buses failing to appear on time simply because a teacher, anaesthetist or driver went sick and nobody was available to fill the gap. The closure of the car plant should enable us to raise overstaffing to the 1.2 rate which should be enough to finally abolish such outrages.

Retooling of the assembly works will make London self-sufficient not only in standard cycles, but tandems, pedal vans, child cycles and pedal cultivation equipment, despite rapid increases in demand.

Afforesting the huge and now redundant parking areas around the plant will make a substantial contribution to London's greenhouse balance. Together with London's other green energy programmes - the 'million radiant roofs' (solar heating), 'chariots of fire' (converting one side of every dual carriageway into a linear energy coppice wood) 'street corner CHP', the tidal power plant integrated into the new double height Thames Barrier, and the slumburbian clearances, notably the return of most of Bromley to woodland (politically it was primeval swamp already), London should become the first winner of Megacity Carbon Credits under the 'Kyoto + 10' Washington Protocol initiated by President Nader in 2009.

London Hit As IMF Convicted
I'm saying a lot about London because of the importance we attach to reducing regional economic disparities. London was worse impoverished by wealth than any other region in Europe, and then worse disrupted when the parasitic global financial services industry collapsed in 2010, following the Global Human Rights Court's conviction of the World Bank, IMF and WTO of crimes against humanity and economic genocide. We've had a lot of catching up to do, and I'm very proud that on the key quality of life indices Londoners are now just 7% worse off than the British average.

Our success was confirmed when, in last year's PanEuroRegional Realignment Referendum, London voted decisively to stay in England rather than joining the Netherlands. We were sorry that Scotland elected to join the Scandinavian Sub-federation and that Wales and Cornwall joined Eire and Brittany to form TransCeltia (though just relieved when Ulster left the European Union entirely to become the fifty-eighth State of America.) But we were proud that, on the abolition of Belgium, Brussels chose to join Britain, rather than France or the Netherlands. With the formal designation of the Eurostar line all the way into Brussels as British soil (for administrative purposes an extension of the Borough of Hackney), Britain is now truly at the centre of Europe in a way even last century's most visionary pro-Europeans probably didn't anticipate.

I turn now to economic growth and the performance of the national economy. As you know, the Chancellor set four key economic tests by which we should be judged. I am delighted to report progress on all of them:

The Economic Wellbeing Index is rising, largely thanks to the continuing withering away of the anti-welfare traded sector, especially reductions in advertising, rubbish processing and car and road - related spending and concomitant stress, pollution, vibration and insurance costs, all of which count as negatives in the new system of national accounts. Non-traded community services are growing steadily, with childcare co-operatives, sporting timeshares and string quartets growing particularly strongly. Community and voluntary contributions outside the household for the first time exceeded paid employment time, and Labour Day has been renamed Mutuality Day to celebrate.

The Daily Vexation Index has improved dramatically, largely due to reductions in the effort and uncertainty of travel, as our planning and service delivery policies reduce the amount people need to travel.

The Index of Occupational Fulfilment has also improved. Our welfare-out-of-work programmes continue to help people make the transition from paid work into more satisfying occupation patterns. Over 85% of adults now feel they are doing something worthwhile and satisfying with their time. The Public Dignity Inspectorate continues its crucial work of tracking down and enforcing the reform or closure of employments that are an affront to human decency. Last month, as a result of its work, over 3000 people were released from call centres and telesales organisations and are being given help to rebuild their self-respect.

Trade Vulnerability Falls
The Trade Vulnerability Index continues to fall as we continue to realign the economy to meet our own needs and reduce the extent to which we need to depend on others outside our control either to buy our products or to sell us the things we need - both of which are reckless folly in such an insecure and unpredictable world.

All this has been achieved together with improvements in the rest of quality of life: health, educational attainment, and cultural and community activities. I will be spi writing to you later about these, but will just mention a couple of pointers to the direction things are going. Within the last year, 11 bowling arcades have had to be rebuilt to accommodate larger groups of players, while the last drive-thru fast food outlet had to be spot-listed as of historic interest to ensure that future generations can marvel at this part of our quaint and surprising heritage.

Overclass Still Needs Help
But all this success makes it even more important for us to help the minority who are still severely disadvantaged in quality of life terms. Our research reveals that there is still a 'hard core' of about 5% of the population who are socially excluded: caught in a vicious circle of multiple deprivations, all reinforcing each other. They earn ridiculously overinflated cash incomes in activities such as stock trading. These take up so much time and energy that they have little left for living. They also tend to have low self-esteem and confidence, Many suffer, as a result of their work, from personality problems such as pathological envy or compulsive-competitive disorder and difficulty engaging in a normally healthy co-operative way with other people. They are therefore reduced to reliance on complex networks of paid 'service providers' for needs as basic as child care, food preparation, shopping and household management that normal people do themselves or through local mutual arrangements. Addiction is also rife: many of these people are trapped in high earning lifestyles to feed obsessive uncontrollable cravings for latest-fashion clothing or electronic equipment.

We are concerned at the emergence of an 'overclass' of people isolated from normal life and losing the ability to engage in it, living ghettoised in gated estates, travelling exclusively in oilcars between their jobs and special private health and education outlets. We are particularly dismayed that the cycle of deprivation is perpetuated from generation to generation. Children of the overemployed often lack such basic life skills as riding a bicycle, finding their way around on foot, or using basic public services such as libraries, swimming pools or buses. Many cannot do simple arithmetic or writing without electronic prostheses, do not know how to play without elaborate special equipment, and are incapable of interacting with other people in any way other than trying to pay them money to do things. We need to save children from growing up so handicapped.

We therefore intend to propose a more rigorous programme to combat this dangerous social exclusion and help such people reintegrate with normality: the 'get a life' programme.

Overall, we are proud of our economic record. But there is much still to do!

rl@cagconsult.co.uk