For I have Promises to Keep

The most important form of communication between politician and voter is their promise, often formalised into a budget. It is a statement of what the politician plans to do, for the nation, and different groups within society. In a sense it is self-advertising by the candidate, aimed at the electorate, saying, “Vote for me, and I will do these things for the country, and for your social group.” An election campaign platform is even more explicitly an agreement between politician and voter, but any time a representative of the people speaks, it should be rooted in integrity and truth.

When Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne announced in 2010 that they would have to cut government spending in order to pay off the “huge debt” left to them by Labour, because of its “wild spending,” they were already lying. The nation’s debt was not huge, merely something that had to be dealt with, in good time. And Labour had not engaged in “wild spending,” it had taken part in an international bailout of the major economies, brought on by reckless loans handed out by American banks, and then packaged into bonds of several sub-prime loans. Without such a bailout, there could have been a global recession.

To call this “wild spending” was the height of dishonesty, but an extremely effective ploy to misrepresent Labour as the party of incompetence. As this slander was first used prior to the 2010 election, it may well have played a role in helping the Conservative Party win.

Since then the Tories have repeatedly used the twin ploys of making promises and blaming someone else. Making dramatic or grandiose promises regularly gives the impression of a bold, adventurous doer, someone who sees the big picture, who thinks big. Unfortunately what we need is not big thinking, but careful, informed thinking.

What we got instead was wonderful sounding projects that faded into dust and disappeared. Cameron’s “big society” gradually dropped out of sight. As for its content, one journalist wrote, “We may not have the faintest idea what the big society is, but Dave is jolly well keen to remind us how passionate he is about it.” (Simon Hoggart. The Guardian. Tuesday February 15 2011.) Boris Johnson’s ‘levelling up’ which was supposed to reduce inequality, only worked at increasing the disparities between rich and poor. And his ‘Build Back Better’ had a name stolen from a piece of American legislation, which covered such things as corporate tax, state and local taxes, climate change, housing, and spending on infrastructure projects. The British version contained only waffle, slogans and artificial enthusiasm.

When politicians conjure up grand visions of social improvement, we need to remind ourselves that what we have heard is just words, nothing real. And it is words from a politician. It possesses no more information or promise for the future than a passing breeze.