On the Ramifications of Conventional Wisdom, UKIP, and Mark Twain.

For the past few years, I have felt increasingly distant from that vacillating mass that politicians and journalists call ‘the general public’. Public opinion (another intangible yet firm notion in news reports-where do they get their statistics?), has been swaying slowly but surely into more right wing territory ever since the Labour government* plonked us firmly in the worst financial pothole since World War II. If history is to be observed, then it is not surprising that in times of economic downturn politics becomes much more polarised, from Roosevelts far reaching democratic policies in the US after Wall Street to the rise of the Nazi Party following the German depression of the 1920s. Extreme politics are what people want to hear when they feel helpless, and poor, and unemployed. This however, is a dangerous tonic.

Let’s return to the UK. We see ourselves as a moderate country, a welfare state with a confident control in foreign affairs. And most Britons were happy with this. Until it appeared to ‘stop working’, and the news was filled with nightly graphs depicting how poor we all were. Now we all know that this is because the profligate Labour government were practically giving benefits away*, and they left the nation with a crippling deficit.*

Then there were the Conservatives, whose austerity measures have been successful, but who want to get rid of the NHS.* Meanwhile UKIP have skyrocketed in support because UK pays £55 Million pounds a day to the EU* and in return all we get are leagues of unregulated immigrants stealing British jobs*.

Notice anything? *This is all conventional wisdom. These are the viewpoints presented daily in the media, which the average British citizen absorbs, they are facts in our national consciousness. We are all barraged with sensationalist newspaper headlines that we may never research or look into enough to discover the truth. So when I ask someone why they think Scotland gaining independence would have been a good idea, they will confidently babble about Westminster’s death grip on Scotland, because that is ‘public opinion’. They are much less garrulous when it is pointed out that Scotland elects it’s own MPs for Westminster and that numerous British Prime Ministers have been Scottish. How’s that for English supremacy?

So let’s right some wrongs. Here goes the demystifying…

1) Only 70 pence of every £100 given out as benefits is fraudulent.

2) The Labour government of Blair/Brown actually kept spending at a record low, 14/15 in the EU at the time. As for the deficit, until the global crash in 2007, “national debt levels were lower than when Labour took office”

3) The Privatisation of the NHS! Horror! Or is it? In fact privatisation has been shown to economise, meaning that things get done more efficiently and therefore spending is reduced. It could also be argued that it is in the spirit of Capitalism as it gives independent companies contracts rather than clinging on to a large centralised system. Meanwhile, the poor are still given free healthcare, unlike the the myth that we will adopt a USA style healthcare system.

4) The EU. While UKIP claimed £55 million a day was our ‘membership fee’, in fact when all is counted (rebates etc) the figure for 2013 was £24 million a day. That’s half the widely publicised figure and just goes to show how quickly misleading statistics become ‘fact’.

5) Immigration is a subject 77% Britons will say is a negative thing for our economy. However, government reports show “little evidence in the literature of a statistically significant impact from EU migration on native employment outcomes”- ie, they don’t take British jobs. A CEBR study suggests that tighter controls on EU immigration could cost the UK £60bn by 2050. Including illegal immigrants, figures on costs vary so dramatically that differing camps suggest we may either lose £3.8bn a year or gain £5.6bn per year if all immigration were halted.

So there you have it. I don’t claim to be an expert, but I do actually research before voicing my opinion (notice how think comes before speak in the blog title). I think we all need to acknowledge how much conventional wisdom we have adopted without ever researching the topic fully. A person who does not read has no advantage over someone who can’t read, to paraphrase Mark Twain. Reading, researching, and being sceptical means that come election time you will not be swayed by fear-mongering political rhetoric. Until next time folks, keep reading.