Tag: potholes

Democracy depends on an informed public

April 2024

It is widely believed that democracy is a desirable state of affairs for the running of a country. Churchill’s famous quote is often wheeled out suggesting that, despite its flaws, there isn’t any superior method of doing things. That may be true but democracy depends on those with the vote being sufficiently aware of life around them such that their vote is a meaningful expression of their informed beliefs. Listening or watching ‘vox pops’ one sometimes has to wonder.

Readers of Private Eye and watchers of Newsnight (and possibly other outlets) will be aware of the scandal that is the freeport in Teesside. The story is complex and involves many factors including huge potential losses for public authorities and the taxpayer; procurement rules being waved; windfall profits of £60m; environmental risks being loaded onto public authorities; appointments made without advertising them first and appointments of friends and relatives to lucrative contracts; tax evasion schemes and a pall of secrecy over what is going on so that finding out details is extremely difficult.

The scheme known as Teesworks, is rapidly becoming a major scandal. An independent report was damning but despite the considerable evidence produced by Private Eye and others said there was ‘no evidence of corruption’.

There is an election in Tees Side and when reporters canvassed opinions in Darlington, no one raised it as an issue. Instead it was potholes, potholes and more potholes. It is something of a problem with our complex society that major issues such as the continuing and long running scandal of the post office, can rumble on for many years with little interest or anger from the public. Labour are proposing to try and close the tax gap – estimated by HMRC at £36bn – but is more likely to be double or treble that. One wishes them well and I suppose hope does spring eternal. But there is little anger from the public about this huge activity. These sums disappear and result in long waiting lists, lack of care for the elderly, rotting schools and … yes, potholes. I very much doubt that someone stopped in the street by some media outlet and asked what they would like to see changed, would say ‘close the tax gap’ or ‘what about Teesworks’ despite their massive potential benefit to the nation’s purse.

I suspect that politicians know this and realise that whingeing on about the tax gap or the various goings on in the City will have little traction with the public. Teesworks is just too complex to understand without a lot of study. A hole in the road on the other hand is simple, visible, seen everywhere and generates an obvious statement that ‘they should do something about it’. It can be argued that potholes act as a kind of metaphor for the state the country is in and there is something in that argument.

Is the problem solvable? I am not sure that it is. It’s a commonplace to say that politics has become trivialised and is largely about personalities. The recent scandal of an MP sending personal details via WhatsApp generates huge interest and many column inches for example. But massive corruption, tax evasion and other goings on are difficult to uncover, hard to explain and carry great risks under our draconian libel laws and Slapp actions which mean wealthy individuals can use the courts to silence critics. News outlets find it harder to justify the extensive work needed to bring these damaging activities to public notice.

The nation faces some momentous decisions about its future. Climate, poor investment, continuing poor productivity, and an economy weakened by Brexit are just some of the major issues facing us. Massive issues around care of the elderly, the mental health of our young people are two other problems – expensive problems – in need of attention. Are they receiving the attention they deserve? Do sufficient people know enough about these and other problems to make a difference to the political narrative? I wonder.

Or are we trapped into the endlessly repeated cycle of promises about lowering taxation with no mention of the billions lost overseas. Is the population fixated on potholes to the exclusion of all else? And even if we do fixate ourselves on potholes, is there a true realisation of why we have them? Do people understand that over two decades have gone by since houses were revalued for Community Charge purposes and hence local authorities have less to spend on their sacred potholes? Have they forgotten that local authorities lost huge sums of central support grant following the 2008 banking crash – around 40% over the decade?

Democracy, to work properly, does need an electorate with some grasp of the key issues and events which have led to our present position. It does need some thinking beyond just ‘what about the potholes?’

P Curbishley