Simple, straightforward words from Emily Maitlis exposing language that is trite and misleading, and myths that need debunking.
Maitlis began: “They tell us coronavirus is a great leveller. It’s not. It’s much, much harder if you’re poor."
That 'finally' reveals that these essential questions have not been asked for far too long.
'BBC Newsnight is not always known for its balanced coverage of political events. In fact, the programme has previously acted more like a Conservative Party mouthpiece at times.But on 8 April, Emily Maitlis stunned viewers by doing exactly what independent broadcasters should do: speaking truth to power.'
With predictions of a deep economic downturn to come, Maitlis asks what kind of social settlement needs to be put in place to stop the inequality becoming even more stark.
It's a question that should have been asked anyway, across all other areas of concern. Either way, you'd better start answering that question, if you haven't been already, because there will be no return to 'normal.' The 'normal' is bust morally, socially, economically, and ecologically.
It is important to make this point with respect to the way that remediable inequalities in society have been exposed by the #coronavirus
Maitlis' words are so simple and straightforward that I'm intrigued why they have incited such praise. Can't people see and say it for themselves? Or is the surprise here that the words are coming from an outlet that was so vociferous in harassing Corbyn and all he stands for out of mainstream politics?
The fact that Maitlis' words are considered "extraordinary" tells you all you need to know about the degraded state of mainstream journalism and politics now. 'The further a society drifts from the truth ...' Remember the hatred of Corbyn for speaking similar truths? His crime, of course, was to have sought the transformation of this iniquitous, divided society. The BBC were instrumental in his defeat. So I praise the message here, not the messenger. People who receive their only information from these sources mistake the shadows on the wall for realities.
As journalist Hicham Yezza highlighted, Maitlis has been widely praised for her words. But the fact that they’ve stunned so many people shows the sorry state of mainstream journalism: 'This is great from Emily Maitlis but the enormous praise she’s been getting for it speaks volumes about the moribund state of UK political journalism and how little the UK public expect of it — the mere hint of independent, critical thinking is greeted like a miracle.'
It speaks volumes how many people are so excited by this. This shows how far the mainstream media and political journalism have departed from the truth that this seems like a blinding revelation. This is what telling the truth looks like, and is what journalists are supposed to do. Some still do. They are not praised and rewarded for it. In fact they are persecuted, imprisoned, and killed.
"Fine, but these are the most basic observations obvious to anyone outside the millionaire media class. The issue is whether anything will be *done* about these social conditions. The entire 'MSM' just spent four years trashing the one person likely to do something." (Media Lens)
Political decisions and choices impact on the lives of people, not least in the context of the inequalities that lies at the heart of the social fabric. Those decisions and choices cause deaths too, not least when government is hijacked by those who are ideologically opposed to government as the agency of social welfare and environmental health.
It's more important than ever to develop a critical counter-politics and not be bullied into silence and complicity. In the absence of a critical counter-politics, people will die.
"Those serving on the frontline right now ... are disproportionately the lower paid members of our workforce. They are more likely to catch the disease because they are more exposed. .. Those in manual jobs will be unable to work from home." Damn right. For the first time in my life I've had a letter from my CEO, notification of 'key' and 'essential' worker status. I've asked for mask and gloves. They are busy. I shall ask again. (Forget pay rise).
This is the latest news from my own town:
By Tuesday, based on the four days previously, the recorded rate of infection based on population in St Helens had increased to the second highest in the North West.
Coronavirus is a disease of inequality. It will adversely affect deprived areas due to higher rates of poor health and those areas will have a higher hospital admission rate.
I've heard demands to 'cull the herd' more than a few times over the years. If there is a Social Darwinism at work here, I'll declare I am flaming livid, seeing as I am definitely one of the herd. I'll put this marker down. An alternative society is possible, if enough people showed the wit and the will to join those attempting to bring it about.
Thanks to Steve Jobbitt for this pertinent statement: "calling someone as essential worker during a pandemic without increasing their material worth is a cruel form of psychological violence."
I like what Liverpool singer Ian Prowse commented to me with respect to this praise for Maitlis:
“I'm going to dissent. Newsnight, Maitlis and BBC installed Johnson by smearing Corbyn. Now the danger of anything in society actually changing in a meaningful way has safely passed, they can start crying about how sad it all is. Yeah. Pass.”
He is absolutely right and has hit the nail of rank political hypocrisy smack on the head. That hypocrisy applies not merely to Maitlis, the BBC and Newsnight, but to supposedly radical and progressive voices who have expressed such excitement with respect to Maitlis’ statement. It really is as if they need official licence and sanction before finding the confidence to tell it like it is.
I am hoping that more people develop the nous and nerve to tell it like it is, rather than hide behind official/establishment sanction. It's amazing to see how this clip from Maitlis has taken off on social media, as if she has given people permission to be radical. We don't need mediation via sources as duplicitous as this. You will find that these sources withdraw that sanction as easily as they confer it, making it clear that the telling of truths is always on their terms. That's why I made the point that this statement of the obvious is being considered "extraordinary" is the most extraordinary thing about it. Mainstream media, BBC, the lot, are wretched, and I avoid them like the plague. What they did to Jeremy Corbyn and all he represents was an utter disgrace, and paved the way for this toxic politics. They've been doing since way back. Unfortunately, too many people fall for it. It's like people have to have an official voice telling a truth for us. Everything Maitlis says here is what the likes of myself and Ian Prowse have been saying for years. Why didn’t we go viral in the same way? We need to develop the nerve to go direct. When Corbyn offered change on these social evils, too many of the electorate passed. The facts on social inequality are known. The fact that it’s the people who do the hardest work for the lowest pay is also not news. Why are people expressing surprise and offering praise? Can't they see these things themselves? People need to get serious about politics.
It's why I put the rider in: "People who receive their only information from these sources mistake the shadows on the wall for realities." The reaction to a statement of an obvious truth - as if it was saying something we didn't know, or require permission from establishment figures to tell it like it is - is the most revealing thing of all about this post that seems to have gone viral. People need to find their independent voice, appreciate it and respond to it in others, and develop a critical counter politics and quick, because this crowd will still be spinning reality the false way they have been long after this is over.
Ian Prowse responded:
“It's been an interesting time hasn't it fella, watching them all react in this way. Exposing themselves so easily, every single Corbyn hater now espousing the very same ideals.”
It beggars belief. Incredibly, I'm still seeing people get a dig in at Corbyn, along the lines of 'if you think the government is doing badly, it would have been much worse under Corbyn.' No matter how utterly wretched Johnson et al are, there is this get-out clause to the effect that Corbyn would have been much worse. It is not only lazy thinking, it is political complicity. I want to know where these people where when the government were cheering the refusal of a pay rise for nurses. It's so recent that it's not even recent history. I know where Corbyn was when it came to backing the NHS. We just need to look at what the likes of Raab have put in print on future plans for the NHS. This government is culpable. Delays (and worse) have cost and will cost lives. That's what happens when you do herd immunity lite. And now this fake show of unity designed to cultivate a herd complicit in support of an incompetent practice and policy, passing off figures as a success. New Zealand took timely and firm action and has recorded one death. It's easier on an island though ... hold on ..
And I would say the fight for meaningful change is going to start again right now, the normal is bust, the failures of this crowd are manifest. Recharge and come back, the struggle is on.
Ian responded:
“You really would think so wouldn't ya, after this there'd be a true sea change. But people voted for this proven lying idiot in their droves in December, so I am fearful.”
A “proven lying idiot.” That describes Johnson. And people voted for him. They are still saying he is a ‘character.’ The only thing I can think of here is Benjamin Barber’s book Consumed, in which Barber describes the deleterious impact of appeals to image and emotion coming from the world of commerce and advertisement, downgrading reason, intellect, and evidence to produce what he calls an ‘infantilism.’ I like, I want … the taste-makers and manipulators see what people like and want and manacle them by the nose.
I was talking to my brother, who says there needs to be a 'massive reckoning.' He ended by saying that 'people fall for it, though.' Known liar, irresponsible, the words he put out on his watch on Hillsborough and Liverpool, his anti-working class sentiment. It seems that only the toffs have a licence to be characters for some people. The way forward is to rebuild solidarity below and keep it strong and vital, restore connections. At the mediated level, when atomized within a privatised existence - BBC etc - people have their heads filled with jolly robbins. It was a massive and concerted assault on Corbyn, year after year, to destroy his momentum. It succeeded. Can they keep pulling it off? They want to drain hope and energy, but they really have nothing, socially, in the tank, they are running on empty.
I'm seeing people sharing this clip with the caption "Some unexpected class analysis from Emily Maitlis on ‘Newsnight’ as she explained the greater sacrifices and effort being made by poorer, low-income workers / families during this national crises when compared to the middle and upper classes. (CLIP: ‘Newsnight’, BBC2, 08/04/2020)."
I can only hope that the people saying 'well said' Maitlis here will continue to say 'well said' when people like me continue to emphasize the need for not only class analysis but a class politics. The people who think talk of class is an outdated 'us and them thinking' - which is exactly what some have told me over the years - need to grasp this lesson and grasp it quick (insofar as they are not themselves deliberately practising a concealed class politics themselves, their classless appeal being used as a cover to extend and entrench their own particular interests within an untransformed system). The idea that a classless politics in a class society brings about anything but the entrenchment and extension of class relations is one huge myth that stands in need of being debunked. A classless, socially neutral 'non-politics' appealing to all humankind defaults to the class divided status quo every time. We don't need the likes of Maitlis legitimising class analysis. If you are not waging class struggle from below, rest assured that the ruling class is waging it from above, every day of its existence.
There are alternatives, lots of transition initiatives - there is a future to be claimed, if enough numbers muster the wit and the will, and not keep clinging to a normality that is crashing around our ears.
History has a way of unfolding. We may well be closer to large-scale transformation than we may think. Revolution is messy and doesn’t require everyone to be on board. My first degree was history, and the remarkable thing about historical change is that whilst it always seemed so sudden, you can trace it unfolding for a long period of time before. I think we have been living in that long revolution.
Far from making Americans crave stability, the pandemic underscores how everything is up for grabs.
There should be no return to normal, since normal was and remains the problem. The people who want to go back to the way things were are the ones who need to start learning the lesson. In the words of Lindsay Alderton's prayer, we need political leaders who "emerge as a force of good in a rapidly transitioning world. A world that cannot and will not return to a normal that was never normal to begin with. A world that has awoken and caught a glimpse of a saner way of living and will never go back to sleep."
Join with others, reclaim politics in its original sense, and make a better world for all. It's about, in the words of Rousseau, expanding being outwards, which sought in relation to others in society (The Social Contract), God (the Savoyard Vicar), and Nature (the Reveries). "Only connect." (TS Eliot).