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Tokenism, Sir Fred and Drinking the Koolaid..

Morning all,

Sir Fred Goodwin has been stripped of his knighthood. I know that we are still in panto season but this might really take the biscuit. Who cares if he has lost his knighthood.. its like when the villain gives up a bean/ lamp/ other pant prop, only to then turn aside to the audience and snicker as they reveal the real treasure. The sop of taking his away knighthood doesn't actually touch the problem.

It does highlight how the celebrity obsessed previous government gave away honours like sweets.

It does highlight how that same celebrity obsessed government allowed the arrogant capitalism of the day to have a place in the centre of life, building out economy on a very narrow base.

It does highlight how the current government is less obsessed with celebrity and wealth (largely because they have it) and so will degrade and victimise individuals in order to score political points.

This is a bad bunch of stuff. If we were really serious about dealing with the excesses that appear to be under attack just now then we need to start at a different point. The reality is that we (I didn't chain myself to the Bank of England or Downing Street) have drunk the Koolaid of uber capitalism. In the good days we were happy for the annoying, loud and arrogant bankers to sit in their square mile being obnoxious because they were creating a myth for us. The myth of ongoing wealth, of a bubble that couldn't burst. We enjoyed our over funded voluntary sector projects and kept quiet because we could build our own empires built on the back of their myth.

To that extent we are in this together.

We can't just snipe from the sidelines. Nor can we be happy with tokenism like the refusal of bonuses and the stripping of titles. Its time to get serious: to admit our complicity with this set up and to start creating other solutions.. The other solutions is a bit beyond my brain just now and so will have to wait for another day.

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